Feeder Fish - What should I use.

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octofasciatus

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Mar 15, 2007
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The blue corner
Which live fish do you use for feeding your cichlids. I'm after something readily available and cheap. I put half a dozen neon tetras in as a treat but those little beggars are too quick to be caught. They are for a 2" GT and a 4" JD + various catfish. (the GT should have manoueverability issues - see my previous threads - missing dorsal etc)

Please also advise which feeders are best for bringing out the colouring.

I currently use King British Cichlid pellets, flake, algae wafers, frozen bloodworm, frozen blackworm, frozen brine shrimp. Home cultivated live whiteworm and grindal worm plus bits of cucumber etc so they are already have a fairly varied diet. I just want to add the live feeders cos i'm sure they enjoy the chase and I sure as hell enjoy watching it. It just seems that those wily neons have the better of the big tough guys.

Advice please - many thanks
 
feeder goldies, i'll get the link up from people i use, deliverey door to door.
 
I know a lot of people use feeders, but I just ordered a bag of massivore and my cichlids like this much better than feeders and it is 100x's better for them, and you dont have to worry about diseases from feeders. Each pellet contains the calories of 1.8 goldfish. Not to mention they are really bulking up now on it, and the sinking carnivore I got too.
 
I don't like using feeder fish unless it's something I'm breeding myself for the purpose. Otherwise, quarantine and feed the feeder fish high quality foods to essentially gut load them
 
I get the idea, I like the thought of breeding my own feeders because of cost, availability etc. If I were to set a spare tank up and stock with livebearers (platys, swordtails, guppys etc) I would have an abundant supply and also wouldn't need to quarantine. Is there any feeders which are best and which should I stay away from? Anybody know how easy it is to breed goldfish?
 
I'm sure goldfish aren't as easy to breed as the livebearers you mentioned. Otherwise, cichlid fry is a great alternative especially if you have convicts or something that breeds either very frequently, or large quantities of fry
 
Don't use feeder fish. Fish food is much better for them.

Z
 
Gut loaded feeder Goldfish. My Pike loves them. Having him destroy 15-25 Rosy Red Minnows in one sitting was getting too expensive. Goldfish go much further.
 
If you go the feeder fish route, go with an easy spawning livebearer (I like mollies, but that's just because I hate keeping mollies), then gut load them with a high vitamin food that contains lots of things the predators would normally have a hard time getting. I used to feed my feeders a homemade food of almost all veggies and spirulina; since the predators probably are needing this more than protein (hey, they're eating fish!).
 
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