Ideal Feeder Breed

[me_wee_todded]

live bearers breed and grow realtively fast so basically guppies platies mollies sword tails. all of the breed like mad and have a quick growthrate. if i were you i would go with guppies because of the size of you bichirs. but you could move up to platies and or mollies later when they are bigger. i would definatley go with live bearers in this case.
but thats just my opinion

 

[Zinq]

Alright,
Thanks for all your input everyone. I think I'll end up with guppies anyways but it's always good to know.

The search button comment was really helpful. Thanks.

 

[Joshy]

Hmm....So cons are winning at the moment.

I'm probably going to end up with guppies anyways since my dad wants them as feeders and I'll probably get a grow out tank too.

But anyways, what kind environment do you usually provide for optimal growth of the fry? I mean:
What kinda food do you provide? How often? (btw whats bbs?)
Sponge filtration?
Barebottom/Sand/Gravel?
Hiding places?

On another note, are ghost shrimp easy to breed and feed to senegals?

1) You can by liquefied fry food from your local fish shop, it gives the best results. As the fry develop and grow, finely crushed fish flakes and brine shrimp always worked for me.

2) Sponge filtration is certainly the easiest and safest. With any other filtration, put a sponge or fabric over the intake to stop the fry getting sucked in

3) The substrate depends on if you have a fry grow out tank or if the fry are staying in the tank with the adults. If you have a separate fry tank then have no gravel, it makes it a lot easier to clean. If the fry are staying with the adults, have really large pieces of gravel like big rocks or marbles. As the fry fall inside the gaps between the gravel and are safe form being eaten by adults there.

4) Java moss is by far the most recommended for fry. They can hide in that and be totally protected, and at the same time the plant has microscopic things the fry can feed off of. Floating plants and also recommended for protection.

And yes ghost shrimp are another excellent feeder and easy to breed. You can breed the ghost shrimp in the same tank; however calcium supplements will need to be added to both tanks for the shrimp’s shells.

 

[Zinq]

Thanks Joshy,

I also heard that a very small piece of boiled egg suspended in water fed by an dropper was also good for fry. Has anyone ever tried that?

And for the ghost shrimps, wont they eat the fish fry?

 

[CHOMPERS]

...And yes ghost shrimp are another excellent feeder and easy to breed. You can breed the ghost shrimp in the same tank; however calcium supplements will need to be added to both tanks for the shrimp’s shells.

There is a lot of mystery about raising ghost shrimp and the information on the net is not very good. If you have had good experience with them you might want to start a new thread with what you know. Most people can only get a few new ones on each breeding to survive. (I have a 30g dedicated to ghost shrimp and I am not sure if I have several successfull breedings or if my tank is over run with copepods.)

 

[CHOMPERS]

As for breeders, I have recently found information about mosquito fish. They are livebearers and have very large fry. They can give birth every 24 days with clutches of ten to 100 fry. The fry also grow very quickly.

Fathead minnows are also livebearers with large fry and are considered a second choice to mosquito fish.

 

[Zinq]

As for breeders, I have recently found information about mosquito fish. They are livebearers and have very large fry. They can give birth every 24 days with clutches of ten to 100 fry. The fry also grow very quickly.

Fathead minnows are also livebearers with large fry and are considered a second choice to mosquito fish.

Mosquito fish seem pretty cool, although they do look alot like plain guppies. I did a quick google on them but didn't really find anything on breeding them as feeder. Most of the info was basically about mosquito control via mosquitofish. Maybe I should just fill a bucket outside, wait for mosquitoes to lay eggs and then toss in some of them fish...
What kinda information did you find on them?

As for the ghost shrimps, I'm not sure how to proceed with those either. I was thinking possibly getting a relatively big container and tossing in some java moss, a bubbler and some ghost shrimp and wait to see if anything happens.

 

[Bleeding]

Hmm....So cons are winning at the moment.

I'm probably going to end up with guppies anyways since my dad wants them as feeders and I'll probably get a grow out tank too.

But anyways, what kind environment do you usually provide for optimal growth of the fry? I mean:
What kinda food do you provide? How often? (btw whats bbs?)
Sponge filtration?
Barebottom/Sand/Gravel?
Hiding places?

On another note, are ghost shrimp easy to breed and feed to senegals?

I orig. started keeping guppies and platys to use as feeders for a larger tank i planned on getting, but to be honest, i couldnt get enough fast to do a feeding program with one or two tanks. BUT, this is what i did....

I used a 20 gallon tank, gravel bottom (although bare bottom would be better in your case if you dont care about how this tank looks, mine was in living room), hang on back filter and i used live plants. Use java moss as a hiding place, you can tie it to an ornament with a hiding area or just ball it up and stick it in the corner, although it needs to be weighted down with a stone or something. This will hide them from thier hungry parents as well as provide a nutritional source. Keep the water around 80, i used 2 thermos.

My platys are populating much faster than the guppies are right now, and i have them in a 55. You could mix guppies, platys, and swortail i believe.

As far as food went, i use bloodworms, tubifex, brine shrimp, and finely crushed flakes, all freeze dried. The tubifex cubes are hard for the fry to eat, but they are really small and usually go all over the place once the adults start ripping into them.

 

[mothernature]

Okay, first of all ,

you need your ghost shrimp, wherever you get them make sure you get like 40.
Some might have eggs already. And you have good chances of getting a male and female.
Put them in a well established tank and feed them good! Algae wafers, shrimp pellets, flakes ect.

If good water quality is maintained you should be okay, some people add reef calcium and iodine at half the recomended dose.

----
When you notice a female ghost shrimp with eggs , [I wait a week first] remove female to seperate tank.
This worked for me ,, I placed the prego female shrimp in a ? 1/2 -1 gallon seethrough sterilite bucket, with large round pebbles/rocks on the bottom.

I added water from the tank she was in, I added duckweed , pond snails, java moss,
hair algae, hornwort, plastic floating plants. I continued to feed her good. Changing some of the water daily and replacing it with water from the main tank.

It was fall so the temperature slowed the whole process, so a week or two later I notice the eggs she'd been holding were perfectly formed tiny shrimps. I checked her every 5 minutes , then finally she was empty, no baby shrimp?

Well, the sunlight was shinning through the window and barely hitting the corner of the bucket. In the sunshine all ''schooled up'' was all the shrimpies..

I sucked em' out with a turkey baster[ watch out they jerk backwards very fast ,hard to catch them] ..

The tiny shrimps eat live infusoria for a week or so, finally after molting [sheding] however many times? They will walk upright instead of float upside down as they have been doing. Now they are ready for '' grown up food'' you could mix up food and crush it .
example,, in a plastic bag [a strong one] add , flakes, algae wafers, sinking and floating
foods/pellets, shrimp pellets, freeze dried krill ect.
-Close the bag, and roll over and over with a heavy weight[ or something ;} ]
until you have a fine powder, mix well, store in a old glass jar {miricle whip jar perhaps?}
feed at least 3 times a day.

Oh yeah,, while housing any creature in a small tank/bucket you should do daily water changes at least 20% . This includes mommy and baby shrimps.

Also ghost shrimp love eating live/dead pond snails. And they have baby shrimps all year long once mature [if a male and female of the same species are present]

Theres more but i've been typing forever.. Hope this helps someone...

 

[mothernature]

oops, I meant to make this a thread not a reply..
I still might?