Best way to keep 100+ feeder fish alive

[ParrotCichlid]

Unfortunately over in the UK we don't have feedsr tanks in aquatic stores.

Because of this i would have to buy my feeders in bulk say a 10 week supply of them at a time.

How would one go about keeping 100 feeder fish of around 3 to 5 inch size goldfish alive for extended periods?

What would be the minimum volume pf water for these?

Could a large water butt with tap be used? So then you could just change 50% of the water daily woth the tap on the side?

 

[Fish Tank Travis]

You should probably just look into an alternative food source. Goldfish give your fish Thiamine poisoning anyway.

 

[ParrotCichlid]

You should probably just look into an alternative food source. Goldfish give your fish Thiamine poisoning anyway.

No i don't intend to feed them goldfish. I said fish of 3-5 inch and goldfish sized.

I will probably go with swordtails or a native coldwater species like tench or roach.

I don't reqlly like feeding live food but i have a few fish which refuse to eat anything but live. A fairly young florida gar is one of them.

Its costing me a damn fortune to feed them with pet store fish. Its costing about £1.50 for each fish.

So i would like to purchase around 100 from a breeder and get them for about £0.50 each.

 

[duanes]

To keep feeder fish alive, is no different than just having another large aquarium.
A large enough enclosure with plenty of filtration (mechanical, and bio, I'd probably use a 100 gallon vat), aerated, with clean water, lots of water changes, culling out any sickly individuals, and feed high quality, vitamin enriched food (you know garbage in, garbage out).

 

[Backfromthedead]

In addition to powerful filtration, i would recommend a powerful air pump, plenty of aeration. I think a lot of the casualties you see in crowded feeder tanks are exascerbated by low oxygen levels.

 

[duanes]

If you use a sumps, they are great places to grow feeders, and don't require extra pumps, heaters, or aeration.
In my tropical tank sumps, swordtails grow out well (I keep all sumps fairly full as far aw water goes).

And in non-tropical tanks high altitude Mexican live bearers like Xenatoca eiseni.

If you use local caught species, a long quarantine would probably be needed before actual feeding.

 

[Supergeorge123]

Platies or guppies would probably be better than swordtails. Just get a plastic tub and fill it with air stones and sponge filters. Also you could probably catch the food for them but I'm not in the UK so I don't know what it's like there.

 

[Deadliestviper7]

Get a filtered kiddy pool and raise fathead minnows in it

 

[ParrotCichlid]

Thanks for all the responses guys.

I've seen a range of different water butts for sale the ones they use to collect rain water. Do you guys think i could get away with 100 2-3 inch fish in a 230l vat shaped water butt? Or is the volume simply not enough? Was thinking this would be ideal as i could just stir up the bottom once a day or every other day and drain 50% of the water out using the tap located near the base of the container?

Would use a large qir pump and some ki d of home made over tank sump for filtration.

 

[Fat Homer]

230L = approx 60G which is not much space for a 100+ fish imo...

Also, since your fish are young this would be the best time to train them to eat alternate food sources...

Honestly if i could even get my old fire eel onto pellets when i still had him and now my G.Polys onto dry food, im sure you could get your fish onto them too