I have read alot of the post here and found lots and lots of GREAT PIC'S AND INFO,but i havent found anything about keeping or raising feeders for ur pet so you dont have to keep running out to buy them.Years ago we had 4 rb's but couldnt keep a tank of feeders alive for 48 to save my life,which im lost i can keep s. aro's ,sw. sharks, and even expensive s.w angels but not feeder,and they should be the easy?I thinking about making my 120 a rb tank and my 220 a aro and who nows what else tank.Any info and advise would be great,thanks or ur time and help.
Feeders or live food on hand?
- Thread starter chrisb
- Start date
The biggest problem with raising your own live feeders is numbers. The territorial imperative ratio of predator to prey, in an enclosed system, is around 1:100. This is a round number since the predator species and prey species is unknown. It takes a heck of alot of space to raise sufficient numbers of feeders for predator animals. Unless hormone induced, the delays between spawnings of prey animals would require the eventual feeding out of broodstock to sustain predators for any length of time. This means several batches of broodstocks must be maintained so there is a constant cycling of prey fish from timed batches of spawns.
If you have many predators in your collection, you'd just about need a commercial-size hatchery running to keep them in feeders. And this would be at a cost much higher than buying retail feeders from a lfs or bait shop.
If you have many predators in your collection, you'd just about need a commercial-size hatchery running to keep them in feeders. And this would be at a cost much higher than buying retail feeders from a lfs or bait shop.
I found a post on the last page that said NEVER FEED your fish goldfish :0, but doe that also mean (rosy reds) which here in pa are used as a feeder also.I understand the goldfish part they are dirty and many times carry stuff u dont want to feed ur fish.
There are two reasons that people say not to feed goldfish. The first and most valid is that they are extremely low in certain vitamins especially B. So if you feed exclusively goldfish your fish will become vitamin defficient over time. If you feed them a varied diet including some vitamin enriched foods you will be fine to feed them goldfish from time to time. The other reason people say not to feed goldfish is that their skeleton is more difficult to digest than other types of food. Personally I have never seen this be a problem, but then I can't ask my fish if they have a tummy ache or not.
Any deficit in nutritional value or vitamin deficiency can be compensated for by 'gut-loading' feeders prior to offering them to predator species.
The main reason for not using farm-raised feeder goldfish is that they are maintained in very high levels of copper to stem diseases associated with overcrowded conditions. Copper is fatal to most inverts and many vertebrate species (including fish and herps) can suffer major liver dysfunction/failure.
And, feeder goldfish are not low in available B vitamins. They are high in their content of thiaminase. It's an enzyme that will split thiamin (Vitamin B1), an important compound in energy metabolism, and render it inactive. Consequently, lower metabolism can manifest lower immune system functions and render the predator susceptable to disease.
The main reason for not using farm-raised feeder goldfish is that they are maintained in very high levels of copper to stem diseases associated with overcrowded conditions. Copper is fatal to most inverts and many vertebrate species (including fish and herps) can suffer major liver dysfunction/failure.
And, feeder goldfish are not low in available B vitamins. They are high in their content of thiaminase. It's an enzyme that will split thiamin (Vitamin B1), an important compound in energy metabolism, and render it inactive. Consequently, lower metabolism can manifest lower immune system functions and render the predator susceptable to disease.
I breed convicts for my rbps, I am finally starting to get some that are feeding size now after about a month. I have three breeding pairs and then three other tanks that I used to grow out the fry in. I just keep moving them from tank to tank as they get bigger and then finally to feeding size. I have always found convicts interesting as breeders so I kind of enjoy it. Plus I always have live feeders on hand now so I dont have to run to lfs and get some crappy disease infested gold fish.
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