guppy fry as live food

[bigmac1878]

would it be considered to be wrong to breed guppies in a community tank and allow the fry to be eaten by the other inhabitants? my train of thought is along the feeder fish route. it's not something i've done but something i've thought about.

 

[Guest]

IMO, you are the only one that can really answer this and you will probably get opinions from it is nature, to it is terrible.

If you want to feed live breeding the feeder guppy is a better idea than buying from a LFS tank, however you would probably want to try this in a seperate tank IMO.

What kind of fish do you have that you want to feed live food?

 

[bigmac1878]

my tank is a 18g/us with 2 male guppies, 5 white clouds, 2 borneo suckers (hong kong plec?) male betta.
although breeding feeder fish is something i've thought about i don't think i could do it. i just wanted another opinion. survival of the fittest is great in the natural environment. a tank isn't natural environment. also i don't think i have the space for millions of guppies after 3 months as some of them would be fit enough to survive.

you are the only one that can really answer this

you're right, i have the answer that i need. i wouldn't breed cats to entertain dogs and i wouldn't breed mice to feed snakes. why breed fish to feed fish?

thanks mike469

 

[TomK2]

I have faced this dilemma. Going away on a two week vacation, no fish care available. I have those dissolving pyramids, battery operated flake feeder, but nothing for my spiny eel who only eats live food or frozen bloodworms. So, I have used ghost shrimp and guppy fry to keep it alive. Not much different than my Platies dropping fry in the community tank only to be devoured by the angels and spiny eel, its just that this time I have arranged for it, and at a time that it will keep my fish alive and healthy. I have not done it any other time, when frozen foods are an option. Oh, and three or four of the guppies have escaped predation, and seem destined to make the transition from food to pet, and I have a neon tank that they might be happy in.

 

[Alshain]

I do it with my Swordtails now. I don't have any decent LFS around me and I can't get rid of raised fry so I would rather they become live food then live in misery in a tank way to small for them. They get pregnant every 3 weeks and have 50 fry at a time so I just don't feed the parents when it looks like they might be ready to give birth and say "survival of the fittest". Its either that or put them in a 10 gallon tank and watch them grow exponentially in misery until the tank is overflowing.

 

[TomK2]

I once heard a joke about the livebearer owners motto that went something like this :

"Welcome to the American Live Bearers Association: Feeding the American Cichlid Association since 1927 !"

 

[Ineubis]

I had 6 guppies (3 couples) when I cycled my tank with a betta, and the betta ate the fry. Definitely was not enough food to fill him up. I added some Black Tetras a week or so later, and I never saw any fry after that...although the guppies continued to reproduce (until they were ultimately eaten by my datnoid) the fry were just an Hors Doeuvre before dinner.

I imagine you'd have to have 8-10 females to produce enough fry to actually feed your fish.

Anyway, just thought I'd share my feeder fry story.

 

[hulkamaniac]

I personally see nothing wrong with it. When I kept Angels I purposely kept livebearers in the tank for the purpose of giving the angel a snack every now and then. It's basically what would happen out in the wild and at least you know the live food they're eating is healthy.

 

[Blazeherd2306]

I've done it when I had guppies. I didn't have room for most of the babies so I donated some to my blood parrot. I don't feel bad about it. It's either they suffer the rest of their life in a pet store (or an overtocked tank) or get fed to my blood parrot who inhales them in less than half a second.