Breeding Feeders

[Japola44]

I wanted to start breeding feeder fish for my bichir and knife fish. I heard that goldfish and other feeder fish they sell you at the fish stores aren't too nutritional. So, from what i have read guppies seem pretty easy to breed. But I am just looking for a small nutritional fish.
My plan was to ethier give my dwarf puffers to a friend or get another 10 [acronym:69c7e05237="Gallon"]gal[/acronym:69c7e05237] tank for fry. When i move my all my current 20 [acronym:69c7e05237="Gallon"]gal[/acronym:69c7e05237] occupiants to the 55 [acronym:69c7e05237="Gallon"]gal[/acronym:69c7e05237] get between 6 - 10 fish to breed. Hopefully at a rate high enough to feed my bichir and knife fish at least 65% of the time.

Has anybody done this? If you have advice your help would be aperciated!

[SeanMurphy]

Unless you want to be constantly moving pregnant mommies to a birthing tank and back, I'd suggest setting up a feeder tank with gravel coarse enough for fry to live in, but fine enough to keep adult fish from finding them, along with an abundance of dense plants, real or plastic, some of which should float on the surface and create more fry hiding areas. That should make an environment in which fish will feel safe enough to breed in, and also give the newly born fry some place to hide, so the adult fish won't just eat them right away.

My platy tank recently had a baby drop, and I've only managed to find 2 of the fry to move into a temporary rescue tank. I'm not sure if the rest have been reabsorbed into the food chain, or if they're hiding in the couple inches of gravel. I guess I'll find out in a few weeks, if they survive long enough to no longer be tempting to the adults.

[Lonewolfblue]

A balanced diet is always best. Another possibility for feeder fish is to feed fish that has just been fed, that way they will get some of the nutritional value of the food they just ate. Feed the feeder fish, and net one out that you think ate alot and put in for the other fish to eat.

[Apocalypse_Gold]

Floating Hornwort is the ultimate baby saver. To provide a regular food source for your large fish, you will probably need a larger feeder/breeder tank.

[BillD]

If you want to breed feeders, forget the livebearers and get a pair of convicts. You will get way more babies, and they grow quite fast. Convicts also breed more often than guppies.

[Simpte]

Its really hard to breed enough feeders for your fish. Not very cost effective either unless you go large scale. Cheaper and much easier to just buy them as feeders are very cheap in an [acronym:5ae1b9d358="Local Fish Store"]lfs[/acronym:5ae1b9d358].

[Japola44]

Originally Posted by BillD

If you want to breed feeders, forget the livebearers and get a pair of convicts. You will get way more babies, and they grow quite fast. Convicts also breed more often than guppies.

I tried googling convict fish, and the first thing that came up were a type of cichlids. Is that what you were talking about?

[BillD]

Yes convict cichlids. Very easy to breed and very prolific. They start breeding at a very young age and small size.

[YuccaPatrol]

It took me a couple weeks to finally get a pair of convicts that would breed, but today my female laid about 200+ eggs on a rock. Hopefully many will survive to become fish food for my larger cichlids .

I tried breeding guppies, but although they were prolific, the fry took too long to grow up and most were eaten by their parents, making it more trouble than it was worth to try to grow guppy feeders. . . I know I could have had more success by separating the fry, but I am hoping that my convicts will work out a lot better by not eating their young before they get big enough to transfer to another holding tank