Feeder fish everyones FAVORITE

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GolemGolem;4667472; said:
Well if you really want to breed something for food I say Comets. Get some healthy feeders at your pet store, wait about six months. Then bump the temp up 15F over a couple days and they'll spawn like nuts. Have insuforia ready.
But trust me, it ain't cheaper than buying them for .12$ a pop, and disease can pop up in fish that have been born and raised in your own tanks.

hmmmm, how do i go about this nicely?

your info is incorrect. Comets, regardless of where you get them from, are bad for your fish as a main food because they have thiaminase. that can reduce the growth of your fish.

Some else already pointed out that's now how comets breed either.
 
Well, they don't exactly get pellets in the wild do they? They eat other smaller fish. Sure there may not be a lot of benefit nutrition wise, but it allows your cichlids to be cichlids and hunt. Plus, hybrid fish... aren't always welcomed in LFS's. There is one I could take mine too, but I don't shop there all that much to use a store credit on fish. Mine have only had feeder fish once since I've had them and they've had Ghost Shrimp 2 times. So 3 live treats spread out over 10 months isn't over doing it.
Last i read or saw unless a fish is piscivorous or strictly predatory in other words it will mostly eat insects from the surface plant matter and filtering out food from substrate, there may be some large fish we keep that really do eat fish in the wild but I'd like to see you name 5 that rely on smaller fish for their food. As far as the list of 5 please don't list fish that aren't legal to keep.
You want a nice healthy treat that will pose less of a threat use worms like earth worms and red wigglers, and mosquito larvae which is by far the easiest food to feed... although small you can freeze into cubes or toss into gelatine diy fish food. I use earth worms and I throw mosquito larvae into my small fish tanks and fry growouts. I'm no way against feeder fish I just very much disagree with your assumption.


also cichlids are eartheaters, one of the methods I described =p they just happen to be very territorial and very opportunistic
 
Any efforts put into breeding feeder fish would yield more food for your fish if devoted to breeding feeder insects instead. Earthworms, nightcrawlers, megaworms, crickets, cockroaches, etc. are all better for a jack dempsey than feeder fish imo. Insect breeding projects are low maintenance, low cost, and usually highly productive. Most will eat the left over food that you scrape off your plate every night after dinner.
Was hoping someone would post this, thank you =p
 
To answer the OPs question IME Mollies. Get 10 f and 2 m set them up in a 30 and let them do their thing. Grow out the young in a 10 or 20 with a spong filter, feed them crushed sprulina flakes and BBS as they grow switch from the BBS to water fleas or micro pellets. Keep the water clean and they grow like weeds. Mollies are pretty cool fish anyway. Just make sure you keep veggies in the diet.

A pellet based diet is best but there is no harm in using the home grown feeders as a treat once in a while just don't rely on it to be the main food source.
 
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