Feeding fish to fish

The friendliest place on the web for anyone with an interest in aquariums or fish keeping!
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.

Terry

Aquarium Advice FINatic
Joined
Aug 4, 2003
Messages
688
Location
Harlow, Essex. UK
I have been sitting here today trying to think of a subject that people could give various answers, How do you feel about feeding live fish to your fish.
I myself don,t like the idea, if i have ever had a preditory fish i have always feed him Frozen Lance fish, cockles, muscles etc. There are some shops in the UK that will sell you feeder fish, Goldfish etc..etc... I would be fasinated to find out the views of differant people from around the world. i will appolagize if this subject has been decused in the passed, but i am a new member.
 
GOOD topic Terry! I love it!

I'm a vegetarian, and environmentalist, and a coward (and I'm from the UK originally), but when I had carnivorous fish, I fed them feeder fish.

Though at first this was tough for me, I feel that nature is both wonderful and cruel. Sometimes, you just have to accept, in the words of Radiohead, that "the big fish eat the little ones."

As an environmentalist, this idea almost mitigates the pain I feel for the feeder fish. Ultimately, I give greater creedence to the concept of the cycle of life than I do to my vegetarianism. In other words, I'm a vegetarian because I feel that the treatment of animals in the meat industry is appalling, and because I think we are rapidly overfishing the seas, and expoiting other organic natural resources. (Which is why I support tank-bred fish.)

Gotta get back to work, but I'll contribute more later if I have a chance... Can't wait to see other people's replies!

Thanks.
 
Everything in my pond is a feeder with the exception of some larger comets. I had 2 dozen rosies in there for a while, but my cats trimmed them down to about 8. I feel better about it because there are plenty of places for the fish to hide in the pond, unlinke a stark tank where theyre are makred for death by a large fish. Some of the older ones are actually getting pretty big.
 
Hehe... same here. I have some left over rosy reds from when I used to have a Polypterus senegalus meridionalis (bichir). They're larger than most of my fish now... How big are yours, RogerMcAllen? Mine are about 2.5 inches long now. Do they get much bigger??

Also, one of the Rosy Reds managed to survive the bichir, so I decided he could be like those gladiators that survive and obtain their freedom from the emperor-- he is now living it up with the rest of my fish.
 
I myself don,t like the idea, if i have ever had a preditory fish i have always feed him Frozen Lance fish, cockles, muscles etc.

So instead of live fish, you fed them dead fish, killed for the purpose of feeding your predators. I see very little difference here.

However I'm not really here to start an arguement. myself, I don't keep any predatory fish, mainly due to size( most preds get big).

Things I do:

I eat fish, I go fishing, and keep some fish for the table. I hatch and feed brine shrimp to my fish. I cull excess fish from my pond some years to keep them from overpopulating. (I would give them away, but never have any takers).

To sum up, it's a personal thing, to each their own!
 
i have no problem at all with it, fish eat fish , even that little neon that looks so cute and small would love too suck a baby molly in, and i know some people dont like it, but some do i know people that buy me feeder fish, feeder frogs just too watch them get eaten.
 
Hi Corvuscorax
Thankyou, i am greatful for your answer. I am not saying that it is wrong to feed a live fish to other fish. i just wanted to know what other people thought on the subject. I can see your point when i said that i feed frozen fish to my preditors.
I myself don,t like the idea, if i have ever had a preditory fish i have always feed him Frozen Lance fish, cockles, muscles etc.
I not here to start an argument either, i am just asking a question and seeing what answers i get.
 
I don't see any problem with feeding a predator live prey (it's what they'd eat out in the mysterious beyond) but I WOULD be worried about possibly the feeder fish giving my fish a disease...For that reason, freeze dried all the way, baby!!!
 
but I WOULD be worried about possibly the feeder fish giving my fish a disease..

Yup, many Oscar owners have found this out the hard way, especially with hole-in-the-head disease. Uncurable, and almost always introduced through feeder fish. :(
 
Everything has to eat.

Why deprive a living thing from what it needs for nutrition?

Cows will eat beef if given to them, Im sure any animal would do the same.

It also has to do with survival of the fittest.
 
Yup, Raven, I agree with you. I may have introduced ich to my tank through feeder fish. And a LOT of people complain about FF giving their other fish diseases. Best bet is to either QT the new feeder fish for a while, or to just breed them yourself, if you have room and time... Works great with guppies!
 
Couldn't be any worse than when I was at Petsmart last week and the guy was buying fish (live) for his cat... He then proceeded to ask about live birds for his cat as well to "play with"...
 
I was wrestling with this idea myself because I too am new to this hobby. However, after losing 5 Harlequin Rasboras to 2 Boesmani Rainbows, I decided I can't do the feed live fish thing. I moved the Rainbows to their very own home and I believe my other fish threw a party! :D
 
Energizerpro--

That's pretty sad, sick... I'm a big amateur ornithologist, too, so the idea of using a bird in that way is kind of repulsive to me. But again, I'm drawing a line somewhere in the grand scheme of creatures, saying what do and what do not deserve to live/be protected...

Then again, cats don't generally *eat* birds when they're fed cat food, and just enjoy playing with/killing them. So, I do think that buying a bird for that reason is kind of barbaric. Might as well just get the cat a scratching pole with a ball attached to a spring at the top. Almost as much fun for it, really.

Sigh...
 
OK. I must first say that I'm glad someone started this thread. I have been struggling with this issue for a while now. I started a community tank and a cichlid tank. I was going to have livebearers so that I would have fry to feed the cichlids. I almost immediately decided not to. Here's why:

At first I had the old "fish eat fish naturally" line of thinking. But then I realized that keeping fish in a fish tank is not natural at all. If 'survival of the fittest' were the rule in my house, the big fish would eat the little fish. Then my cats would eat the big fish. Then I would eat the cats. Then my GF would eat me. :twisted: This would be the natural run of things.

But I intervene. I don't let my cats eat the fish and I don't eat the cats. So why should I let the big fish eat the little ones?

I have much more to say on the subject, but I'll let you digest that one (forgive the pun) before I say more.
 
Yea tell me about it... It was pretty stomach turning when you buy a bird just for that... I mean shoot, if a cat does it outdoors that is one thing... but in a locked room?

Yea I would just be worried about disease with feeding fish to fish
 
i thik the issue of feeding live fish too other fish will always have people on both sides but feeding a bird too a cat is not right.
 
Back
Top Bottom