In other countries.. the sparkling gourami is a feeder.. its all relative.. its more like.. excess fish.

Hmm... Had you wondered what makes a fish a feeder fish?
Last time, feeders used to be guppies, mollies, swordtails and platies, mainly due to the fact that they breed better than rabbits and high colour selectivity means a lot of the fish needs to be culled.
Then we see goldfish and catfish as feeders and then snakeheads.
Recently, it 'advanced' to tiger barbs and last night, I bought a bag of feeder female bettas(!!)...
Why?
What next? Endlers? Apistos?Hmm... Just thinking out loud... As the bettas are petty ones and are pretty healthy and lively too...
Read me! :bigsmile: http://justikanz.blogspot.com/
I'm crypt collecting... Starting cheap, now have Cryptocoryne beckettii, C.beckettii var petchii, C.crispatula var.balansae, C.griffithii(Melted!), C.nurii, C.parva, C.pygmaea(Melted!
), C.tonkinensis(Melted!
), C.walkeri, C.wendtii 'Brown', C.wendtii 'Green', C.wendtii 'Green Gecko', C.wendtii 'Tropica' and Cryptocoryne x willisii
Oh, juggling is hard work, man!...
In other countries.. the sparkling gourami is a feeder.. its all relative.. its more like.. excess fish.

On the one hand i get your train of thought. On the other i don't see how feeding one fish differs from feeding another. It's all about what's cheap and freely available.
They way i see it we should scour our drains for guppies and tilapia...

Feeder fish - my point of view, fishes that breed fast, do not eat their young (much).
In short, fishes whose frys requires minimum effort to take care of.
- eric





Snakeheads..that's a new one for me.
maybe monster fish owners this days have a thing for pretty little fish waggling their tails in a big fish mouth. Can envision them having a simple planted tank with mollies, platys, guppies, barbs, catfish and female betta. Then throw in a big fish and make a living nightmare for the small fishes.
Have to admit the colours running in the tank when they are being chased would be quite morbidly enchanting.
Don't get me wrong here that I am against feeding big fish with live feed, I am not. But I cannot help but notice the glee and fascination on people's faces when they see a big fish go on a hunt.

The good thing about having (or rather using) feeder fish is also less harm to the local ecology. I mean, else people might jump dump unwanted guppies, tilapia, barbs, and i dunno what else in rivers, stream and ponds..creating more hazards to the local diversity. So in this sense better feed them to monster fish.
But it's cruel to watch them being eaten.. again this is subjective and relative. There is much worse than that in our world.
Thomas : about endlers, there are many many in the rivers of Mauritius, a pest now. Same for tilapia.
I've also heard teraping red ear turtle are a pest in Sri Lanka. Might soon reach pest level in the reservoirs in Singapore.

Well, I still think it is better to train the fish to eat dry feed...
But, if it is definitely necessary to feed life food, I still somehow, though wierd, that it would be better to breed the fish as food (feeder) fish and leave those on the wild alone...![]()
Read me! :bigsmile: http://justikanz.blogspot.com/
I'm crypt collecting... Starting cheap, now have Cryptocoryne beckettii, C.beckettii var petchii, C.crispatula var.balansae, C.griffithii(Melted!), C.nurii, C.parva, C.pygmaea(Melted!
), C.tonkinensis(Melted!
), C.walkeri, C.wendtii 'Brown', C.wendtii 'Green', C.wendtii 'Green Gecko', C.wendtii 'Tropica' and Cryptocoryne x willisii
Oh, juggling is hard work, man!...





I hate to use live feed, but at times some fish like liqurice gouramis only insist on live daphnias.

wow, betta feeders, now that's something new. I think I have seen koi or koi-like fish, amber gourami being sold for a cheap price. Not sure if it is for feeder purposes.
Cheers,
Andrew





I am just wondering, if we were to catch our own feeder fishes from our local waters, would they be too contaminated to be fed to our fish?

My personal thought on that was it is a little cruel to catch them and use them as feeders... But if the feeders were being breed specifically then I don't feel that bad...Stupid thought, I know... But somehow this is how I feel...
Whatever it is, when you actually feed a fish live fish, care must be taken to make sure the feeder is not sick or carrying disease and packed with nutrition...
Read me! :bigsmile: http://justikanz.blogspot.com/
I'm crypt collecting... Starting cheap, now have Cryptocoryne beckettii, C.beckettii var petchii, C.crispatula var.balansae, C.griffithii(Melted!), C.nurii, C.parva, C.pygmaea(Melted!
), C.tonkinensis(Melted!
), C.walkeri, C.wendtii 'Brown', C.wendtii 'Green', C.wendtii 'Green Gecko', C.wendtii 'Tropica' and Cryptocoryne x willisii
Oh, juggling is hard work, man!...





Don't worry, I do not catch wild fishes as feeders. just ask out of curiosity. I won't be surprised if one day they do use certain fish as feeders and as display fish together. Imagine a school of neon tetras being chased by an arrowana or stingray.

lol... seen that happening...
Though i believe in letting fish get sick and then recovering on their own. Maybe it's because i want my tank as close to nature as possible, or because it'd be irresponsible to breed fish with almost no natural immunities![]()

With the range of feeders nowadays, I am not surprised that some people are already doing so... Also, the relatively cheaper price of buying tetras in 100s are probably putting such ideas in them...![]()
Read me! :bigsmile: http://justikanz.blogspot.com/
I'm crypt collecting... Starting cheap, now have Cryptocoryne beckettii, C.beckettii var petchii, C.crispatula var.balansae, C.griffithii(Melted!), C.nurii, C.parva, C.pygmaea(Melted!
), C.tonkinensis(Melted!
), C.walkeri, C.wendtii 'Brown', C.wendtii 'Green', C.wendtii 'Green Gecko', C.wendtii 'Tropica' and Cryptocoryne x willisii
Oh, juggling is hard work, man!...
you won't believe what i use as feeders..but thats another topic.
Last edited by Justikanz; 4th Jun 2006 at 15:06.

neon tetras come in packs of 100s for $10, that works out to be 10pcs for a $1. reasonable, IMO = p
Cheers,
Andrew






Goldfish used to be feeders when they are culled because of deformities or imperfection. But now it seems nice goldfish are also used as feeders, maybe because they swim slowly enough for the arowana to catch?
I heard one discus breeder cull his "imperfectly shaped" juveniles by throwing into the bin! Bad...
During the LuoHan craze, when feeders become scarce, Toh Farm told me that some folks went there to buy Neon Tetras as feeders!
koah fong
Juggler's tanks

yes, the fate of fish can be really bad.Originally Posted by juggler
I have seen rejected koi dumped to a nearby stream to be eaten by waiting cats, on a Japanese documentary
Cheers,
Andrew

And to think it's because of human-influenced inbreeding... I mean, what ELSE are you supposed to get if you keep re-using the same genetic stock?!
I believe the same thing's happening with arowana now... If i recall correctly there's alot more deformaties now than there were before.![]()

Last time when I went to a discus breeder's home to get some fishes to my horror he feeds those deformed discus to his arrowana.Originally Posted by juggler
![]()
Best Regards
YongHua
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