Feeding minnows...

[BDawg364]

I found a local bait shop that sells 50 small minnows for $2.40. I have 2 peacock bass and 3 oscars that prefer live fish foods. Are the minnows ok to feed to the bass and oscars? I have had problems with diseased feeder goldfish in the past and am looking for a better solution. Please let me know asap.....
Thanks

 

[jenBLKAROWANA]

DON'T DO IT!!!
Minnows from the bait shops are even worse for your fish......Try using a live food alternitive, like frozen beef heart. If they seem unintrested in it, try getting a pair of feeding tongs, they sell a 10" stainless steel kind, and wiggle it around.....This may help with the movement....

Jen

 

[rallysman]

Unless you have to feed live dont. Oscars will pretty much eat anything. Getting them on something like beefheart shrimp and pellets will make them much more healthy and they will have better color.

 

[BDawg364]

Seriously? I thought that since you are catching fish you are suppossed to eat with them they would be healthy. Are they so bad where i can't do it....I'm serious the feeder goldfish here are horrible, they die in 2 days in a perfectly cycled feeder tank. I'm suprised when they live over 3 days.

 

[BDawg364]

The pbass won't eat ANYTHING that isn't live. Beefheart, pellets, anything. I thought minnows would be good because that is more like what they eat in the wild. I had to toss my oscar a few because he saw me feeding the bass and got upset and started attacking the divider.

 

[ewurm]

I have a LMB, is it ok to feed minnows Catch from the lake where I caught the bass? These would be his normal forage.

 

[BDawg364]

HELP! I really wanna be able to feed them to my monsters....

 

[id10t]

You may still have problems with disease, etc. Also, you want to vary the diet. Have you considered breeding your own guppies (or convicts) to feed with?

 

[Filthy Sanchez]

I came home from fishing once and had about 5 left over minnows, fed them to my fish, who ate them (my pacus tore them apart). The water got cloudy and within' a week everything died. No joke that was the last tank I had, and been thinking of starting over recently, that's why I joined this forum. If you must use live use goldfish, guppies, whatever just no minnows trust me. Find a good herp farmer and get tadpoles, use crickets, or mealworms all live food, just stay away from minnows.

 

[BDawg364]

I have tried to breed guppies, and they all die off, and I am in the process of berrding convicts. The only problem is that since the pbass are young they need to be fed twice a day, thats 4 feeders, and the oscar needs 1 live and the rest staple, so thats 5 I need a day, and with only one spawning of around 25 convicts, that only works for 5 days. The pbass don't want anything that isn't live, but I haven't tried worms yet. The bait shop I get them from is the best around, and one of my friends (who has held fw tanks for 6 years) used the same place and had way less problems than the feeders at petland, where he is now a manager. If minnows don't work, my only chioce is feeders from walmart or petland unless I want to drive over an hour both ways.