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LIVE feeding, Fun to watch

5K views 24 replies 8 participants last post by  StampedFish 
#1 ·
I recently bought a dozen feeder guppys for my semi aggressive tank, the 3 angels I own were the first to attack the guppys then the irredscent sharks and then my dianos. My large silver skirted tetras joined in also. what I am getting at is that, is this a good way of feeding them (besides flakes,bloodwors,shrimp) One angel ate a guppy that seemed very diffcult for him. Is that normal, sorry for the noob questoin I am new to live feeding.
 
#3 ·
I have had them for about 2 years now and they all seem to be staying at about the same size. I believe it is a very well balanced tank. What do you guys think about brine shrimp then?
 
#4 ·
If they are in a tank that is to small for them there bodys will not grow but there insides will keep growing which leads to a short life and what I would think would be a painful death. As for the live feeding if you are going to keep doing it its recommended that you set up a tank and breed them yourself to insure they are healthy feeders.
 
#5 ·
Amanda is quite correct on both counts. With respect to the fish/tank issue, you should check the species profiles of these fish; second tab from the left in the blue bar at the top takes you to the profiles. As one example, Bala sharks need a group and preferably an 8-foot tank to be healthy long-term. The other fish have similar issues as will be3 explained in the profiles information.
 
#6 ·
When I purchased the tank used I had the option of the owner flushing the bala sharks or taking them. I chose to take them so they could live. I live close to a Petsmart and they have been helping me along with way, as well as a local tropical fish specialty store. They all agree that my current set up is ok, maybe not ideal, but it works and my fish are healthy. I moved into a small town and we only have well water. My water is bottled and placed into the tanks from the grocery store. Therefore, managing or upgrading my fish tank would be detrimental to the fish I already own. Just trying my best here, let's focus on the live feed opinions please! =)
 
#7 · (Edited)
Tell you what, Just keep buying the feeder fish and it won't be long before you introduce parasite and or bacterial pathogens unknown to your tank. Fish will die from introduced disease (your fault), and then you will be able to start over with new fish to infect.
As already mentioned,, store bought feeders are often sick, diseased ,due to crowded tanks , poor care, poor diets,toxic water parameter's due to waste from crowded tanks, etc.
Takes but one sick feeder in a tank full of feeder's ,and then the whole tank of fish can be affected. (ever seen feeder tanks with dead fish ?)
You then buy the sick feeder's and feed them to your fish and in turn your fish become sick as well.
Plenty of prepared foods offered today from frozen, to pellets ,to flake that are much more nutritional and safer than feeder's which are poor from nutritional standpoint unless you are raising them yourself and feeding them with highest quality foods.
Run your question by member's on nearly any other forum and gauge the response you receive.
Any truly knowledegeable hobbyist, fish store,breeder,etc will offer similar advice.
 
#8 ·
Why do you guys and girls even bother? The guy sais that petsmart sais that all is ok, tank is big enough, feeder fish are good, and he is one smart and all knowing fish keeper.
Buddy you are not trying to do your best, you are just another spoiled kid with no respect for living things.
That said i pity any living thing that depends on your care.
 
#17 ·
I feel really bad that you need to attack people instead of being intelligent and explaining yourself with knowledge. If you are so incredibly smart, try using grammar and actual sentences. I cannot even comprehend what you wrote through your spelling errors. I have been working and on my own since I was 16 years old. I am now married with a wife and my own home. You do not know me or my lifestyle. This is why I do not go into these forums; this is also why other people do not come here to ask questions. If you think foolish criticism is going to help someone better themselves, you are wrong. I love how people can be so anonymous online because you would never say that to someone’s face, because they would most likely physically harm you. People kill themselves over pathetic comments people like you make. Think about what you say before you ramble off from your small mind. I said that not only was Petsmart helping me but ALSO a tropical fish specialty store. They know what they are talking about as this specialty store has been in business over thirty years. If my fish get too big for their tank, we will move them. People continue to amaze me every day, thank you for reminding me why I went to college. :roll:
 
#9 ·
I think we all need to back off here. Clearly, the set up as well as the feeders are less than ideal. But hounding anyone isn't going to make them think well of your advice.

If you enjoy live feeding I can see why, but I'd agree that grabbing a 10g tank for cheap on craigslist and letting the guppies do what they do under your care would be a better bet. Petsmart and the like usually don't know a lot about what they're selling and are only out to make a buck.

As for the tank size in relation to the balas etc. if you can't upgrade (which is something I understand and sympathize with) then I'd try and find a home for the fish that will allow them to live out their lives happily. See if you can work out a trade with someone who has a large tank for other fish you're interested in that would be more at home in a 46g.

