Live Feeders?

by **angus4481** » Fri Mar 14, 2008 8:38 pm

are ur lfs really that bad out in new york? i live in a small city, we have 4 lfs store around, 2 out of the 4 are awsome caregivers. the main one i go to, petland, the guy running the fish department takes alot of pride in the tanks at the store. if he sees any fish in the tanks that are sick or dieing, he quarentines them in the back. the other one is a family owned shop, they dont have alot of salt tanks but they are crystal clear and emaculate. they have the best prices on alot of scavengers. i pay $1.00 ea for blue legged crabs, thats a steal.

the other stores are just horrible. Petco, the water is piss yellow!even in the fresh tanks. the other one is preferred pets, they just plain suck. the guy who runs the fish department is an ass. i went in one day and found a cleaner shrimp i wanted. for 16 dollars he wouldnt sell it to me, because he said i mix things in my tank that shouldn't be mixed. this guy keeps a tally on the things i bought and made an ass out of himself doin it. everything he said bout mixing the fish is BS, i bought every thing he told me not to at petland, and everything is still alive

its just so hard to hear bout a gigantic city having problem in the fish stores. the guy that started the online ordering sites must have been a new yorker. sorry to hear bout ur troubles with shopping guys

by **Serial324556** » Fri Mar 14, 2008 9:09 pm

Well there are 2 near me. The one is kindv'e bad, same as snowboss we will buy supplies from them but their fish are questionable. I bought a freshwater lobster(crayfish) from them for $10 and he lived for lik 2 - 3 months. He had some disease that made him lethargic all the time. All the sw fish snowboss bought from there died short after.

The other one near me just opened after the old owners retired. The new people are young and when I first went in there they didn't seem to know much about anything. They had a few saltwater tanks and like 10 freshwater tanks, each without about 2 fish in them. The woman didn't know at first what i was talking about when I asked her if she carried substrate.
Then again they just opened, I will go again and see how they are. Pretty pricey supplies too.

If those silversides are pretty big I don't know if my stonefish will eat them. His mouth probably opens up to like 1/2 - 1 inch but he doesn't try to eat my cichlids. He only ate the babies which were really small.

by **angus4481** » Fri Mar 14, 2008 9:22 pm

try crappie minnows from a bait shop. just look at the water and ask what their water parameters are, most bait shops will tell you. and look at the minnows they scoop up, if you see flaws in the minnows, dont buy

by **Peterkarig3210** » Fri Mar 14, 2008 9:49 pm

I buy feeder goldfish for my Florida spotted gars and hydro gars but these fish will also eat freeze dried krill. They seem to be attracted to the orange color. I worry a little about introducing parasites with the feeder fish and I'll probably end up weening them to only krill at some point. I've bread mosquito fish for feeders and it takes months before they're big enough to use as feeders. It took a couple months to raise a few hundred feeder M fish (guppies basically) and a few days to run out. If you want to breed your own for food you'll need a bunch of large tanks with feeders of graduating sizes and IMO it's not worth the trouble. I know it's fun to see your fish hunt down live feeder fish, but almost any fish can be weened to other kinds of food. Hikari carnivore sticks are good, but as this food expands after getting wet my fish tend to over stuff themselves leading to excess waste in the tank. I like freeze dried krill because it takes a while for it to soften, has a lot of empty space inside each piece, and the fish can't gluttonize themselves as much as with the sticks.

by **Serial324556** » Fri Mar 14, 2008 11:00 pm

I guess within the next few days I will try and see what my lfs has for frozen foods. He has been a couple weeks now without eating. I'm gettin a little worried about him. He is very active at night but for him not to eat in a while makes me nervous about him starving to death.

by **gumbii** » Fri Mar 14, 2008 11:40 pm

hmm... if it's that bad you could get fresh stuff from a grocery store... like raw shrimp...

by **Serial324556** » Sat Mar 15, 2008 11:30 pm

Well I got some silversides for free from the new lfs near me. The owner had a huge pack for $16 but I told ehr i didn't want to spend that if he didn't eat any. So she gave me like 20 - 30 for free to try them. I also bought 2 feeders incase he didn't eat them.

But fortunately I hand fed him today he loved the silversides. I gave him 2 but he spit the second one up.
I guess i'll just give him 1 or so every 2 days?

by **gumbii** » Sun Mar 16, 2008 3:29 am

you can cut them in half if he doesn't eat the entire thing... i used to cut the tails off for the angler, and give the rest to the anemones...

good to see that he took the bate though... hand feeding your fish is awesome and very rewarding...

by **Serial324556** » Sun Mar 16, 2008 7:01 am

Should I feed him one everyday or one every other day? I'm not really sure what's under feeding or over feeding considering i've never fed fish like him before. I've only fed pellets and flakes to fish which have been my cichlids.

by **serial32** » Thu Mar 20, 2008 12:39 am

So any input on how much i should feed him a day? I gave him 1 live feeder a day for 2 days and now I've been hand feeding him 1 frozen small Silverside everyday. However I gave him 2 today. 1 in the morning and 1 just now at night before the lights go out. Am I overfeeding him?
Thanks for the help.

Live Feeders?

26 posts • Page 2 of 3

Live Feeders?

26 posts • Page 2 of 3