# feeder fish



## dsouthworth (Nov 21, 2011)

A snack for:
Jack Dempsey and a few Silver Dollars. 

Who has bred their own feeder fish for these? I was thinking guppies due to the ease of breeding, but what have you all used?

ps. absolutely NO breeding experience here.


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## Momobobo (Sep 28, 2010)

Convict cichlids breed better then rabbits and produce more fry then guppies...that being said I think Guppy fry are more easiar for the fish to eat.


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## JohnnyAppleSnail (May 30, 2010)

I've personally never heard of someone feeding Silver Dollars Feeders!?? Even though they are in the same family as Piranhas they are mainly Vegetarians,they will eat Brine Shrimp & Bloodworms on occasion even though One of Mine wont touch anything but Flakes,Wafers,Romaine,etc. I've owned Silver Dollars for 20+ years. Now a Jack Dempsey is another story.


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## dsouthworth (Nov 21, 2011)

Sorry. I didn't do my recherche before posting. 
But the post still stays. but for Firemouths & JD.


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## Pamela (Apr 21, 2010)

Seems like a lot of work for fish that don't need to be fed live food. If you want to give them some variety in their diet you could feed them frozen bloodworms or Mysis Shrimp in addition to their regular food. You could also feed some live crickets (or something similar) every once in awhile as a treat.


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## mitchb (Apr 27, 2011)

Thank you forum spammer with links in your signatures to help search engine rankings


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## scott tang (Jan 29, 2012)

jd eat everything !!! and a lot to just like triggers


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## Ebonbolt (Aug 12, 2011)

Feeders are one of the worst foods you could feed to a fish; IME, they're never medicated, never culled, never quaranteened, and rarely, if ever, fed. They do contain some protein, but a high quality flake/pellet would be just as good, if not better; if you really want to give the cichlids a treat, feed a clean, deshelled chunk of shrimp/prawn, some bloodworms, or even nightcrawlers; those types of foods won't give your fish a nice parasite.


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## mitchb (Apr 27, 2011)

If you were ever to buy feeders, say goldfish, does anyone think a methylene blue bath or holding way could clean them out, or get them a bit cleaner?


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## Ebonbolt (Aug 12, 2011)

Why buy them at all? It would be much safer, easier, and probably cheaper to just buy a bag of frozen prawns from the Supermarket. That way, after you feed the fish, you can give yourself a nice snack too.


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## Momobobo (Sep 28, 2010)

If your fish can take dried or frozen food, there is no reason why you should feed live feeders.


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## dsouthworth (Nov 21, 2011)

I wouldn't ever use feeder fish if I do not breed them myself. 
I don't trust fish stores. That's why i posted this thread. A lot of it is also watching the little guppies swim through my large rockwork. The JD will need to work hard to eat these little guys.


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## dino (Aug 29, 2011)

im my opinion its much easier to buy feeders. You would need to find a breeding pair and if they have fry you would need to do alot of water changes as well as power feed the fry. After putting in all this work i dont think you will want to feed your babies to your other fish.


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## 240sx (Sep 4, 2010)

I've housed all those fish and the only fish I can't get off live food is my Dat. Most cichlids do not need live food, especially oscars. On the other hand, I've seen my Red Devil enjoy a cray fish or two. 

Prawn is a great treat for any cichlid, I power fed my Green Severums prawns every other day with hikari pellets and they grew huge. Now prawn is just a treat, if these fish get any larger I'll need a new tank!


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## Ebonbolt (Aug 12, 2011)

I managed to get an Tiger dat to go onto regular floating cichlid sticks by shoving one through a piece of shrimp, and feeding that to him; after a while, I would just soak the sticks in water I used to thaw the shrimp, and eventually I could simply give him the pellets, and he would devour them as he would live/frozen foods 

As for cichlids and live food, it's a lot like humans and chocolate. Do we need it? No. Would we enjoy the occasional treat? Definitely. For most cichlids, a good staple food (Hikari, NLS, etc) is more than enough, though the occasional treat is almost never rejected, and always appreciated.


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## Danw (Feb 26, 2011)

ive been breeding convicts, guppies and a few others and i would say for your needs guppies is probably the way to go. Convcts are more prolific, but if they get established in your main tank and your JD wont take them out you may be soon overrun with convicts. you'll never have such problem with guppies. i have tanks of both. also i feed my feeders NLS so that when they get eaten theyre still nutrious. When i was researching my Peacock bass literature told my he was supposed to eat his own weight in fish daily! now i never did this, and he is trained on pellets now, but for certain fish species i beleive require live food for theyre well being be it mentally or physically...but i never did feed any of my fish those disgusting, dead or dying feeders you see at so many big box stores. Insects are a great way to feed large fish. got a few minutes? go dig up some earth worms. Your JD will love you! i feed my fish almost any insect. even seen my jack dempseys take out decent sized brown recluse spiders! (which of course i put in the tank for them)


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## Elle (Oct 25, 2010)

> If you were ever to buy feeders, say goldfish, does anyone think a methylene blue bath or holding way could clean them out, or get them a bit cleaner?


Why risk it? I'd go with breeding your own guppies or convicts if you really want feeders, or you can easily make your own gel food with a good protein base like sardines or frozen prawns. I feed my JD and oscars live crickets for a treat. Not sure about firemouths, but oscars are insectivores in the wild. Earthworms (like fish bait or garden worms), insects, live crickets and mealworms are all good supplements to a quality cichlid food like Hikari or NLS.You can also give frozen prawns as a treat. I wouldn't feed feeder goldfish ever...you're asking for diseases.

SDs are vegetarian, mostly, so fresh veggies like leaf lettuce are always well received.


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## dsouthworth (Nov 21, 2011)

I'm happy with all the contradicting thoughts here. I will end up going with using guppies as feeders. And theres been alot of simple, but useful information given here. been great.

I shall post a video if the feeding. Let the games begin!


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## Elle (Oct 25, 2010)

Well, if you need starter guppies, I may have some extras...


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