feeder fishes

What kind feeder fish is best and disease free & easy to breed? I don't want use feeder goldfish & red rosies because there's some kind of goldfish virus going on. Feeder guppies were too small and not enough big. I was thinking about getting redfin pickerels in future..I do have a 55 gal tank enough to hold a single pickerel and a pair of bristlenose pleco.

So what kind feeder fishes I should breed for pickerel's dinner? Can the pickerel take ghost shrimp, smaller crayfish and frog tadpoles? Just wondering. And what is best tankmates for pickerel? (Either native or tropical fish)

pickeral tank mates I think are over rated but large shiners(common, striped, bluehead chub, and common shiners) look nice with pickeral I suppose pike topminnows(pike livebearers) would be cool too.

FEEDER GUPPIES

Seriously.

Get a 10 gallon tank and heavily plant it. Good plants such as java moss, hornwort, anacharis, ect.

They will breed year around at room temp (70 degrees or a little more) and provide lots of forage for a pickerel.

FEEDER GUPPIES

Seriously.

Get a 10 gallon tank and heavily plant it. Good plants such as java moss, hornwort, anacharis, ect.

They will breed year around at room temp (70 degrees or a little more) and provide lots of forage for a pickerel.

Still I don't want small feeder guppies because its not enough for a foot long pickerel. I was thinking a little bigger feeder fish than just guppies but what? Plus I like to having challenges. Any ideas?

Still I don't want small feeder guppies because its not enough for a foot long pickerel. I was thinking a little bigger feeder fish than just guppies but what? Plus I like to having challenges. Any ideas?

I feed mine shiners that I collect, but I have gone to the nearest baitstore and picked up emerald shiners, fathead minnows, golden shiners,and white suckers. These are better IMO then anything form a petstore.

I feed mine shiners that I collect, but I have gone to the nearest baitstore and picked up emerald shiners, fathead minnows, golden shiners,and white suckers. These are better IMO then anything form a petstore.

Isn't that the baitstore minnows full of diseases? Also I don't feel comftable to use wild caught minnows to feed the pickerel. I want to breed feeder fish THAT are FREE of DISEASES. What about gambusia or other bigger livebearers such as mollies and platies? Can I use them as feeder?

Isn't that the baitstore minnows full of diseases? Also I don't feel comftable to use wild caught minnows to feed the pickerel. I want to breed feeder fish THAT are FREE of DISEASES. What about gambusia or other bigger livebearers such as mollies and platies? Can I use them as feeder?

I know that a lot of fish stores down south that i've visited have sold mollies and platies and swordtails all under feeder livebearers. There was also some guppies in the mix too! I have never fed any other livebearer to my fish other than guppies. I also haven't seen a fish store in my area that sells feeder livebearers.

With feeders there is always going to be a risk for disease. Feeders are never kept in very good conditions to start with. What you can do is get a large amount of a type of feeder and keep them in one of your tanks for a long period of time. Maybe even treat them with a few broad medications. This is the best way to get disease free feeders.

I know that a lot of fish stores down south that i've visited have sold mollies and platies and swordtails all under feeder livebearers. There was also some guppies in the mix too! I have never fed any other livebearer to my fish other than guppies. I also haven't seen a fish store in my area that sells feeder livebearers.

With feeders there is always going to be a risk for disease. Feeders are never kept in very good conditions to start with. What you can do is get a large amount of a type of feeder and keep them in one of your tanks for a long period of time. Maybe even treat them with a few broad medications. This is the best way to get disease free feeders.

Well I can set up the tubs outside this summer for the larger livebearers to produce more feeders that's free of diseases. What is other feeder that can work on pickerel? Does redfin pickerel preying on ghost shrimp and smaller crayfish?

I know that a lot of fish stores down south that i've visited have sold mollies and platies and swordtails all under feeder livebearers. There was also some guppies in the mix too! I have never fed any other livebearer to my fish other than guppies. I also haven't seen a fish store in my area that sells feeder livebearers.

With feeders there is always going to be a risk for disease. Feeders are never kept in very good conditions to start with. What you can do is get a large amount of a type of feeder and keep them in one of your tanks for a long period of time. Maybe even treat them with a few broad medications. This is the best way to get disease free feeders.

I have noticed less "nasties" when feeding bait. goldfish always have ich and anchorworm around here rosies are small and so are guppies, I catch my own feeders, but still buy supplemental bait feeders if I cant get out and catch some.

never figured wild feeders would be bad if you catch wild feeders and feed them first thing anyways

Well you don't want to know what's in my local bait store in Minnesota. The workers (from three local bait stores) were too lazy to remove the dead fish and the bait minnows were covered full of white fuzzy fungus and have lots of worms. Some of wells has red/brownish water...ew! The water in bait well are too cold and I can't just threw these minnows into the pickerel, the minnows would died of shocking from temp of the water and wasted the money on the bait. The best local bait store is 30 miles away from where I lives and the gas is pretty expensive this year. Good thing I hasn't gotten the redfin pickerel yet. I was thinking about getting the pickerel in future so I want to go ahead to breeding feeder fish before the pickerel arriving later this summer. I have a livestock water tub that's hasn't been used so maybe I can fill water and threw some bunch plants and feeder livebearers into it.

