Is It Cruel To Breed Fish To Feed Fish?

[wombat1100]

Hi guys, I was reading another forum and it was taboo to even mention using feeder fish let alone breeding them to do so.
I was just wondering what people on this forum thought of the practice?
We all know that the less perfect of fish get sold in shops as feeder fish, the not so pretty , the less "sell-able"
Does that make it right?
what would you feed larger fish? just pellets?
and what do you do with the fish when your fish tank is overrun by fry, like is the case with most live bearers, ones that aren't worth selling/ trading in due to there low $ worth?
Any opinions would be appreciated
Dazz

[CichlidFreak]

I see no problem with using feeder fish or breeding them to use as food. It happens in nature, fish eat other fish, so why not?

[volenti]

I generally don't breed feeders (too time/space consuming) but I do condition (fatten up) wild caught feeders (guppies, gudgeon,smelt ect) before they meet their fate, you can almost double the weight of em in a few weeks. My large predators either get live food (fish/shrimps), frozen food, or trapped insects, even my community tank gets mostly frozen or minced up "fresh" meat, dry foods are only a supplement.

Though I am considering setting up a 3000L above ground pool outside to mass produce glass shrimp (everything eats them, even my fussy bass, and they are one thing I can't catch in decent numbers)

[joz]

Haha! to many guppies is it?I threw them into my tank so the discus would eat the fry.
the rest is history,does anyone want to buy lots of guppies ?? :biggrin: CHEAP?

[wombat1100]

:wink: Hey Joz, you know what i got them 4!! Doesn't make me feel good seeing it happen though!
Dazz

[jonnie]

Haha! to many guppies is it?I threw them into my tank so the discus would eat the fry.
the rest is history,does anyone want to buy lots of guppies ?? :biggrin: CHEAP?[/b]

Love to, but I live too far

[Aussie]

Haha! to many guppies is it?I threw them into my tank so the discus would eat the fry.
the rest is history,does anyone want to buy lots of guppies ?? :biggrin: CHEAP?[/b]


I'd probably be very interested in buying a whole heap of guppies off of you, i've got americans so always after feeders :)

[wombat1100]

I have put 3 breeding pair in my Rainbow tank and no sign of babies so i assume they are doing what i put them in there for.
Fresh food !!
Dazz

[Shaye]

In my opinion, I don't think that it's cruel to breed fish in order to feed them to bigger fish. In the wild big fish eat the little fish and so on.

- However, it is cruel to breed fish under poor conditions in cramped tanks with inproper filtration, aeration, and food.

- Buying 'feeder fish' from the pet shop, in my opinion, is a bad idea. Most of the time, those 'feeder fish' are kept under poor conditions as i mentioned above, and they usually have some kind of disease that will get passed on to the fish your feeding it to in some cases. It's better that you breed you own 'feeder fish' and keep them under proper conditons and have them disease free than buy them from some diseased pet shop.