Feeding live fish and disease

[sixtyfou]

Has anybody experienced a disease outbreak from feeding live fish to their larger aquarium fish?

I've read quite a bit about this now, and I realize that it's a concern, but has anybody had real world experience with it? I'd like to hear the sad tale if you have.

 

[Toad]

Breed your own feeders. They don't give a crap about them at pet stores and don't treat the tanks if they are sick because they're 'just going to get eaten' and it's a waste of meds. I had a tank almost wiped out from feeders, and I was planning on keeping them as pets.

Depending on the size and frequency of your fish to be fed, livebearers and convict cichlids are the most common ones.

 

[josh7]

Don't feed live fish unless breeding your own. Get a small 10 or 20 gallon if you want to feed live fish. They do carry many diseases when coming from fish stores and will cause your fish to have intestinal parasite bloat and other things most likely causing death.

 

[sixtyfou]

I have a Danio breeding tank, and a newly established platy breeding tank. I don't currently feed live fish. I'm curious about weather fish that are quickly eaten are really a disease risk.

Toad in your case you tried to keep trash fish as pets. I can see why that would fail. I want to hear stories of disease outbreak caused by feeder fish that didn't live in the tank for more than a few hours.

 

[josh7]

If you have your own breeding tanks I suggest you keep the young alive for about a week feeding them small frozen brine shrimp so they have some nutritious value. But you could feed them to large fish right after birth if you want it won't cause issues. You only have problems when the fish come from feeder tanks at pet shops.

 

[sixtyfou]

Have you experienced problems from LPS feeder fish? I'm not questioning you. I'm curious about first hand failures. I really don't have a need to even feed live, and if I did I'd feed from the mass of fry I've got.

I'm just curious. It seems like a diseased fish that quickly goes to the gut of another fish wouldn't pose a big risk.

 

[josh7]

I haven't personally one of my good friends did with his 9 inch amazing male JD he got bloat from them and it ended up killing him.

 

[sixtyfou]

That's what I want to hear more about. Did it spread to other fish in the tank?

 

[josh7]

He was the only one in the tank I just advise against it since I saw what it did the inly live food I will feed now is ghost shrimp, crickets and nightcrawlers.

 

[Wiggles24]

Trash fish?

 

[sixtyfou]

Live food appeals to me. I was eye balling the breed live shrimp pack the other day at the LPS. Looked like a lot of work so I didn't get it. I've got a snail outbreak in one of my fry tanks, and the cichlids seem to love that.

 

[sixtyfou]

Trash fish?

I'd consider the feeder gold fish in the metal cow trough at the local pet shop trash fish.

 

[GodFan]

Some fish require live feeders. And some eat too much to breed your own for. I try to use ghost shrimp instead of feeder guppies though because feeder guppies always seem to have some disease.

 

[sixtyfou]

I don't think I NEED them at this stage. I was just kicking around the idea. Truth be told if I feed anything from the fry tanks I'd have to do it without my daughter or girlfriend noticing. Seemed easier to buy a couple of feeder fish from the trough. They'd never know then

 

[GodFan]

I don't think I NEED them at this stage. I was just kicking around the idea. Truth be told if I feed anything from the fry tanks I'd have to do it without my daughter or girlfriend noticing. Seemed easier to buy a couple of feeder fish from the trough. They'd never know then

What kind of fish? Ghost shrimp are good feeders and most shrimp illness cant jump to fish.

 

[sixtyfou]

I got a red devil cichlid, and a bumblebee cichlid I didn't want, but they came with a tank I bought used. The LPS wouldn't take them, and now I have to deal with them. The devil isn't eating the way I think she should and I've been toying with the idea of adding some sport for her.

 

[GodFan]

I got a red devil cichlid, and a bumblebee cichlid I didn't want, but they came with a tank I bought used. The LPS wouldn't take them, and now I have to deal with them. The devil isn't eating the way I think she should and I've been toying with the idea of adding some sport for her.

I think they would eat shrimp. Might be worth a try. If I feed feeder fish (I do rarely) then I get the ones out of the planted tank or crayfish tank at my LFS. They breed in there and are usually healthier than the ones in the feeder tank.

 

[sixtyfou]

She's getting by for now. She eats enough, but she isn't passionate about it. I'm trying out different pellets. She loves the snails, which gave me the live feed idea.

 

[sixtyfou]

I'll grab some shrimp on my next stop. I like shrimp anyway.

 

[Toad]

No offense, but 'trash fish' feeder guppies are usually the ones I have that live far longer than fancy guppies. What I was trying to express was the fact that within four days of putting them in almost everyone was dead with their skin peeled of. And sometimes feeders won't get eaten right away, my brother had a feeder goldfish that ended up living longer than the catfish he'd bought it for, even when it ate all the others. Or in the case of my pictus cat, he would just kill what I brought and didn't eat them.

Not to mention in my mind that if a fish could catch a disease from being in the same tank with a sick one for a few hours or days, it would be even more likely to catch something from the same fish if it ate them.

Good luck with the shrimp.