Guppies are just feeders for REAL fish!

copeina

Fish Fanatic
Joined
Mar 4, 2004
Messages
148
Reaction score
0
Location
Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
Is anyone else out there keeping some interesting livebearers?

Some species I am currently working with include:

Giradinus falcatus
Chaplithys pardalis
Limia nigrofasciata
Nomorhamphus liemi liemi


...and no guppies.

There are A LOT of livebearers out there from all over the world. Some of the halfbeaks at birth can swallow an adult guppy, and still only require a 20 gallon tank! :cool:

Let's talk fish!

/Kris
 
if u wanna talk fish dont talk about feeding guppies to other fish..

whats with ppl here thinking its so funny to kill fish

serious problems
 
There are a lot of different livebearers but its hard to find anything besides the basics in most pet stores. Occasionally I see some endlers in stores but thats about it. I would love to try keeping half beaks or pike livebearers. Calling guppies feeders is a little harsh though. You can't breed most fish for color like you can with guppies. Thats one reason that many people like guppies. And its a little hard to keep pike livebearers in community tanks.
 
You know guppymonkey, I would love to find a lfs near me with Endlers. They are stunning, but unfortunately most lfs' near me could screw up a wet dream. The ones with the cool fish are dirty dirty stores, and the ones with the clean tanks and healthy fish have little selection .... Murphy's Law of fish :/
 
Guppies are not only extremely beautiful they also have awesome personalities to boot. :D I'm a little offended that you think they are nothing more than feeder fish... :-( You obviously don't get it do you.. :no:

Also if anyone is looking for Endlers I know HeatherSweetness sells them--(sorry Heather if I'm jumping in here--) I had been looking for Endlers for a long time after buying some from Petsmart last summer. Now I have a bunch ofendler/guppy hybrids. Endlers are really cool, but they are much more frisky than gups if you know what I mean... :wub:
 
I never called guppies 'feeders', I simply stated that there are a lot more livebearers in the hobby than guppies, which seem to be the only fish people on this forum want to discuss. Some of these livebearers are indeed large enough to eat guppies at birth, ie: Belonesox, Anableps, some goodeids, some halfbeaks...

I get mine from various sources including aquarium society meetings, aquabid.ca, the ALA classifieds, and my local pet shoppe, which, if you take the time to talk to the fish manager, can usually be persuaded to bring things in that they would not normally carry. I just got my celebes halfbeaks this way. The LFS had to order 80, and they have already sold 40 since they arrived 3 days ago. I took enough to show I was interested and grateful for their efforts, and if I end up with too many once they start dropping fry, you may see them advertised here or elsewhere. In the meantime, the LFS gains points with the local hobbyists for carrying more than bread and butter selection.

There is nothing wrong with guppies as a starter fish. But for long term interest, they just don't cut it (for me). There are lots of other livebearers even from central America that are just as easy to breed as guppies, and by doing so, open up a whole new social side of the hobby with people likewise bored with the usual LFS fare. Some goodeids are extinct in the wild and are maintained ONLY in hobbyists tanks. That is amazing (to me) and worth dedicating some serious attention to.

If anyone wants to talk livebearers other than the usual fare, I'm in. Until then, I will quietly lurk in the background a die a little more each time I see a new post about "how do I get my guppies to breed?" :dunno:

/Kris

ps. As for the comment about making an entrance - I can do no less! :thumbs:
 
You never said that in your message, but the title of this thread is "Guppies are just feeders for REAL fish"...
 
Well I'll be... look at that. :hyper:

Pappy used to say, "It's all in the marketing. Whatever it takes to get 'em in the door."

I stand corrected. :whistle:

/Kris
 
I got the gist of your title/message, but posting that thread title in livebearers is kinda like posting "Britney Spears is a talentless whore" in the official Britney Spears fan forum :hey:

...not exactly, but pretty close :p
 
I must be forced to agree with noelberg there--this is no place to disrespect guppies, even if you do find them to be rather small, insignificant fish. I myself have not only raised the illustrious Cobra guppy as well as many other livebearers, but I have, in fact, used guppies as feeder fish in the past. Mind you, these were the common 5 cent kind meant for such purposes, but on the whole, I believe that guppies are good for either showing or feeding to other fish, as long as you are not using guppies such as the above-mentioned Cobra for such a purpose. So, I do indeed agree that guppies can be feeders--however, I also agree with the rest that the more elegant kinds of these fish do, indeed, have their place in the world of livebearers.
By the way, I myself fully dislike the notion of killing these fish as well--however, when I bought the feeder guppies, I believed at that point in time that I had no other option. You see, I had found two large green frog tadpoles mistakenly placed in feeder fish aquariums, and, fearing that they may not survive for long in such an environment (and with every intention of releasing them back in the wild come spring) I bought them. However, they not only speedily grew arms and legs, but they grew mouths as well--mouths no longer meant for the purpose of eating algae. Not knowing what they would eat or how long it would take for them to completely metamorphasize into frogs, I bought the guppies for them. And, believe it or not, the majority of those guppies are still alive. I found out that no, actually, green frogs do not like to eat fish, and hence those fish are still in their aquarium to this day--only, they have most certainly multiplied greatly in number, so it appears that I have a small colony of these fish now.
Considering the fact that too many of these guppies can increase the ammonia levels too much and hurt the frogs as well as the fact that I need a way to cull the fry that I get from my other livebearers, I am, in fact, beginning to think about buying a nice, predaceous fish that will actually eat them...

By the way, about the Endlers--I too was able to get one, and he is now desperately enfatuated with my huge female swordtail that is many times his size. I even put in two female guppies for him so that perhaps the swordtail could get a break, but he ignores them entirely...he is an extremely odd fish when it comes to his "tastes."
 
thats just wrong, you shouldnt call guppies feeders :no: they are very beautiful fish. :D

even some of the so called "feeders" i bought from the fish store, mature into some very beautiful pets (i know this from personal experience). :cool:
 
i dont really find it offencive until he said ADULT... i was going to feed some "feeder" guppies to my dwarf puffer but they were a little big (puffers too small) ya kno the kinds that are bred to feed your fish the really tiny kinds of guppies or just babies....

ya kno i think it was a good thing my puffers were too small... i find out today that their like neon they have like shiny neon pink blue and purp in their sides kinda like a neon tetra except their like i think its a guppy since its called a "feeder guppy" uhh yeah... but guppies arent colored like that...
 
petitericeball said:
ya kno i think it was a good thing my puffers were too small... i find out today that their like neon they have like shiny neon pink blue and purp in their sides kinda like a neon tetra except their like i think its a guppy since its called a "feeder guppy" uhh yeah... but guppies arent colored like that...

WHAT??????? :no:
 
If anyone wants to talk livebearers other than the usual fare, I'm in. Until then, I will quietly lurk in the background a die a little more each time I see a new post about "how do I get my guppies to breed?"

You have to give people a break. Many people are quite new to the hobby. How can you blame beginners for asking questions? I didn't even know about all the different species of livebearers until I started doing my own research. If people are ignorant about other species of livebearers I think the fault lies not with them but with the pet store industry which usually only carries the same types of fish and doesn't have variety. People can't know about other livebearers if they are never exposed to them.

When you get frustrated with some people's simplicity there are really two options. You can either ignore their posts or post your own topics about things that interest you and maybe you can teach the newbies that there are more livebearers that just the guppies and platies.
 

Most reactions

Back
Top