How are mass quantities of feeders bred?
- Thread starter Smertrios
- Start date
I am designing the breeding tanks so that the fry will be directed to 1 corner of the tank where there is a pipe that can suck them all into another tank for easy collection (part of the filtration system). I am not sure if guppy fry will let itself be sucked into the pipe reliably =<...
Maybe egg layers like zebra danio would be a better choice but the guppies seem to be a much more popular feeder fish. I know there are big fish that lay tons of eggs but the feeders often sit in tanks at the LFS stores for months before being sold and could outgrow the fish they are intended for.
Maybe egg layers like zebra danio would be a better choice but the guppies seem to be a much more popular feeder fish. I know there are big fish that lay tons of eggs but the feeders often sit in tanks at the LFS stores for months before being sold and could outgrow the fish they are intended for.
Thats what happens with many goldfish near me. Then have they have 50 ugly looking chocolate goldies and no-one who buys them. They probably just feed them to the 13" oscars 2 rows above them.
I dont think you have enough breeding tanks or growout space, but its good to learn from experience none the less. This link may be of interest since it is a manual for producing swordtails commercially.
http://library.kcc.hawaii.edu/external/ctsa/publications/Swordtail.htm
http://library.kcc.hawaii.edu/external/ctsa/publications/Swordtail.htm
Great site. I actually learned somwthing from there. That they're comerically bred in Hawaii. And other misc info.
fishdance;1019798; said:
I like the fact it had some statistics as there was some new information for me and alot of similarity to what I already knew but one thing I did not like was their method of keeping the water quality. From what I could tell they relied on a 10% weekly water change and the tanks size for water quality there was nothing about solids removal or bio-filtration. I would bet that is at least in part responsible for the high mortality rates in the heavily stocked grow out tanks. Come to think of it they did not mention anything about aeration either!
I am looking into sand bed filtration possibly making my own using PVC pipes and washed "white sand" from the Menard's store near me. Cost is $100+ for a fair sized commercial version and thats without sand. For the same money I can build a HUGE version or many of equivalent size and have the sand included. But thats assuming a "fluidized bed filter" is simply sand with water flowing through it.
I have to look into pvc pipes more and see what is available for construction but seems doable... For instance a 10 foot piece of 10" pvc pipe is less than $25... that would hold at least 4.5 cubic foot of filter sand (actually 4.9 cubic foot of space inside)! The end caps are just a few bucks and the smaller tube to send water down through the middle would only be a few bucks. Cutting the big pipe would be the hardest part about it for me! Just FYI I read someplace that the suface area per cubic foot of "regular sand" is over 5000 square feet!
What my PVC pipe version needs that I don't know how to do right now is clean it once its put together. The transparency of the commercial versions is an awful nice feature. Maybe mc-master would have something but nothing the sell is cheap and just about everything at menards is local (so no S/H) and well priced.
