Live Food Questions

[GouramiFanatic]

Does anyone keep live bearing fish in a community tank solely for the purpose of providing a live food source (the fry) for the other fish in the tank? I've been considering adding some Guppies to my tank which I know are live bearing fish. The fish would in the tank would probably enjoy a live food source. Am I wrong in this?

Along the same line, what about keeping snails for this same purpose. Either adding baby snails to a tank which I know my YoYo Loaches would LOVE. If I were to keep snails in a 10 gallon as kind of a 'breeding tank' I'm sure I would get tons of babies that I could add to the 75 gallon. Would the fish also eat the snail eggs if I scraped them off of the glass and dumped them in the tank?

 

[mgamer20o0]

i keep guppies with my angels for that very reason.

 

[GouramiFanatic]

I probably should've asked this before buying. I always research before I buy, but this time I cracked.

I just got 2 male and 4 female Guppies which I'll be moving to my 75 gallon tank once they pass the QT period. Is this a good number and in your experience, once they start breeding do any of the fry reach adulthood? I know some fish can be pretty clever and savvy about avoiding predators so I'm not sure what the chances of this happening would be.

 

[HN1]

It should be fine.

I also overfeed my shrimp tank to increase the populations of pond snails to move to our 120 with loaches. Can't beat free & natural food!

 

[thatmagicguy]

I used to breed convicts to feed the babies off to angelfish broodstock. Once when I was delving into breeding apistogrammas I used dwarf gourami fry, only because I had a few pairs that were super prolific. If you were really into it you could set up a 15 gallon long aquarium with a large pair of blue gouramis, geez, the amount of fry they produce would be a great supply of live food.

 

[GouramiFanatic]

Thanks for the input. I acclimated them using the drop method into my 10 gallon. One of the males has already died! So now, I'm left with 1 male and 4 females.

 

[thatmagicguy]

Don't worry, if they are far eastern imports, as most retail guppys are these days, then you will lose more of them. Bill

 

[MichaelsLilGray]

Id of just bought 1 male and 3-4 females personally.. that one little guy will make his rounds dont worry about that one xD

 

[gzeiger]

Keeping a supply of snails in my tanks is a constant struggle. Most fish that will eat snails will eat the eggs, so you will need a separate tank. The good news is that under the right conditions they do breed at a fairly good rate. Try to get a calcium rich substrate if you intend to raise a large number - aragonite, coral and oyster shell all work well. I've also seen a limestone sand offered at Petsmart, but it was quite expensive compared to oyster shell.

 

[HN1]

Keeping a supply of snails in my tanks is a constant struggle. Most fish that will eat snails will eat the eggs, so you will need a separate tank. The good news is that under the right conditions they do breed at a fairly good rate. Try to get a calcium rich substrate if you intend to raise a large number - aragonite, coral and oyster shell all work well. I've also seen a limestone sand offered at Petsmart, but it was quite expensive compared to oyster shell.

Or throw a 99 cent cuttle bone from the bird aisle in. Snails and shrimp do just fine with them and regular gravel.

 

[gzeiger]

That's true, that will work. My only complaint with cuttlebone is that they float and look stupid, but it's definitely a good calcium source.

 

[HN1]

That's true, that will work. My only complaint with cuttlebone is that they float and look stupid, but it's definitely a good calcium source.

Agreed, but if boiled or dealt with for a couple weeks they'll sink.

 

[gzeiger]

I never tried boiling. Sounds like one's going in my new shrimp tank when I set it up.

 

[mgamer20o0]

there is also calcium enriched foods out there from kensfish.com. depending on your water you may not even have to worry about adding anything like cuttlebone. plenty of snails in my tanks with out anything like that.

 

[gzeiger]

"Plenty of snails" has a very different meaning when you have an active predator that likes to eat them. If you want to get a good population growth you do need a calcium source.

I still can't see buying specially enriched food for snails though Cuttlebone should be fine.