Raising Feeder Guppies

Twisted_Angel

Hello again.

As some know, I have decided to keep the angels and do a south american biotype (sort of). I know angels do best with live foods, and raising guppies is something I actually have quite a bit of experience with. Should I raise Guppy fry to feed the angels, or just feed high quality frozen and pelleted food?

If I am going to raise guppies for the angels then I was thinking it would be best to use the guppies to cycle the tank since they are rather resillient. Any thoughts on this?

Thanks

MattD

A diet focused strictly on Live Foods isn't recommended for any fish, afaik. This increases chances of disease transmission and is generally not accepted morally since it isn't necessary.

Angel Fish can survive quite nicely on flake foods, pellets and frozen foods. Live foods should only be a treat once in a while. Feeding an Angelfish strictly live foods is a little overkill imo.

Falina

I agree with Matt for the most part. The only thing I would add is that if you are breeding the feeders yourself, it controls disease much better than buying feeders from a lfs.

Good luck with the angel tank though - I read your other post and it sounds like it's gonna be a ncie tank. :D

Twisted_Angel

Sorry, shoudl have clarified. I didn't mean as the sole diet, only as a supplement. The only reason I am considering adding live foods to the diet is that I have spoken with several angel breeders and they all agree that angels fed live foods as part of their diet grow twice as fast, are more brillantly colored, and overall more healthy.

Thank you. What I am planning is a lot more work than I am used to as far as aquariums go, but I hope it will be worth it.

MattD

Oh alright then, as supplements to the diet, I think it's a fantastic idea. You spend practically no money on them (aside from maintenance and feeding), and it will keep your Angel Fish quite happy to have live foods now and then. Not to mention a second tank to manage and have fun with.

Twisted_Angel

Thanks!

Hehe... now I get to have two aquariums. I can set the 20 gallon back up. I wonder how I should aquascape this one... Hmmm... Should I do the 20 for the guppies first, or should I set the 55 gallon up first? This is going to be fun, but I wonder how the other people at my house are going to feel about two aquariums at one time? -evil grin

Hmmm... Think the Guppy breeding tank can be a mini community, as long as I move the females to breeding boxes before they give birth, or would it be better to keep a bare tank?

Twisted_Angel

Scratch part of that; common sense tells me that if I do the guppies first I will end up overstocked quickly because I won't have anything to do with the babies -slaps forehead- doh!

fish_4_all

Bare tank is likely the best way to go for simple cleanliness and ease of catching them when it is time to feed them off. If they are common guppies then there really isn't a need to seperate the prego females. I never had a problem when I had mine with the adults eating the babies. Maybe some Elodea/Anacharis floating will help to have more survive. It would also be easy to remove when it is time to feed the angels.

Just make sure to suppliment your breeding population with new fish on occassion or you could find yourself with a tank full of mutations. I don't know how often is recommend as I am not a biologist but if I were doing it I would remove the current males once every six months and replace with new ones. It may not be neccessary but is what I would do.

saint

i used to breed guppys and i found the best method was to have a bare tank with a layer or 2 of marbles, this way when they give birth the fry fall between the marbles and the adults cannot eat them.... and when they are free swimming they can still hide in the marbles away from the adults

Twisted_Angel

kk, Thanks =)