Feeding Fry To Dwarf Puffers?

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attibones

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I've been thinking about stocking my twenty gallon with some livebearers. I had platies and mollies and they are kind of cool fish. I was also considering adding guppies (I probably would choose between guppies or platies, no mollies). My question is this: Can I safely feed the fry to my puffers? I kind of like watching breeding behavior, which is why I'm all of a sudden interested in these guys again, but I hate having fry in the tanks. I've got two dwarf puffers who enjoy the hunt when I give them live foods, so I thought it may be a good idea to feed them live fry. 
 
What do you guys think?
 
I'm not interested in any moral debate over saving the fry. I would just let the parent fish in the tank have snacks if feeding them didn't work out anyway. 
 
I don't see why you wouldn't be able to feed them, after all they are just another source of live food in the eyes of a puffer... I think
 
They are totally carnivorous, and the female in particular loves to chase her live foods, so I know they would eat the fry. I guess I need to know if the fry are nutritionally valuable enough to feed to the puffies. 
 
I guess that's true. Lol. I'll stop by the LFS soon I think and see what little cuties are on sale. :) I think some of the platies are a dollar right now. I think a dollar for a nearly infinite supply of food isn't a bad deal.
 
I suppose that's an awesome deal lol!! Enjoy your... Whatever you call it lol
 
I wouldn't use fry as a staple diet but a couple of times a week would be ok.
 
I would probably do two or three times a week depending on the number of fry. I would still include the frozen blood worms, live snails, and the occasional shrimp with the weekly fast. I'm actually getting very excited about this. I'll pick up the new production team (or rather, reproduction team, heheh) on Wednesday. :)
 
I'm actually kinda excited too... I don't know why but i am. Can you imagine if they don't even eat the fry... You'll be stuck with a platy fry army lol
 
Yeah, if they don't eat the fry, I'll set up the spare ten gallon and separate the sexes. I would hate to be stuck with that many fry. I guess to get rid of the babies, I would send them to my sister's African cichlids. :p
 
LOL if I had space I'd take fry off you but i don't at the moment.. :(
 
The only problem I can see with feeding fry to other fish is that the fry will not be able to have much of a gut load of food they have just eaten. Most times when other fish are fed live to predatory fish the food fish are given a gut load of high quality food so that the predatory fish will get this food as their stomachs break down the food fish.
The other major problem I can see is ending up with more fry of suitable eating size than what the puffers can get through, and you and even your sister ending up inundated with excess livebearers.
 
I feed mine Daphnia and Mosquito larvae those are his favorites (after snails of course) He is in a tank with guppies, a sparkling gourami and about 30 guppy fry that he's made freinds with LOL
 
Well, the fry thing didn't work out anyway. I couldn't get any fry quickly enough and I was having a very difficult time getting a snail source. Despite my best efforts to get them to eat prepared foods and meaty frozen fare, they refused to eat and I lost both of them to starvation. I ended up rehoming 5 of the 7 platies and now only have two male guppies. They were really fun fish, but I think I will wait until I live in a place with less strict snail laws to try again with the puffers.
 

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