Quarantining feeders...how to...do's and dont's????

[swede]

never use wild caughts as feeders since many if not all wild caughts have some kind of parasite

 

[hotsauce]

this is all good info guys. im glad this is rolling along as good as it is. lets keep it going.

 

[krichardson]

never use wild caughts as feeders since many if not all wild caughts have some kind of parasite

Like the feeders that you pay for in the stores?

 

[ryverrat]

You could alway go into raising your own feeders. I am raising mollies as feeders- clean, parasite free. This way I know what I am giving my fish.

 

[krichardson]

You could alway go into raising your own feeders. I am raising mollies as feeders- clean, parasite free. This way I know what I am giving my fish.

This is something that I have been contemplating,how is the growthrate of the young mollies?

 

[ryverrat]

Pretty good at first- get to 1/2 to 1 in size in less than 2 months. After that they slowed a lot. I am using them for my congo puffer- he is about 6in. Working on upgrading the grow out tank to a 20 G (10 right now- that may be the problem) and moving the parents to a 30G. Using dalmation mollies- seem to be the friskies of the mollies. Find at least 20- 30 new babies every week. Have 4 females/1 male. One thing is they do better in low brackish and need vegetable matter for some of their food. Right now been using sea veggies (from the SW tank ) but once the turf filter is up, will harvest algae off of it for them.

 

[CichlidFiend]

I breed my own comets, I keep them in a 1000 gallon pond and I grow algae in the pond so I don't have to spend money on food for them. There are 10 massive breeding mops located all around the pond for the fry to grow.

After I remove my feeders from the pond they go to a 150 gallon quarantine tank that has melafix, pimafix, and coppersafe to combat illness and parasites, and then they are sold to my LFS.

 

[swede]

Like the feeders that you pay for in the stores?

yeah, just like the mollies you want to breed that you would buy at the store

 

[Crispy]

Breeding pairs of convicts are everywhere and real cheap.... setup a small tank with them and you'll have many small "clean" feeders for a long time.

 

[Cichlaholics Anonymous]

Praziquantel can be used here. Crayfish can carry flukes around and most feeder fish also carry flukes, not just internal parasites. Both are fortunately dealt with effectively by praziquantel which you can buy as Prazipro or Droncit. For effective quarantine procedure, stick to 3-4 weeks time frame and be on a watch for unexplained injuries possibly inflicted by external parasites particularly anchorworms and fish lice. External parasites are destroyed with trichlorfon or dimilin. Avoid using coumaphos as you risk killing your feeders in the process since coumaphos is exceedingly powerful.

I agree with this, although I would add that a possible med for camallanus and other threadworms should be used, possible levamisole