That's my two cents.
 
#10 ·
I agree with burnsbabe the guy/gal is looking for help/ideas. Could you maybe talk to the local fish store not pet smart as like was pointed out above they most of the time they give wrong info and see if they will trade you the Balas for something else you like? I actually have heard the employees tell people you can keep a male and female betta together all the time which is totally not true.
Another thing I was wondering is why do you use bottled water? I have almost always (15+years) had well water and my fish and plants have done very well in it. Most the time if its safe for you to drink its safe for the fish as well. Plus well water will not have the chlorine and stuff that city water will makeing it actually safer for the fish.
 
#19 ·
I agree with burnsbabe the guy/gal is looking for help/ideas. Could you maybe talk to the local fish store not pet smart as like was pointed out above they most of the time they give wrong info and see if they will trade you the Balas for something else you like? I actually have heard the employees tell people you can keep a male and female betta together all the time which is totally not true.
Another thing I was wondering is why do you use bottled water? I have almost always (15+years) had well water and my fish and plants have done very well in it. Most the time if its safe for you to drink its safe for the fish as well. Plus well water will not have the chlorine and stuff that city water will makeing it actually safer for the fish.
We have to use bottled water because our water is extremely bad. We have a softener and an extensive filtration system but our water is just horrible. We used the well water before in one of our tanks, made sure to treat it, and it was still yellow. We cannot even drink our water at home, it is that bad. We've also tried Brita and all the other extra tap filtration systems and the water remains a horrible yellow color. Oddly enough, there is city water right across the street from our house but due to county restrictions we cannot tap into it.

I also agree that sometimes the people at Petsmart are not the brightest. We have one guy that we talk to there that actually knows what he's talking about. I once had an associate tell me that two fish (one tropical community and one semi-aggressive) did not go well together-yet they were in the same tank at Petsmart...
 
#11 ·
The guy is not looking for help or ideas, he simply wanted to share his great live feeding xp.
He has been told that what he is doing might hurt his fish, he has been told that his fish are to big for his tank and he got nuff advice to be able to do something about it.
As a thank you he replied that he has a ballanced tank and he will change nothing because petsmart and another dumb lfs said so.
Now if from the way he replied you still understand that he actually cares for advice and wants help then please shoot me causse my mind is going away.
 
#12 ·
Ok red I went back and read the reply again and it does kind of come off that way but I like to hope he/she did not mean it that way and will listen and rehome the fish instead of makeing them suffer at his hand in a tank thats to small.
 
#13 ·
Redknee is right that the last reply came off very snippy. I just don't think that virtually yelling at someone is going to get them to take your advice. In my case it's not about retaliation or being right. It's about making sure the fish get what's best for them.
 
#14 ·
That was not yelling, that was me being myself, direct and to the point as i usually am. Just because when i post here my tone is a bit more ... down or soft is because i managed to teach myself to be more soft and less frank to avoid virtual "fights" as people tend to think i'm yelling instead of understanding that i am just.. direct and decided(if i can use that word).
If i was actually "yelling" you would notice it even if you had no understanding of human emotions what so ever :).
I have seen many cases like this where the guy/girl refused to understand that what he/she was doing was wrong and refused to do something till it was to late. With this kind of people there is no point in reasoning, it is best to ignore them.
My 2c.
 
#15 ·
There might be 1 knowledgeable employee at a fish store out of 50 employees. Even at good LFSs the percentage of employees that i meet that know what they are talking about are low. The difference is that the Petsmart, petco, and non-fish specialized stores "train" their employees a couple of basics about fish, and those employees in turn apply those concepts to ALL fish, which is untrue. Moreover, they can only work off the facts sheet provided to them, ie. ive seen petstores with Bala Shark labeled at 4 inch max size so its only antural for the employee to think, well its only 4 inches and at 1inch per gallon u can fit 5 into a 20 gallon tank (20 gallons will house 0 adult bala sharks). Why does this happen? Because most bala sharks sold will die at 4 inches, not naturally, but from living in an unfit environment, ie. tank too small. However, most people will go on thinking it was natural cuz the store said 4 inches and it died at 4 inches so it must have been full-grown.

Also, its not really a "bad" lfs, even if they are specialized in fish-care, to give you bad information. Its hard to find employees who know a lot about fish care, however the same couple of people cant work everyday for all 10 hrs the store is opened so its always good to take a LFS's advice but remember to do your own research.

I think StampedFish is already a couple of steps up from many fish-keepers from having, at the very least, asked about the conditions of his tank, and willing to rescue unwanted fish. He/She just needs to be less stubborn and realize that the optimal conditions for his fish are not met in his tank. Attacking him/her wont change his/her mind.


