Please help - morality check with

[Rob_G]

Hi all,

I moved one of my Swordtails to a breeder tank a month ago now and she gave birth then I moved her back to main tank. After just over a year of fishkeeping now this is the first fry I have had because the Gold Barbs kept eating anything in the main tank.

When she first gave birth I counted about 30 fry and I thought I would leave them all as I thought I would have casualities and wanted to see how things went. I thought I would be able to give some away If too many survived.

Well, to my suprise, not only have all 30 survived and grown vell well and healthy indeed, but my eyes deceived me as I now count about 50-60 !! The tank was heavliy planted so obviously they were sheltering.

My fish shops will not take any - even for free as they dont want to risk disease (cant understand why they cant qurantine them) and I have checked for clubs in the area and there are none.

So, the only options I have is cull some. I will raise as many as I can and this is only about 5 or 6 in my main tank.

Forgive me for my ignorance as a learner still but - Is it moral to feed them to my main tank fish - about 50 of them ? This may be the norm but I have no idea and I find this quite a hard thing to do as I have reared them all so well and I feel as though I am at fault as I should have done it when the were born. I put two in the main tank last night as I thought they looked healthy and big enough to not get eaten - but the barbs got them.

Your advice would be appreciated.

 

[morgan]

I have had the same problem with mollies so I sympathise. I think it is morally ok to feed the fry to the larger fish, it is difficult to find homes for the fry. I actually managed to give 9 mollies to a lfs so I was lucky. I still have 13 mollies plus 4 new fry! There must have been a lot more than 4 so the adult fish must have eaten them. It is just the food chain but very difficult to accept when they are your fry. I would suggest to feed them to the larger fish before they get much bigger so it won't be so bad for you. Plus I would not look while they are being eaten. I know it's cowardly but you can only do so much.Good luck.

 

[snotirl]

This should be an example 2 u not 2 breed fish again until u can accomadate them in sum way.!

 

[dwarfgourami]

If you can cope with it on an emotional level, I don't see that it should be a moral problem. At least no worse than opening a tin of cat food. Surely we don't imagine that Kitty's pilchards have been humanely euthanised by a vet? Ordinary tropical fish flakes contain fish and fish derivatives, too, no doubt commercially fished. I would imagine your fry would have a much quicker and more merciful end. Though you might, as suggested above, want to look away.

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

I think there's an article about putting fish down in the emergencys section on the forum somwhere if you need to look at the different methods of putting fish down, alternatively there is a buy/sell section of the forum which you try to sell your fish on or maybe you could put an add up in the local paper, no?

 

[Tolak]

Fish eating other fish happens in nature, I see nothing wrong with it. It is the most natural food for carnivorous fish.

I give angel culls to a guy I work with who has a couple of oscars. He knows they are good clean feeders, I know that the lfs won't take them, and if they did, someone would end up buying a defective fish.

Tolak

 

[Kiarra]

Honestly, if you can stand to do it, then I wouldn't give you any grief about it. It IS a natural diet for carnivorous fish. Life feeds on life.

If it's something you want to do, then it's a good source of nutrition for your other fish.

If, say, one doesn't get all the way eaten and is left to suffer, though, fish it out and crush the brain. You can toss the body back in after to be consumed, but don't let them suffer unnecessarily. As long as you do that, then it should ease your conscience a bit, to know they aren't suffering.

 

[TwoTankAmin]

Better to feed them to others than just euthanize and flush.

 

[colegamby]

i would just feed them to the other fish. nature is nature

 

[Rob_G]

Thanks all. Don't feel so bad about it now. Afterall, If i hadnt have moved the mother to the second tank they would have got eaten anyway - all of them.

Cheers,

Rob

 

[sunflower]

I dont want to throw a spanner into the works but for future reference, isn't it now illegal to intentionally feed vertebrate animals to another in the UK? Or am I way off beam?

 

[SarahBravo]

As far as I'm aware it is illegal, although it's not if you kill them first and then feed them (which seems weird).

Of course it's not illegal to leave fry in a main tank and let nature take its course - you are not then deliberately feeding them to another creature.

 

[Raechal]

Try putting up an add in the buy/sell/swap section. I am sure someone may be interested in them. I know I would if you lived closer, or if you could ship them.

 

[Rob_G]

Found a small LFS after phoning round eventually that will take them. Whether they use them as food or not is another matter.