Feeling Kind of Guilty

[GouramiFanatic]

I bought 10 Ghost Shrimp today for my Ropefish (although I'm sure some of the other fish will enjoy them as well) and I feel guilty for doing it. I know it's nature and I shouldn't, but I do. This is the first time I bought any living thing to be used as food. I bought the Shrimp knowing that they would be eaten soon after entering their new 'home'. Does anyone else feel guilty about doing this?

 

[JDogg]

Does anyone else feel guilty about doing this?

sorry, but nope

 

[blazeyreef]

I do, but I dont do it often, only as a treat!

 

[tropicfishman]

not really, now if I had a huge snake and was feeding it something odd like cats or dogs, then yeah I would, I don't feel guilty for the shrimp since they can't look at you and scream lol

 

[Fishyfanatic]

Yes, I do. I feel guilty that there are 2 MTS sitting in a container full of bleach/water.

 

[plecoperson]

Well, it's not nature, really. Neither the eater nor the eaten needs to be in someone's aquarium, and in nature the prey isn't usually served up to the predator.

I think most people who are OK with killing things, and/or feeding live food, were probably squeamish about it at first. It's amazing how fast we get desensitized to it. There is no distinct line between "pet" and "chow"; rats are intelligent animals that make excellent pets, for instance. People are wild to keep cherry shrimp in their tanks, but really they're just ghost shrimp of a different color.

If you take the time to study any living thing, really, they're all pretty fantastic. Fruit flies, ghost shrimp, brine shrimp, snails--even microworms are kinda cool. I guess we get to be selfish and enjoy our hobby 'cause we're at the top of the food chain! I certainly include myself in the "selfish" category.

 

[guppy12]

I always feel guilty!
- thats the wonderful thing about freeze dried food!

 

[locorosa]

I feel guilty when I did in the past. I had snakes for years and fed live prey...nothing larger than rats though. Course I am a girl and that is normal for us...

 

[hashbaz]

It all depends on how you look at it:

One one hand, it is cruel to buy an animal knowing it will soon come to a painful death as it is eaten by your fish.

One the other hand, when you consider that flake food is made of fish that were harvested from the delicate ecosystems of our precious oceans, feeding a few tank-raised ghost shrimp doesn't seem so bad. All of our fish foods (live, frozen, freeze dried, or ground into paste and dried into flakes) were living creatures that were slaughtered so that you could feed them to your pets. The only difference is that live food is fresher.

After all that, I would hesitate to feed live food because of the risk of getting diseases from the pet store.

 

[hsherman1986]

I used to. The first time I dropped a still born guppy fry into my tank, I felt bad about it. Now, I breed guppies just for that purpose. I am also growing out some brine shrimp (first attempt) to feed.

I will not feed live from the pet store. I breed my own feeders.

 

[severum mama]

After all that, I would hesitate to feed live food because of the risk of getting diseases from the pet store.

I see where you are coming from, but as far as I know, ghost shrimp won't bring diseases into your tank. I would never offer feeder fish from the LFS though, I totally agree with you there!

GouramiFanatic- don't feel bad. In your case, I think it is necessary to get your ropefish accustomed to eating in your tank. Obviously, the easiest way to initiate a feeding response is to start with live food, then maybe you can get him to eat frozen bloodworms, mysis, etc. Plus, look at it this way- I've read so many posts on AA from people who can't even keep ghost shrimp alive when they try keeping them as pets!

 

[DepotFish]

I don't like feeding goldfish, but the feeder guppies are nasty little things and I'm more than happy to toss them to the pumpkinseed. I guess it doesn't help that the guppies aren't kept well at the store, each day I have to pick half a dozen off the top of my feeder tank cause they drop like flies, it smells so bad when you have that many die too.

 

[coldmachineUK]

If the normal, natural, diet of a fish includes these things then I wouldn't feel bad about it. But, if it doesnt - and these things are substitutes for other foods - then I would because it wouldn't be appropriate.
Take, for example, puffer fish. The F8 & Co. feed on molluscs in the wild. But this generally means things like mussels and cockles, and clams, not amano or ghost or cherry shrimp. So, to me, people who feed the shrimp to their puffers are doing so incorrectly, and it's inappropriate.

Does that make sense?!

 

[majolo]

I see where you are coming from, but as far as I know, ghost shrimp won't bring diseases into your tank.

I think there was a thread here recently about some internal parasites that ghost shrimp can carry. I can't find it now, but a search on other websites shows some reports of it as well. Don't know if the shrimp parasite is dangerous to fish, but you never know.