# Best Feeder Fish?



## iLikePiranhas

Hey, i know that gold fish are bad for piranhas, since they are grown in bad conditions, may carry disease or parasites, and have a natural growth inhibiting hormone, what species of fish are best suited for feeding? in terms of spawning and nutrient value, and also would it be possible to feed the feeder fish piranha food prior to feeding them to the piranha?


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## SandNukka15

i feed mine convicts


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## Hogdog

Guppies.

Easy to breed, small enough to be eaten in one, breed really fast, easy to care for, no special food required for fry and you will always find that you need to cull some anyway as spinal deformity is quite common. I keep the good ones back to breed and cull the dodgy ones. Feed more males than females so you maintain a ratio of more females than males.

Fill a tank with plants to prevent too much predation of young, add Guppies at a ratio of 2:1/female:male, add water, feed and wait.

Short tailed Guppy breeds are hardier.


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## Ibanez247

I second the guppies. Have a friend that had guppies and woudl give me some every other week. Basically and live bearing fish like mollies too will work. I wouldnt say one fish has more nutrients than another. Becareful with convicts. They are mean little sobs and will gang up one a solo serra. I bought three small convicts for my manny awhile back and had to remove them because they were terrrorizing it. One would get its attention and the other two would sneak up behind it and nip at it. I tossed them into my pygo tank and that took care of them. lol


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## Nzac

I breed convicts and platies, as well as the babies from my african cichlid tank for my p's. I also have marmorkreb crawfish and red cherry shrimps for them. the convicts are kind of a pain, the larger babies(not big enough for p's yet) will eat the smaller babies, I have not had this problem with the platies or african cichlids


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## iLikePiranhas

any type of guppie will do?


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## Hogdog

iLikePiranhas said:


> any type of guppie will do?


Any type will do but the short tailed, sword tail, lyre tail and wild type varieties are hardier than the fan tail and delta tail types...basically go with a smaller tailed variety if you can find them.

There's also the Endler's livebearer (which is arguably just a type of guppy) and they are virtually the same but they are smaller, they would be good for feeding smaller piranhas.

P.S I forgot to mention a big advantage of guppies and that's that they are are a brackish water species so you can add salt to the water and that will kill a wide variety of parasites which may be otherwise be passed on to your piranha.


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## Dawgz

silversides:










cheapest and best option.


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## Joe.G

Can you get silversliders alive some place?


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## Sanjo Eel

Best feeders are homegrown ones imo. I just don't trust pet store feeders anymore. Lacking that go with frozen fish like silversides or smelt. Something whole with skin and bones is great.


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## CLUSTER ONE

Joe.G said:


> Can you get silversliders alive some place?


They are a marine fish and I don't beleive you can buy them alive very easily.


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## Joe.G

When you say marine you mean salt water fish?


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## Smoke

Just picked up a pack of Silversides today at the LFS... you should check there for it. They're pretty convenient


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## keithdude5

How much do these things run? Would these with a mixture of pellets be fine for red bellies?

How much would 3-4 adult RB's go through in a month?


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## Zeushalives

I like convicts the best so far .


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## Piranha-Freak101

convicts are aka goldfishes right??


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## Tensa

no convict cichlids. completely different from gold fish.


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## Piranha-Freak101

yea thts wat i thought it was, for some reason i feel like ive seen tht name on a goldfish lol , and thts a beautiful fish to just give it up for a piranha snack


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## Tensa

those things are vicious pound for pound and breed like no other. you dont even need a filter. you barely need water. they divide like bacteria lol


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## Piranha-Freak101

o ok well heck with them theyr gonna meet something called REDS, nahh just kidding







still nice looking feeder


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## Dawgz

Convicts are extremely smart fish, its a shame some people use them as feeders.


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## Smoke

I have a pink convict that is now my yellow Manueli's best friend. He hauls away food the Manny doesn't want, and even sometimes tries to snag it right out of its mouth. Yes they are extremely intelligent fish. So far he's only gotten is back tail bit off, and it has almost grown all the way back. It's been around 3 months already... no telling if he'd get big. Anyways - that's the last convict I ever attempted to feed my P's.


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