Is it wrong to raise livebearers as feeders?

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theotheragentm

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I'm not talking about letting nature take its course in a tank. I'm talking about actually feeding them to other fish. It seems like a pretty good supply self-sustaining food.
 
Some people might, some people might not. Is it wrong to raise cows, pigs, chickens, or grow tomatoes, corn, potatoes, and then eat them?

I'm thinking of using juvie convicts and African Cichlids as an ocassionaly feeder for my Peacockbass when they get larger.

My personal opinion is no.
 
Idealconcepts said:
Some people might, some people might not. Is it wrong to raise cows, pigs, chickens

the way we raise them is wrong, ever seen a slaughterhouse? or the warehouses the animals are kept before slaughter?

it's not something that will be stopped, but I think if you do, treat the feeders humanely, feed them proper amounts, don't let them overbreed so you have 200 in a 10 gallon, and keep their enviroment healthy
 
I think its pretty awful...but then I really nurture and love my mollies and platys. But those wild guppies are bred as feeders all the time.
 
I don't see a problem either, especially when I think how other commercial feeds are made.
Actually I may even think it's better compared to buying live feeder fish or even any kind of feed from store (assuming that you are treating them humanely). Locally grown feed - it's greener as well!
 
I think its fine. Why is it ok for goldfish, shrimp, silversides, etc to be bred as feeders but not anything else? JMO.
 
I guess its no different, but as an owner of platys and mollies, who loves watching them give birth (I just had my second batch of fry, and they are precious to me) it makes me shudder. But animals eat other animals. It's the way of the world. But its pretty hard for me to accept them being bred just for food...maybe I'm just a sap that way.
 
i have a guppy breeding tank that my daughter loves. We just mix fancy and feeder guppies and let nature take its course, when the fry are good sized they go in my 30 gallon where that might possibly become a snack for my newts or other fish.

I can accept this as part of the life cycle of my tanks. the feeder guppies bring me more joy than a lot of other more expensive fish, but you really just need to keep it all in perspective.
 
I have platies in my tank - and let nature take its course , I have never seen fry but females always seem fat.
 
It's a tough one. If you're feeding livebearers as feeder fish as a 'fill in' for the real diet of a predatory pet then I'm not sure that's right.
For example, while snails are great for my puffers I don't solely feed them that; I include other molluscs like mussles and cockles as well which is closer to what they'd naturally eat (as a molluscivore).

But then it may be impossible to feed a 100% natural diet if the prey is something pretty unusual or hard to get!

I'm not a huge fan of guppies, and not really of mollies (although I personally think they're one of the most underrated aquarium fish), but I can't imagine offering cute little young platies up on a plate to a predator...!

As I say though, it really depends on the natural diet of your fish. If it really is a piscivore have a look at what it would be eating in the wild.
 
The beautiful balance of nature is just everything running around eating each other.

I have no problem at all with feeding them to my fish. I don't think you can get a better food. It is what they eat in the wild.
 
But Plecosterone, its different from nature. Nature does not have any one confined population being manipulated to breed, solely for the purpose of eventualy feeding ALL of them to a bigger thing.
Now, correct me if I'm wrong here...

Even that being a point, I don't think it's wrong. Well yea, it's unnatural, and wrong, but it will be happening anyways, and I'm never really one for morals... :roll:
 
dogs and cats eat meat.


people feed live crickets, worms, etc to lizards.


People buy live rats/mice to feed to their snakes.


Pretty tough to start drawing a line in the sand while letting the other things continue.
 
Shelby_Tempo_GT said:
dogs and cats eat meat.

Yeh, but you don't feed cat meat to your dog, or dog meat to your cat, or even cat meat to your cat etc.....at least I hope!

people feed live crickets, worms, etc to lizards.

Not many people keep pet crickets or worms...

People buy live rats/mice to feed to their snakes.

Actually from memory my family used to keep pet snakes, of a different kind to friends who used to keep them too, and we all fed them frozen dead mice left to thaw out...
Maybe larger snakes need live food though, I don't know, but they would naturally be eating that. It really depends what the natural diet is and whether or not you are mass producing food that a predator wouldn't normally be eating as a 'quick fix' to feeding.
 
Shelby_Tempo_GT said:
dogs and cats eat meat.
people feed live crickets, worms, etc to lizards.
People buy live rats/mice to feed to their snakes.
Pretty tough to start drawing a line in the sand while letting the other things continue.

sure they eat meat, but like jbarr said, being bred to be eatten is not natural. and i sure wouldnt consider putting some small goldies in with an oscar "letting nature take it's course"
 
Not many people keep pet crickets or worms...

There are many kinds of animals people don't keep as pets. This is a poor argument.

Personally, for whatever reason, I feel ok about feeding live fish to other fish as food. I feel ok about feeding live mealworms and crickets and brine shrimp and what have you. I _don't_ feel ok about feeding live rodents to snakes, or anything bigger than that. I think, for me, it comes down to how close are these animals to being human? A rat can look at you with big eyes and clean itself and be cute and sociable and friendly. A cricket, not so much. I think it's quite personal, and is a difficult thing to argue successfully. I know people who would quite happily throw a live rabbit to a dog to kill and eat, and I would never do this.
 
There are many kinds of animals people don't keep as pets. This is a poor argument.

The point was that we're on a forum where people keep fish as pets, inc. livebearers. It's harder to reconcile feeding a perceived pet to another pet. Crickets are not kept as pets, neither are worms (generally). That was the crux of the argument; I'm sorry it wasn't clear enough for you to understand.
 
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