My fiancee and i have discussed many time on what to do about feeder fish. we both love watching our oscars, and TSN eating live food and honestly the oscars apear heathier and happier after a few feeders. after noticing ick, and other crap at the local LFS we stoped buying them completly. and weve researched all the diseases that can be caused by feeders. we still want to offer them once or twice a week. we have decided breeding our own is the only option. Whats the easiest to breed and the most benificial? i know its been said that goldfish are pointless. what are other options? any input would be greatly apretiated! and fyi, even setting up two tanks (one for oscar feeders and one for TSN feeders) is an option.
Feeder Fish Breeding?
- Thread starter Tyedyedmommy
- Start date
Guppies are definitely an option. The ratio 1 male to 2 female usually works best, that way the females dont get harassed too much. If you have a 10 G tank then you can start with 2 males and 4 females. They honestly breed like bunnies as long as you take care of them and will give you between 10 and 100 fry every month. Any extras fry that you have left over can be sold at your LFS as long as they are older, most LFS wont accept baby guppies, they need to be adult size. Guppies are really easy fish to care for and will readily breed so as long as you do your research and give them a nice home then you should have tons of feeder fish for your oscar in no time. ^_^
feeding guppies to an Oscar? It would take alot of guppies to fill that Oscar up depending on the oscars size along with the TSN. i would try like black convicts they also breed like rabbits.
Oscars are slow and clumsy and would have a rougher time catching convict feeders, so guppies would be preferable unless you slow the cons down somehow.
Guppies require more patience since the parents eat their babies, but with a lot of cover the babies do better.
Cons breed 2-3 times a month under good conditions and depending on size give a lot of fry.
Their has been a lot of talk about Paradise fish being a perfect feeder breeder, but I haven't found any in my area so I can't offer any advice aside from another fish you can look into getting if they are available to you.
Guppies require more patience since the parents eat their babies, but with a lot of cover the babies do better.
Cons breed 2-3 times a month under good conditions and depending on size give a lot of fry.
Their has been a lot of talk about Paradise fish being a perfect feeder breeder, but I haven't found any in my area so I can't offer any advice aside from another fish you can look into getting if they are available to you.
i breed guppies and cons for feeders and as soon as my paradise fish are old enough ill be breeding paradise fish as well. this tank was light by a reading lamp only..i had 5 females and 2 males..i got 100+ fry from each female each month...the fry took about a month to get to roughly 1/2 inch or slightly bigger
guppies : with allot of live easy to grow plants..java moss, penny wort, type plants you can get allot of fry out of one 10 gallon tank,..i also fed the parents 3-5 times a day with in small portions to keep down the number of fry being eaten.
Cons: 20 long with some good covers to break up aggression my pare at 3 inches pumped out about 150+ fry every month..but they grow slow even when fed live food as fry..i would say it took nearly 2 months to get them to 1/2 inch and they are fast...some will get away in your tank and not be eaten unless you have an actively hunting predator.
Paradise fish:...well i don't know first hand yet ..mine are to young to breed and it is hard to get a hold of females i got lucky and was given a small batch of fry.. from what i have read a 20 gallon 1 male 1 female lots of plants and hiding places ..not allot of water movement you can get 50+ fry every 2 weeks and they get to 1'' in about a month...i have seen there growth rate first hand and cant wait to start breeding them.
guppies : with allot of live easy to grow plants..java moss, penny wort, type plants you can get allot of fry out of one 10 gallon tank,..i also fed the parents 3-5 times a day with in small portions to keep down the number of fry being eaten.
Cons: 20 long with some good covers to break up aggression my pare at 3 inches pumped out about 150+ fry every month..but they grow slow even when fed live food as fry..i would say it took nearly 2 months to get them to 1/2 inch and they are fast...some will get away in your tank and not be eaten unless you have an actively hunting predator.
Paradise fish:...well i don't know first hand yet ..mine are to young to breed and it is hard to get a hold of females i got lucky and was given a small batch of fry.. from what i have read a 20 gallon 1 male 1 female lots of plants and hiding places ..not allot of water movement you can get 50+ fry every 2 weeks and they get to 1'' in about a month...i have seen there growth rate first hand and cant wait to start breeding them.
Convict Cichlids are the number choice of feeder for lots of reasons...One reason, they are like most other cichlids of Central and South America..........They breed easily, they have a temperment(personality), they have a show quality that rivals the bigger cichlids.............It takes a month, at the most, to have a pair bond and breed..........The smallest I have bred mine were just under 1 inch...........The average spawn of fish 1-4 inches is 50-100..............I have bred a pair 3 times in one month.........Try breeding them twice at the most, for stress reasons..........The minumum tank size is 20-30g.......Although I have seen and read about many 10g tanks being used, try a 20-30g...........Fry hatch within 2-3 days.........Within 5 days after hatching, the wigglers soak up the yolk sack and begin to swim..............The choice is on the owner whether or not to leave the fry with the parents or raising the fry in a seperate tank.............Raising the fry in a sperate tank greatly raises the chances of number of fry to survive to "feeder" size...............
I still think tilapia are a better feeder for the fact the babies grow rapidly. They could reach 1-1.5 inches in a month if fed well. Tilapia also eat anything so you won't have to worry about getting a particular food to feed them.
I culture red wiggler worms...kind of like a nightcrawler but thrive at room temp and eat veggie scraps from the kitchen. I have a bunch in a rubbermaid in my garage and can feed a 40+ tank fishroom a couple times per week...
You'll never be able to keep up with feeding those fish with convicts, tilapia, livebearers, etc...
Matt
You'll never be able to keep up with feeding those fish with convicts, tilapia, livebearers, etc...
Matt