how much on FEEDERS and how to grow THEM!

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marscortes

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
May 4, 2006
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Ok guys, i know some people on here have monster tanks with a bunch of big monster fishes. How much do you guys spend on feeders a week or a month ? If any is there any of you guys that grow your own feeders? how long does it take and what would you need to do so? Any inputs are welcome.

I think im spending too much on feeders maybe 20, 30 bucks a week.

My current stock are 4, 8" Spotted Gar's, 2, 5" pb's, 2 , 7 inch oscars, and 1, 8" fat wolf fish all in seperate tanks. Thanks in advance
 
marscortes;2412727; said:
Ok guys, i know some people on here have monster tanks with a bunch of big monster fishes. How much do you guys spend on feeders a week or a month ? If any is there any of you guys that grow your own feeders? how long does it take and what would you need to do so? Any inputs are welcome.

I think im spending too much on feeders maybe 20, 30 bucks a week.

My current stock are 4, 8" Spotted Gar's, 2, 5" pb's, 2 , 7 inch oscars, and 1, 8" fat wolf fish all in seperate tanks. Thanks in advance
Click to expand...
I can tell you that most of the people on this website do not feed their monsters a strict diet of feeder fish. I would suggest buying frozen shrimp, fish fillets and earthworms and feeding that to your fish. You never know where those feeders even came from. If you want you could breed your own as well. I used to breed feeder guppies to feed my tyre track eel. I only fed him like 5 guppies every month or so. I would stay away from feeder fish and only feed them feeders a few times a month tops, as a snack. I would try and get your fish eating some good quality pellets from Hikari. If you must feed live, then make sure you quarantine the feeders first and make sure they are free of parasites or any other nasties, keep the feeder tank clean and make sure you feed the feeders some good quality flakes before you feed them to your monsters.
 
thats a HUGE expense!! Def try to get your fish off of live foods. You can also breed convicts VERY easy and use those as a supplemental snack to their more balanced diet. Just use the search forums on it. That will eliminate expense as well as the risk of introducing parasites into your tank.
 
sp33dstix;2412746; said:
I can tell you that most of the people on this website do not feed their monsters a strict diet of feeder fish. I would suggest buying frozen shrimp, fish fillets and earthworms and feeding that to your fish. You never know where those feeders even came from. If you want you could breed your own as well. I used to breed feeder guppies to feed my tyre track eel. I only fed him like 5 guppies every month or so. I would stay away from feeder fish and only feed them feeders a few times a month tops, as a snack. I would try and get your fish eating some good quality pellets from Hikari. If you must feed live, then make sure you quarantine the feeders first and make sure they are free of parasites or any other nasties, keep the feeder tank clean and make sure you feed the feeders some good quality flakes before you feed them to your monsters.
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Thanks. Quarantine.. meaning like inspect them before feeding right? salt bath maybe before putting them in the main feeder tank ?

Well I guess the only problem i have are the Gar's they only eat stuff that moves.. i tried feeding them frozen shrimp and wiggled them around the tank.. no response, didnt even look at it. People say to train them, meaning i have to starve them ? My Gar's are like pigs but they have to have around for the food to be eaten. I even tried to put a shrimp on a fishing line and dragged in the water and.. no bueno again! ahaha.


How do you get gold fishes to mate ?
 
QUARANTINE
Noun: a state of enforced isolation.
Why should we quarantine? In particular our bichirs are mostly wild caught this can lead them to be
carriers of all kinds of nasty things.And the importers can't catch all the bad stuff some of which may
not be evident for several days or weeks.It is far easier to observe and fix one fish than an chance
infecting an established tank.
There are two ways to quarantine new fish one is a basic bare tank.This is not a long term display
tank its meant to be emptied and cleaned and stored after the quarantine period. It can also do duty
as a hospital tank if and when the need arises. A tank sized to fit the specimen should be used for
this purpose Remember this is for temporary use.
Why don't we qaurantine?Simply because we are in a hurry to show off our new fish.However after
you have done this and wind up with a tank of sick or dying fish you will understand the importance of
quarantining fish.this applies to store bought feeders also.
The Tank 1
This is as simple as it gets Filter, Heater, and some plastic plants or some kind of structure to
hide in simple huh like I said its not long term .4 weeks in most cases should be fine.Its not pretty but
its not supposed to be .
 
marscortes;2412774; said:
Thanks. Quarantine.. meaning like inspect them before feeding right? salt bath maybe before putting them in the main feeder tank ?

Well I guess the only problem i have are the Gar's they only eat stuff that moves.. i tried feeding them frozen shrimp and wiggled them around the tank.. no response, didnt even look at it. People say to train them, meaning i have to starve them ? My Gar's are like pigs but they have to have around for the food to be eaten. I even tried to put a shrimp on a fishing line and dragged in the water and.. no bueno again! ahaha.


How do you get gold fishes to mate ?
Click to expand...

Check what blondie said about "QUARANTINE".
Also, try night crawlers for the gars(never in my life have I seen a fish not accept a worm), also try some fish fillets from the grocery store. They should go for that. Feeders are not very nutritious. All of your other fish should not have a big problem eating shrimp, earthworms and pellets. Gars are a little picky. If you want to breed something, look into breeding convict cichlids, they breed like rabbits and I am pretty sure are more nutritious then goldfish feeders. Another plus is that convict parents do all the work to make sure their fry grow because they protect them.

Check out the link:
http://aqualandpetsplus.com/Cichlid,%20Convicts%202.htm
 
while in quarantine, I'd get them some sort of anti-parasite treatment, even something simple like some PraziPro or Jungle Parasite tabs
 
Thanks for the info guys. ill try some worms for gars. I dont feed them goldfish, i feed them rosy's and gups. sometimes i feed them zebras.
 
At my local bait shop I buy 1lb of shinners for 14 bucks. And they sell them in small med and large. I buy medium and they are about 2-3''. A pound of 3'' minnows is about 28-30 dozen. Or so the internet tells me, I have never even thought about trying to count them. I have a 55g feeder tank and a 30g tank set-up and i put the new arrivals in the 55g and QUARANTINE them for a week. And then start feeding with them. Then when the tank gets low I put all remaining feeders in the 30g and go get new for the 55g. And start the process over again. 30 dozen feeders is 360 fish and that last me 3 weeks on average. I only feed feeders cause of my fish which are payara and hujeta. And also it is there natural food source. There is not too many pellets floating around the amazon river. And plus it is injoyable to me and the fish. There is a reason you have to starve some fish to get them on dead foods and its because it is not natural to them. If you buy predators then let them be predators.
 
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