# how to keep feeder fish alive??



## charles_316

i can never keep the feeder fish alive...

i put them in a separate tank w. air pump.... but i dunno why they die so soon...

any tips to keepin them alive? wat do you guys do? feed them wat? etc..


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## watermonst3rs

um, I just put all the feeders into my P tank and they survive until they're all eaten. They even have babies every once in awhile.


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## charles_316

but dont you have to quarantine the feeders for a while b4 feeding them to the piranhas??

personally, i dont do this but i hear many ppl do to avoid diseases etc...

also, if you put in all the feeders at once into the piranha tank.... wont they jus eat them all too fast and overfeed??


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## hyphen

when you quarantine feeders, the quarantine tank needs to be cycled and have a filter. otherwise the fish will just die of ammonia burns. what i do is bu about 15-20 of them and drop them into my 10gallon tank. then i treat the water with salt and feed the feeders goldfish flakes. i have a small penguin 110 on there with some gravel.

wait about a week or two, maybe longer. the sick ones will begin to die off. and when you see signs of parasites or disease [like ich or bloated bellies, etc], you remove the infected fish. soon you'll have weeded out all the unhealthy feeders and only the strong ones will have survived. then the strong ones die when you feed them to your ps


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## piranhaperson

i have a 30g filter and a 55g air pump and a small heater at about 75 degress on a 10g and i very seldom have my feeders die, i also have a very thin layer of gravel just enough to cover the bottom and is very easy to clean


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## Pizzo

hyphen said:


> when you quarantine feeders, the quarantine tank needs to be cycled and have a filter. otherwise the fish will just die of ammonia burns. what i do is bu about 15-20 of them and drop them into my 10gallon tank. then i treat the water with salt and feed the feeders goldfish flakes. i have a small penguin 110 on there with some gravel.
> 
> wait about a week or two, maybe longer. the sick ones will begin to die off. and when you see signs of parasites or disease [like ich or bloated bellies, etc], you remove the infected fish. soon you'll have weeded out all the unhealthy feeders and only the strong ones will have survived. then the strong ones die when you feed them to your ps


 hyphen said it best


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## charles_316

when you say "treat the tank w/ salt"... wat do you actually do?? table salt?

jus drop some salt in?


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## xt12ap5peedx17x

How many feeders are you putting in a tank, if you have a lot,there gonna die cause of the lack of oxygen,ammonia build up.


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## charles_316

oxygen is not a problem b/c i have filtration and air pump inside the feeder tank....

i jus dunno bout the salt situation... like wat kind to put in... how much... wat it does.. etc


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## hyphen

yeah, you can use regular table salt, or you can also use aquarium salt [not marine salt]. i use regular iodized table salt [i was told it wouldn't make a difference, and it doesnt.] just put in 1 tblspn per 10 gallons of water. do this once a day for 4 days. then do water changes to clear the water of the salt.


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## hyphen

basically, salt kills off some parasites and increases healing. a lot of people use salt as a general remedy for a lot of fish problems.


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