Breeding for fish food, heres my situation

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Pyramid_Party

Pyramid_Party

Fire Eel
MFK Member
Aug 6, 2008
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Monterey, CA
Well, heres my situation. I only have a 10 gal tank. I wanna breed something to use as feeders for my fish. I was thinking convicts or marbled cray fish. I know the tank size is an issue but its all I got.


One thing that I am against breeding fish as opposed to the marbled crays is, I heard lots of times feeder fish arent too healthy. I read that they contain something in them that isnt healthy for our fish in the long run. I dont know if this is always true, or it depends on the type of fish you feed your monster fish. Maybe its just goldfish, I dont know.


On the other hand, I have the option to breed marbled cray fish, the type of fish I have normally eats crustaceans. Plus it might be healthy overall for it to eat crustaceans.


The tank for breeding is a issue, but I plan to move babies to a 5 gal bucket with a filter etc, and allow them to get bigger and then I would feed them to my monster.


I know some people might think a 10 gal is too small for cons, but a few people claim that it isnt and they have managed to breed cons in a 10 gal.

I am just kinda torn between what I should breed.

I basically just want something to breed and save a little money instead of buying feeders, and something more healthy.

Also, the nutrition value of the feeders is kinda important too. I heard feeder fish can cause whole in the head disease and other health problems. What do you think is best for me for the tank size I have and what is best health wise?

Like I said, all babies can be moved from the breeding tank after they are born.
 
Pyramid_Party;2209989; said:
One thing that I am against breeding fish as opposed to the marbled crays is, I heard lots of times feeder fish arent too healthy. I read that they contain something in them that isnt healthy for our fish in the long run. I dont know if this is always true, or it depends on the type of fish you feed your monster fish. Maybe its just goldfish, I dont know.
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http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=167891

I know some people might think a 10 gal is too small for cons, but a few people claim that it isnt and they have managed to breed cons in a 10 gal.
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24x12x12 may be sufficient enough for you.

I am just kinda torn between what I should breed.
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Cons, guppies, mollies, swordtails, platies, danios and white cloud mountain minnows.
 
mollies, swordtails, platies, danios and white cloud mountain minnows.


Do any of these fish produce alot of fry? And how long till they spawn, and the difficulty of breeding them?


The bigger the fish, the better for me, guppies are way too small.
 
Pyramid_Party;2210040; said:
Do any of these fish produce alot of fry? And how long till they spawn, and the difficulty of breeding them?


The bigger the fish, the better for me, guppies are way too small.
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Guppies, platies, swordtails and mollies are all livebearers. Pick 1-2 males and several females. They should be able to drop several batches of fry every two weeks.

As for danios and white clouds, they're egg scatterers. You may need to secure the bottom with layers of marbles or plenty of foreground plants such as Java moss to conceal the eggs from predation. Danios especially tend to eat the eggs quickly. Put water at half level so eggs sink quickly to the bottom. It takes 2-3 days for them to hatch. Feed the fry once they are free-swimming.
 
The Hole in the Head comes from an enzyme that destroys vitamin b1. Gold fish contains this enzyme (Thiaminase), but also heard danios, and minnows do too.
 
I am living, knock on wood, proof that you can breed con's in a 10 gallon, although my breeding pair is small, say 2 inches or so, but they produced like 75 eggs but I only managed to save 15 due to the other inhabitants of the tank.
 
Well, part of the reason I wanna breed is so I dont feed gold fish anymore. I'd like something healthier. And that enzyme thiaminase or whatever its called, is the reason. So if cons dont contain this I am fine with tryiogn it out. But the cons will be the only fish in the 10 gal. Once fries are free swimming, I will move them to a 5 gal bucket with a filter and all that.


The one thing I like about crustaceans though, is they may be healthier than fish for food. And the fish I have likes and eats crustaceans. Plus their shells are good for digestion.


Thats why the cray fish idea came up. But with the 10 gal its tough. I just need something better than gold fish as an alternate food. Guppies, dannios etc are too small. Something liek a guppy, I'd have to feed like 10 of them to satisfy my fish in a feeding.
 
How about a breeding pair of Kribs - once they start every 1.5 months i get a big bunch of fry to feed to my pike or sell on.

Fun to watch their breeding behaviour too
 
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