See if you can find some Limia perugiae. They're a medium size live bearer from Haiti. Keep them at about 80 degrees with a little marine salt, or calcium carbonate and they reproduce fast and grow fast. Beyond that, I've heard that fathead minnows (and their domestic decendants, the rosy reds) reproduce like crazy.

Well you don't want to know what's in my local bait store in Minnesota. The workers (from three local bait stores) were too lazy to remove the dead fish and the bait minnows were covered full of white fuzzy fungus and have lots of worms. Some of wells has red/brownish water...ew! The water in bait well are too cold and I can't just threw these minnows into the pickerel, the minnows would died of shocking from temp of the water and wasted the money on the bait. The best local bait store is 30 miles away from where I lives and the gas is pretty expensive this year. Good thing I hasn't gotten the redfin pickerel yet. I was thinking about getting the pickerel in future so I want to go ahead to breeding feeder fish before the pickerel arriving later this summer. I have a livestock water tub that's hasn't been used so maybe I can fill water and threw some bunch plants and feeder livebearers into it.

See if you can find some Limia perugiae. They're a medium size live bearer from Haiti. Keep them at about 80 degrees with a little marine salt, or calcium carbonate and they reproduce fast and grow fast. Beyond that, I've heard that fathead minnows (and their domestic decendants, the rosy reds) reproduce like crazy.

I will keep it in my mind and I know where I can get them from aquabid but the seller is kinda ripoff. So any livebearers works as feeders is am I right?

Well I don't know how to breed red rosies.. I don't want them breeding in my house due to limit of space but I have lots of space outside during spring, summer and early fall.

Feeder guppies work because you can breed and feed lots of them.

Trust me a pickerel can get fat on about 20 feeder guppies dumped into a tank for their dinner. Especially on those plump females.

Mosquitofish or black mollies are two other fish to try but mosquitofish will eat their own young.

Take care

Feeder guppies work because you can breed and feed lots of them.

Trust me a pickerel can get fat on about 20 feeder guppies dumped into a tank for their dinner. Especially on those plump females.

Mosquitofish or black mollies are two other fish to try but mosquitofish will eat their own young.

Take care

Thanks but isn't 20 guppies are awfully lots for a single pickerel? I just want to feed pickerel with just 2 to 5 feeder fishes depends on its size for a foot long pickerel.

I was thinking about try to breed limias, mollies, platies, swordtails, gambusias, convict cichlids and orangetailed goodieds as my feeder fishes this summer in few tubs. Are these feeder fishes a good choice? Maybe add feeder guppies and least killifishes to the mix of feeder livebearers if the females are grow up enough big than the males. I think I will just cross feeder guppies with fancy guppies to produce a little bigger feeder guppies. Should I add fancy guppies to the feeder guppies?

Mollies can be really fussy. People think they're an easy fish, but they aren't. If you try mollies, make sure your water has a lot of hardness from calcium. (Calcium chloride from driveway ice melting pellets, or horticultural hydrated lime are the easiest ways to supply it.) In fact, just about everything on your list will do better with hard water from calcium.) I haven't tried sword tails and I've never liked gambusia. I kept the orange tailed goodeids for a time. They bred, but weren't any where near as prolific as the Limia perugiae. I kept them for a few years in a 55 with some sailfin mollies I had been breeding. They far out numbered the sailfins.

Fatheads and rosy reds, I'm told, don't involve much effort. Just some overturned flowerpots or some other structures for the males to use as a spawning cave.

Thanks but isn't 20 guppies are awfully lots for a single pickerel? I just want to feed pickerel with just 2 to 5 feeder fishes depends on its size for a foot long pickerel.

I was thinking about try to breed limias, mollies, platies, swordtails, gambusias, convict cichlids and orangetailed goodieds as my feeder fishes this summer in few tubs. Are these feeder fishes a good choice? Maybe add feeder guppies and least killifishes to the mix of feeder livebearers if the females are grow up enough big than the males. I think I will just cross feeder guppies with fancy guppies to produce a little bigger feeder guppies. Should I add fancy guppies to the feeder guppies?

the real common goodeid, Ilyodon furcidens, might be a good bet. in my experience they have been easier to keep and faster growing than mollies. the fry are already ~1/2" long when dropped.

-D

Well I do have orangetailed goodeids and ilyodon furciden (I only have a male and need to find a new group of ilyodon furcidens). And I do have lots of guppies, endlers, mollies, swordtails, platies and gambusia at home and I don't have any problems to breed them. All thing I can is set up few huge tubs for them and ill have one huge tub for the gambusia only. Maybe I can breed red rosies in future. My orangetailed goodeids are out of control with breeding. Right now I have 25ish of them.

I can deal with mollies' fussy over the water with no problem.

Excellent thread. I'm planning out my tanks now and setting up a few for live foods of various sizes. This should fill the "feeder fish" niche nicely.

Excellent thread. I'm planning out my tanks now and setting up a few for live foods of various sizes. This should fill the "feeder fish" niche nicely.

Well I was working on the feeder fish/shrimp projects and will set up some huge tubs this spring. Here the fishes that I will stocking in each tub:
Feeder guppies
Fancy guppies
Endler guppies
Mollies
Variatus
Platies
Swordtails
Gambusia
Least killifish
Limia (Bob's suggested)
Common goodeid species
Convict cichlids
Red rosy minnows
ghost shrimp
Red cherry shrimp
Dwarf crayfish
Crayfish
Freshwater scuds.

They are easy to breed in the tubs and tanks without any problems.