starting my own feeder tank

[birdman]

i have 2 albino tiger oscars and they are at the size now that i can start to give them small feeder fish.

im going to have to take back my two blue gouramis because they are constantly living in fear and they are shrinking....thats not normal...and getting back to the point....

what would you recommend me to start breeding to get some small feeders for my oscars? i will probly buy a small tank i dont want anything too big like probly about 14inches x 8inch x 10inch. or will i need bigger?

i will obviosly need a heater and filtration and appropriate landscape for breeding? flat rock? etc?

i have no idea what fish to breed or how hard it will be.... and advice or recommendations would help me out a lot...

thanks

matt.

 

[EX-AmP]

i wouldnt breed fish for feeders because its too slow of a process and you really dont NEED feeders. 5 gallon is too small for any fish but guppies. if i were you, id buy 2 dozen earthworms and breed them in a bucket.

 

[Chris_JT]

i wouldnt give feeders to an oscar, when my oscar got large enough i gave him crickets and whole live crayfish. crickets and crays are more nutritious and dont transmit parasites or disease.

 

[birdman]

wot size crayfish
arnt they shelled? how to the oscars kill and eat em???

 

[EX-AmP]

crush them? dont know i thought it would be cool to get crayfish for bottom feeders until i found their exoskeletons scattered on the floor

 

[iloveyou]

EEEEEP NOT THE OSCARS..... just feed em some wormies

leave the guppies alone !!

 

[vantgE]

why not live fish?
i m ean obviously not a primary food but once a week couldn't hurt and from what i've heard is a good supplement, easiest thing to breed probally a guppy don't worry about landsacpe throw five in and you'll have a more in no time but the bugs would be much healthier

 

[Chris_JT]

i used to throw live whole crayfish, big ones too, into my tank. my oscar would suck the cray right up and crush it like a bug. if you listened carefully you could actually hear the crayfish's shell being crushed by the oscars inner row of teeth. from what i know an oscars primary diet comes from insects and crustaceans(crayfish and crabs), not fish. sure they eat fish in the wild all the time but its not their main diet(ive heard that oscars are too slow to catch live fish in the wild). when he gets big enough throw in a small crayfish and enjoy the show.

 

[vantgE]

yes that's what i hear to they also eat a substantiall amount of veggies or fruits that fall in the water i think some people feed them cucumbers

 

[flintstone]

yes that's what i hear to they also eat a substantiall amount of veggies or fruits that fall in the water i think some people feed them cucumbers

Please Tell me more about feeding cucumbers. Is it true? Will oscars eat them? I thought Oscars were pure carnivores.
I have had great success with frozen blood worms and various pellet and stick foods. Haven't tried veggies though.
Any other suggestions?

 

[vantgE]

don't have oscars just look into them one time and heard a guy say that he fed cucumbers to his pleco and his oscar seemed to like them a bit too

 

[EX-AmP]

oscars are far from pure carnivores lol. i dont know of a fish that is strictly meat, cept maybe pikes or something. the problem with raising your own food is that its way too slow to make a big difference. guppies also dont provide much of a meal for oscars. still think you should just breed worms in a bucket. all you need to do is add soil,worms, and any food once a week or something

 

[thecichlidaddict]

A small guppy tank will provide a nice supplement, and the fry are just a snack for the Oscars anyway. You don't need feeders, but if you want to experiment go with guppies, as they are hardy and prolific. If you have lots of dense plantation (real or fake) then you don't have to do anything except feed them and do lots of water changes (which will help the fish grow quicker).

 

[Dragonscales]

Vegetables should be blanched before fed to fish from what I've read, to blanch something you just plunge it into very hot water for about 30 seconds then plunge it straight into cold water (cooking is another of my many hobbies lmao I don't get any complaints from the gf about that hobby rotfl). I dunno what the problem is with keeping a breeding tank filled with livebearers to feed your oscars. As long as you feed them well to condition them good then I tend to think that giving the oscars a couple every so often to vary their diet can only be a good thing. I would however tend to steer away from buying a handfull from a petshop every time you want to feed em to the oscars, far better off breeding your own, no diseases that way and if you feed them a high protein diet then this will in turn benefit your oscars.

 

[birdman]

chris_jt....oscars dont have teeth dude.

i still dont get how an oscar can eat a large crayfish....

and ive heard from heaps of fish stores that worms are bad to feed your oscars or anyfish for that matter.

i bought crickets...heh they love em

thanks for all your replies.