Feeder fish q's ( please read )

[twintrades]

OK i know that feeding fresh water guppies and mollys are bad for my lion.

But what if i convert them to salt water ? What would that do ?? WOuld they be more Nutri complete ? and if not what if i were to inject them with selcon or somthing proir to feeding to my lion ??

 

[Mental1]

I breed saltwater mollies (yes I acclimated them to full salt) and feed them to my lions. The mollies get fed NLS, flake and first bites by hikari. My lions also eat frozen - on the menu this week is tuna, Maine Bay shrimp, and scallops. I think they like hunting so they get fed the feeders pretty regularly. Not recently as my supply got low so I needed to let some mature and get some more breeding going. I also get ghost shrimp and have a tank where they get fed good stuff too. Lions seems healthy and happy.

The research that that I could find on freshwater feeder fish was done on goldfish. They tend to have a higher level of fat than saltwater fish. In the only study I could actually find, the saltwater fish had 50% less fat. Mollies can go to salt easily and there wasn't research that I could find that tested saltwater mollies.

I think the bottom line from what I have learned is that variety is key for many of these guys. And if you can stuff the frozen food with pellets -- all the better. So eating live does not keep my lions from eating frozen -- they eat whatever I get them!

 

[Stuart60611]

I think the below two part article is very helpful on this topic and provides some hard data and excellent explanation of the issues.

http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issues/dec2003/invert.htm

http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issues/jan2004/invert.htm

 

[Mental1]

The interesting piece here is the "I don't know" about mollies and guppies. Here's a question, would the fat composition of the fish change as they are acclimated to saltwater? Also, if you have several generations breeding and living in saltwater, would not the level of fat be lower? Also, why is the fat higher in freshwater fish? Is it a buoyancy issue? At any rate, I would never feed them exclusively on any one type of food so the possibility of ill affects from the mollies is not that great. They get them maybe once a week when I have the stock.

 

[LisaD]

I think (don't have hard data) that mollies and guppies, fed and gutloaded appropriate marine-source foods are fine, as are ghost shrimp. I feed all three, acclimated to salt water. In fact, I have a pair of mollies as permanent residents of one of my tanks, any babies are fair game for the fish. I do not feed rosies, goldfish or any other feeder fish.

I do occasionally feed some of my fish frozen marine fish from the seafood counter, but then to go more toward shellfish, shrimp and squid.

+1 completely with Mental1 - variety is key. I feed a lot of Ocean Nutrition frozen cubes of different types to all my fish, including my two moray eels. I found a huge difference in growth rate and color between two Antennarius pictus frogfish. One ate only live foods - primarily ghost shrimp and guppies. The other accepted frozen foods, and got frozen table shrimp, large mysis, and a variety of Ocean Nutrition cubes (the ones with gel binder - I cut pieces and fed from a stick). Once the other one of the pair started accepting frozen, it grew more quickly and seemed to catch up in color. I realize this is just anecdotal evidence, but it has caused me to offer my fish as much variety as possible.

 

[Stuart60611]

Could not agree more with above comments about variety. I like to feed my fish a mixed meat meal of about 10 different seafoods mostly consisting of crustacean meat soaked in two different vitamin supplements, as well as spetrum pellets. This has worked really well for me.

 

[twintrades]

I plan on feeding frozen later but for now i wanted to feed the live. And give live once in a while through out the week.

Im only going to feed my lion guppie and molly. Boath will be in full salt later. Righnt now its just fresh to make shure theres no ich or anything. I feed goast shrimp as well. feed with marine goodies.

Nothing like seeing the lion go after live prey. Ours swims for the fish but "walks" after the shrimp.

 

[Mental1]

Fus are funny to watch hunting. The head wobble is wonderful. The other reason I would be reluctant to feed only live is that my smaller fu would not get enough. She is slower and doesn't seem to grab food. The fuzzy is a virtual underwater vacuum cleaner!