Why are feeder fish frowned upon? Is it becuase they could have parisites and hurt the fish? If they are quarentined and well are they still frowned upon? Or is it just the idea of fish eating other fish? and if thats the case why is it frowned upon since it happens in the wild?
Why are feeders such as common guppies bad?
- Thread starter JackSparrow
- Start date
This is the main reason for most knowledgeable hobbyists. Also most prefer not to feed live feeder fish.
With the fish foods manufactured today such as pellets that contain the vitamins and nutrients fish need it makes it foolproof .
No need to worry about quarantine and harmful pathogens.
I personally don't have any issues with those who choose to feed live that's their choice.
It doesn't happen in the wild and there's a significant distinction between the two. I live in a remote area and my property line borders a 500,000 acre park that's a bear factory. A neighbor kept a rabbit in a cage on his back deck a few years back and a bear walked up on the back deck one sunny afternoon, ripped the cage open and ate little fluffy in front of the kids as they looked through the window in horror. One of his boys later explained to me that his dad had said "well that's the way nature works".
No, it's not.
I've fed thousands upon thousands of fish to other fish purposefully but never did I have the impression that what I was doing was nature or that it's what happens in the wild. In the tiny facsimile of nature that our tanks attempt to replicate there is no alternative and therein lies the primary distinction.
Now, your title refers specifically to guppies and I've fed a zillion guppy babies to other fish. Up until one day it cost me a particularly nice Jardini. Guppies are often wormy little devils and a greater risk than I've been willing to take in recent years.
Also another question i have about feeders is do they cause more aggresion in the fish you feed them to? I don't want any aggresion in my cichlid tank
Feeders think so.
I've never noticed it beyond the norm and that norm would be that if a carnivorous fish learns how to hunt feeder sized prey it's going to exercise that skill whenever there are fish around that are small enough to victimize however, I've never noticed it making them more prone to mix it up w/ other big fish just for the joy of a good scrap.
There is something to watch for if this is your first bout w/ feeders and it is that they're going to be the preferred meal. For example, I have three Peacock Bass in a grow out tank right now. Peacocks are pretty delicate when they're young so getting fry on pellets is sometimes not worth it as you can't 'starve' a baby like you can a more mature fish to convert them to whatever food you toss in the tank. Most of us get around that by putting a ton of feeders in the tank when they're young and then start thinking about converting them to pellets when they're closer to three or four inches.
They're really stubborn and you can go for a month wondering if they're eating anything you're tossing in the tank. Growth will seem to slow, WC's will go way up, etc.
Feeders introduce a dynamic that's got a couple of unexpected aspects to it but for the most part they solve more issues than they create as long as you take a belt and suspenders approach and realize that a pathogen or parasite is going to get through eventually.