Breeding Fish for Live Feeders

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PaiLum92

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Jul 18, 2010
439
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Fort Collins
I have seen in a couple of threads that some people breed thier own live feeders.. had a few questions about this.

- What kind of fish will breed easily, and make good feeders for a 7" - 9" Jaguar Cichlid?
- What size tank is best?
- Does water temp, deco, plant coverage, etc matter?
- What to feed them, and how often?
- Anything else i need to know?

I would just buy the feeders, but i know they carry parasites, etc. My LFS puts all thier feeders in a huge tank full of Melathane(?) Blue, to get rid of the parasites, bacterias, etc. they look healthy and safe, but im not too sure i can trust that the fish really are free of disease and parasites.

I am currently trying to wing her (the Jag) onto feeze dried shrimp, but its not working out too well, so if i could find a fish i could keep and breed and use as a live feeder, that would be great.
 
PaiLum92 said:
I have seen in a couple of threads that some people breed thier own live feeders.. had a few questions about this.

- What kind of fish will breed easily, and make good feeders for a 7" - 9" Jaguar Cichlid?
- What size tank is best?
- Does water temp, deco, plant coverage, etc matter?
- What to feed them, and how often?
- Anything else i need to know?

I would just buy the feeders, but i know they carry parasites, etc. My LFS puts all thier feeders in a huge tank full of Melathane(?) Blue, to get rid of the parasites, bacterias, etc. they look healthy and safe, but im not too sure i can trust that the fish really are free of disease and parasites.

I am currently trying to wing her (the Jag) onto feeze dried shrimp, but its not working out too well, so if i could find a fish i could keep and breed and use as a live feeder, that would be great.
Click to expand...

Convict cichlids are harder NOT to breed. I used 17 of the fry as feeders for my firemouth cichlid.

-For the tank size, convicts don't really get big, but for a breeding pair I would say at least a 20 gallon tank. But a 30 would be ideal.

-To get them "in the mood" and encourage faster growth of the fry, bump the temp up to 80-82. Plants don't matter as convicts will re-arrange the tank to suit their needs, not yours. Plants will be uprooted. For decor, you can't go wrong with a terracotta pot from Home Depot or Walmart. Just rinse it good under hot water and ensure that no fertilizer or other pesticides were squirted into it.

-cons aren't too picky on food, but to get them "in the mood", I recommend live foods such as bloodworms or brine shrimp. 2 to 3 times a day is fine.

-Not really. Convicts aren't too picky. Just make sure that there isn't a huge size difference between the female and male. Males are generally a bit bigger with longer flowing fins, and females have a bright orange belly. Good luck!
 
Prob be good if i mentioned i only had a spare 10g right now, was thinking along the lines of minnows/goldfish, if possible?
 
Never had any experience breeding minnows or goldfish...I use the multitude of fry from my jewel cichlids. With a 10g the only thing I could think of would be to breed guppies.
 
JteSchertz said:
Never had any experience breeding minnows or goldfish...I use the multitude of fry from my jewel cichlids. With a 10g the only thing I could think of would be to breed guppies.
Click to expand...

+1. Guppies are prolific breeders. Like JteSchertz, I never had any experience with minnows nor goldfish. Your options are pretty limited if you intend to use a 10 gallon.
 
JteSchertz said:
Never had any experience breeding minnows or goldfish...I use the multitude of fry from my jewel cichlids. With a 10g the only thing I could think of would be to breed guppies.
Click to expand...

Jewels breed like crazy too ! I had a small pair and spawned like twice a month every month
 
Iv bred guppies in large amounts in a 10 gallon..though i have upgraded to a 20.
It was heavily planted with a log, i had anubia java moss pennywort and like 5 other things, floating plants,
20 gallon filter,

i had 5 females and 2 males, at a mature size my females were 3 inches, and pumped out about 100 fry every 3 weeks, i could get fry to 1/2 inch with in the month.

this will take time though, it take a while for females to get that large... (year ish)

I feed mine flakes, peas, black worms, glass worms, blood worms, krill, brine shrimp, chopped up night crawlers.
I feed mine 3-4 times a day to keep them from eating there babies and did a 40% water change ever 3-4 days.
the fry eat every thing the adults do with the addition of micro worms 2 times a day.
I can pump out allot of guppies....now im working on doing that in my 20 gallon..:( I lost all of my large breeders to old age recently).

i use Fancy guppies...they get bigger then those icky brown feeders....and look better^_^.
This video was of my 10 gallon..i just lots a bunch of floating plants due to aphids(so it decided to cycle slightly) but i was showing the amount of fry...and there are more in the breeder box, this was from about 3 batches most were ready to be moved out.

the video was before it was heavily planted.

[video]http://www.youtube.com/user/Kaosusfish#p/u/3/kd5nezne_q8[/video]
 
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