As for this topic, I see you have a community tank stampedfish, you could easily risk slight overstocking and add a few more guppies. They will breed and you can take the extras to feed your other tank. Other options would be frozen foods, personally, i dont enjoy the sigh of living animals getting torn apart so i stick to my frozen foods :-/.

Brine shrimp require their own hatchery to keep up production. However, they are low in nutritional content so they should only be fed as treats.
 
#18 ·
There might be 1 knowledgeable employee at a fish store out of 50 employees. Even at good LFSs the percentage of employees that i meet that know what they are talking about are low. The difference is that the Petsmart, petco, and non-fish specialized stores "train" their employees a couple of basics about fish, and those employees in turn apply those concepts to ALL fish, which is untrue. Moreover, they can only work off the facts sheet provided to them, ie. ive seen petstores with Bala Shark labeled at 4 inch max size so its only antural for the employee to think, well its only 4 inches and at 1inch per gallon u can fit 5 into a 20 gallon tank (20 gallons will house 0 adult bala sharks). Why does this happen? Because most bala sharks sold will die at 4 inches, not naturally, but from living in an unfit environment, ie. tank too small. However, most people will go on thinking it was natural cuz the store said 4 inches and it died at 4 inches so it must have been full-grown.

Also, its not really a "bad" lfs, even if they are specialized in fish-care, to give you bad information. Its hard to find employees who know a lot about fish care, however the same couple of people cant work everyday for all 10 hrs the store is opened so its always good to take a LFS's advice but remember to do your own research.

I think StampedFish is already a couple of steps up from many fish-keepers from having, at the very least, asked about the conditions of his tank, and willing to rescue unwanted fish. He/She just needs to be less stubborn and realize that the optimal conditions for his fish are not met in his tank. Attacking him/her wont change his/her mind.


As for this topic, I see you have a community tank stampedfish, you could easily risk slight overstocking and add a few more guppies. They will breed and you can take the extras to feed your other tank. Other options would be frozen foods, personally, i dont enjoy the sigh of living animals getting torn apart so i stick to my frozen foods :-/.

Brine shrimp require their own hatchery to keep up production. However, they are low in nutritional content so they should only be fed as treats.
Thank you for your advice and explaining it so I could understand. I am going to implement some changes per your advice! I feel that, as long as our fish are safe and healthy, we have the opportunity to learn, grow, and adjust our situation as necessary. We are going to look into getting a bigger tank and hopefully figuring out an alternative to our water situation. Again, thank you for your sound advice.
 
#16 ·
Thanks Sin. You said things better than I ever could.

I wasn't suggesting that you personally were yelling, Redknee. Just that the tone of the last few posts had been a bit...loud and that I didn't think it was going to be persuasive.
 
#21 ·
We are looking into getting a bigger tank and figuring out the water situation. It is a process. Sorry for the confusion earlier on, I've had fish for about four years (some purchased some acquired), and it is still a learning process. I will take into consideration your advice and try to find a better solution for the bala sharks. I certainly do not want any animal to suffer. I guess the main problem is that I was getting conflicting advice.
 
#23 ·
Come on guys calm down after all we are all here trying to figure out the best way to take care of our fish and tanks. Sometimes when we type on the net we can not get the full meaning of what someone is trying to get across so to it being written and not spoken. I am glad you are going to be getting a bigger tank and trying to do right by your bala sharks. And I wish you luck trying to get your water situation fixed I imagine haveing to buy bottle water is expensive.
 
#24 ·
Well if you are rich, then perhaps you could look into Reverse osmosis water. Its a very pure filtration system so the water into your tank may be "too clean" but you can add in the minerals and nutrients you need. Its more complicated but if you work through it, it will provide very good water for your fish. In the long run, it would probably save you money, its just expensive to buy all at once.

As for a larger tank, for the species you have that get large like the bala shark, Irredescent Shark, and pleco will all get to over a foot long, and require a long tank. The depth is not as important although it should be deep enough for the the fish obviously, but the tank must be long and deep enough for the fish to turn around comfortably in.

Its understandable to be confused, Ive had fish for over 10 years and I still have to stop and sit down and do a bunch of research before i understand what i need for new additions to my tank. Even after 10 years I still get tons of algae problems :-/. Ive found the best place to learn is to google, looking for fish profiles, usually there are facts that all of them agree on, and then here asking for people for personal experiences. The profiles available here are also very good. They are well researched, mostly written by Byron. Its a very frustrating hobby, but stick at it and it will reward you well.

Good luck with your fish!
 
#25 ·
Thank You again!
 
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