Feeding Live Fish

matt_storey · Mar 21, 2011

Just to be clear I DO NOT PLAN ON DOING THIS! Just something I heard earlier

My brother is looking to buy a tank for his new house, he's not really into fish and just wants a small 2ft tank and put some guppies in it. I made sure i told him to get all Males... otherwise his tank will soon be over run with them

to which he replied "I'll just feed them to your Oscars"

Now, as said above I dont plan on doing this, just curious to know if anyone does feed live fish.

KittyKat · Mar 21, 2011

I would advise against it: you don't know what diseases the guppies may have, nor that they would make a balanced diet for your oscar. I also feel that as a fishkeeper, it is my responsibility to look after my pets: if I had a cat, I wouldn't go trying to feed its kittens to a dog.

You could try to convinve him with "males look way cooler" argument.

matt_storey · Mar 21, 2011

Kitty Kat said:
I would advise against it: you don't know what diseases the guppies may have, not that they would make a balanced diet for your oscar. I also feel that as a fishkeeper, it is my responsibility to look after my pets: if I had a cat, I wouldn't go trying to feed its kittens to a dog.

You could try to convinve him with "males look way cooler" argument.

again i stress i wont be doing it, was just curious.

im not 100% sure how serious he is on gettin a tank, he now wants eels.... lol

always4lora · Mar 21, 2011

no problem if they're well bought up and fed good food, although i;'d iamgine whent he oscar gets to a decent size guppys wont do it much for it.

fluttermoth · Mar 21, 2011

I've fed a few guppies to my oscar at odd times, when friends have got over-run with them, or my mum has females that didn't colour up or the occasional deformed fry.

However, your brother has no reason to buy anything other than all males and he knows what will happen if he mixes the sexes, so I'd see that as a bit unethical. If he's giong on to eels now anyway, well...

MBOU · Mar 21, 2011

I dont think there are very many fish that need to eat live food like guppies... it certainly isnt good for most fish... its totally unessecary... it spreads diseases, causes dietry problems, gets fish so hooked on life food they end up starving when that supply off food isnt always available...

Not to mention it isnt even legal and encourages idiots who cant look after themselves let alone be responsible for another life... go out and get fish... "coz piraners are hard innit and i will feed em guppies".

Totally ridiculous. It isnt difficult to get most fish eating but i have to spend my life weaning oscars, birchirs, arrowanas etc off live food because some incapable idiot cant get a decent diet sorted out for the poor fish who then has no idea how to eat food that isnt moving at speed!

Its such a shame.