Making safe breeders

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Arrowanaoscars

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Feb 28, 2011
114
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Colorado
ok so every time i buy rosy reds, guppies and gold fish my fish always get Ick or ich how ever its spelled

so i have a 55 gallon tank that im starting to breed guppies how does one go about making them safe to feed to my fish?? please help or any info would be great.
 
well first thing i would advise is dont feed to ur oscar for a few months, keep them in the tank and watch for any signs of disease or fungus. if they make it through there you should be safe to feed. if you put alot of plants in there to give the fry cover you prolly wouldnt even need to pull the fry out. you could just grab a few out of there every now and then. soon your 55 should be over run with guppies.
 
the original batch of guppies that will start the breeding program should be de-wormed and given medications for internal parasites before you even think about feeding them to the oscars. Ich is a minor problem compared to possible camallanus or other internal parasites store bought guppies might be carrying.
 
tscharf;4954656; said:
well first thing i would advise is dont feed to ur oscar for a few months, keep them in the tank and watch for any signs of disease or fungus. if they make it through there you should be safe to feed. if you put alot of plants in there to give the fry cover you prolly wouldnt even need to pull the fry out. you could just grab a few out of there every now and then. soon your 55 should be over run with guppies.
Click to expand...

ive had this 55 gallon set up with guppies for 3 years and i pulled some from there and breed them in my new 55 gallon so far i have about 20 new babies and have tones of live java furns in there for them along with letting some alge grow on one side of the tank but i dont let it out of hand so should i wait another month? they all look well some are a little deformed tho
I.E their tails are all bent and not straight but im guesing thats from years of them being inbred fish from the original 4 guppies
 
i think youd be ok but i would deworm them and do the stuff the other guy said first just to be safe. once your tanks are both dewormed and as long as you dont introduce any new guppies your fish should be safe to feed
 
I would buy some medicated food, with ingredients like fenbendazole or albendazole (spelling might be off here)...now that levamisole is unavailable for de-worming, that stuff was the best
 
You can buy levamisole as a pigeon wormer from Foy's Pigeon supply. It's a very grueling process though, unless you can worm them, then move them to a completely clean/sterile environment.

I prefer to buy fenbendazole (sold as either Panacur or Safe Guard for dog wormer at a local feed store) and make up a medicated gel food. You can also grind it very very finely and add it to the tank to kill eggs/larva. You would need to treat the tank AND feed the medicated food, otherwise you are not taking care of all stages of the parasite, and it will just reinfest. You treat with the food 2x per day, for three days in a row. Then you will do the same thing again three weeks later, to get any stragglers.
 
same thing i used to do with dogs when i was a vet tech
 
Well if you're using a 55 gallon (Lol, whould love to have a spare 55 to put guppies in xD).....Just start out with like 10 guppies alone check for diseases/problems with any of the fish......Eventually you will have all the good ones still alive and they will breed. Bubbler, filter, heater (have seen tanks without breed like crazy)....Then feed em' off
 
If you have had them for three years you probably don't have to worry about diseases and such. But still, give them some medication anyway. Then make sure you feed them a QUALITY flake food. Also make sure these are not the only thing you give your oscars. They will soon become malnourished. Feed them pellets as well and market shrimp as a treat.
 
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