In urgent need of feeder fish in UK?

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Lollum96

Black Skirt Tetra
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Mar 9, 2023
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As some of you may have read here

Two Red Bay Snooks arriving tomorrow?

They're pretty cool fish. From what I hear they are surprisingly peaceful in spite of their piscivorous nature. Anything that isn't food is a friend to them. The red form is naturally occurring, similar to the red forms of amphilophus in the great lakes of Nicaragua (where the red form is from)...
www.monsterfishkeepers.com www.monsterfishkeepers.com

I have two large Red Bay Snook Cichlids. They have refused to eat anything and everything other than live 6cm long goldfish.

If you read the thread above you will know that I tried to feed them absolutely everything else. I waited it out for a while thinking eventually they would get hungry but they started to look like they was passing the point of no return so I had to give them the feeders. They even refused some home bred 1-2cm live feeder fish.

It seems these guys like their food live and large. They eventually fed tonight on 8 x 6cm goldfish.

In the UK this is a very bad thing.

We don't have feeders over here and any LFS will outright refuse to sell you fish if you ask for them as feeders. It's not illegal in this scenario (when all others options have been exhausted) but it's just generally frowned upon in the hobby here.

Does anyone know how I can source feeder fish in the UK at an actually decent price? I'm happy to quarantine them and gut load myself.

This single meal, 8 x 6cm goldfish cost me £20 and that was a 60 mile drive to find them at that price from a FS.

At them prices I'd be looking at £100+ per month just to feed them two fish.
 
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Lollum96 said:
As some of you may have read here

Two Red Bay Snooks arriving tomorrow?

They're pretty cool fish. From what I hear they are surprisingly peaceful in spite of their piscivorous nature. Anything that isn't food is a friend to them. The red form is naturally occurring, similar to the red forms of amphilophus in the great lakes of Nicaragua (where the red form is from)...
www.monsterfishkeepers.com www.monsterfishkeepers.com

I have two large Red Bay Snook Cichlids. They have refused to eat anything and everything other than live 6cm long goldfish.

If you read the thread above you will know that I tried to feed them absolutely everything else. I waited it out for a while thinking eventually they would get hungry but they started to look like they was passing the point of no return so I had to give them the feeders. They even refused some home bred 1-2cm live feeder fish.

It seems these guys like their food live and large. They eventually fed tonight on 8 x 6cm goldfish.

In the UK this is a very bad thing.

We don't have feeders over here and any LFS will outright refuse to sell you fish if you ask for them as feeders. It's not illegal in this scenario (when all others options have been exhausted) but it's just generally frowned upon in the hobby here.

Does anyone know how I can source feeder fish in the UK at an actually decent price? I'm happy to quarantine them and gut load myself.

This single meal, 8 x 6cm goldfish cost me £20 and that was a 60 mile drive to find them at that price from a FS.

At them prices I'd be looking at £100+ per month just to feed them two fish.
Click to expand...
What about wild caught?
 
I think you should take a breath and relax. You are treating this as if it will be a permanent, long-term thing that will require a constant, steady supply of live feeders. It won't; as I mentioned in your other thread, you will likely be past this slight bump in the road in a short time.

Wild-caught feeders are loaded with parasites, both external and internal. I admit that I use them, but I kill them and keep them in the deep-freeze for a few weeks; this won't guard against bacteria or viruses, but will likely kill most or all parasites. Even then, I'm a bit uneasy about it. The mere idea of actually bringing a live wild-caught fish in and tossing it into my tank...especially to be eaten!...makes my skin crawl.

Do you fish? If so, take a good careful look at the stomach contents of the next fish you fillet. Check out the cysts and assorted other nasties peppering its insides. That should cure you of any notions about feeding your fish with them.
 
Where are you in the UK? London? Go to Chinatown, and ask them for tilpia. They will undoubtedly know tilapia breeders, and that is where you get your tilapia fry from.

Treat them with Levamisole for twenty four hours before feeding them to your snooks.
 
I keep payara and tigerfish and they can be awkward but even the most awkward in my eperience adapts in the end. A battle of wills but you will get there
did you try lancefish? my starter for any awkward fish is earthworms from a fishing tackle shop get them used to taking food from you and once theyre cracking on that and getting a prey drive keep trying lancefish
 
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Just seen you only got then on the 19th July? Thats not that long for them to not eat food for. I think you need to be a bit tougher with them to convert them off live. Took me 4 weeks with one payara and 2 with another but they both smash frozen food now every couple of days
good luck
 
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