feeder fishes

Butch, can you define "huge tub"? And how much they cost??

Butch, can you define "huge tub"? And how much they cost??

Im using the used livestock watering tub, enough have a cow bathe in it. And there's few 100gals liner tubs where you can buy from home depot or fleet farm. Depends what the price on them, I got some free from auctions and I bought three tubs under $50 from fleet farm, it was 50% off. Most of the tubs at depots cost $50 to 90 dollars...And I might building the pond this spring. I also have bunch of the plastic barrel that cut into two small tubs.

Rubbermaid stock tanks are a good choice.

Big, roomy for plenty of livebearers.

Another possible fish to breed although not a livebearer is the zebra danio.

A bonus is these fish are hardy and inexpensive.

Another possible fish to breed although not a livebearer is the zebra danio.

A bonus is these fish are hardy and inexpensive.

The downside to zebra danios is that as soon as they lay their eggs, they hustle down to the bottom of the tank to eat them.

I used to have to use glass marbles as substrate to protect some of the eggs until I could siphon them out.

What about white cloud mountain minnows, they are easy to breed and they don't eat fry very much. I think they can spawn in tubs. They can easy to replace the zebra danios but then zebra danio are possible used as feeders. Glofish..I rather use them as feeder than have one as display...

White cloud mountain minnows, zebra danios and glofish as feeder are great ideas.

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.

I think thats the trick with mollies - I have an outside "pond" (prefabricated large plastic home depot type) in my yard . While ago I added 2 mollies 2 swordtails 2 platies and they bred like rabbits non stop . The water here in Florida is VERY high ph that might have been the key. Its higher than my Marine tanks ph and that 8.2 .
Right now temps have dropped to 55 sometimes colder at night (usually warmer) and they havent been breeding as much (I have heater in there set at 64) but temps over 75 they breed like mice.

What about white cloud mountain minnows, they are easy to breed and they don't eat fry very much. I think they can spawn in tubs. They can easy to replace the zebra danios but then zebra danio are possible used as feeders. Glofish..I rather use them as feeder than have one as display...

White cloud mountain minnows, zebra danios and glofish as feeder are great ideas.

I love White clouds they are common (not in Miami) had them in NY with my mud darters hardy pretty fish and no heater required very underrated fish but not sure how they will fair at 85.
My tank was in basement in NY temps never got over 78 even in the most brutal summers averaged 68/70. Going to look up bluefin killies will see what temps white clouds can tolerate zebras are a good idea to.

Whatever I get will have to order over internet as within 90 minutes from here only pet store is a chain type pet store with the sickest fish I have ever seen and not a single fish club in Miami not one . Going to look them all up now.

Thanks

Im using the used livestock watering tub, enough have a cow bathe in it. And there's few 100gals liner tubs where you can buy from home depot or fleet farm. Depends what the price on them, I got some free from auctions and I bought three tubs under $50 from fleet farm, it was 50% off. Most of the tubs at depots cost $50 to 90 dollars...And I might building the pond this spring. I also have bunch of the plastic barrel that cut into two small tubs.

There is a farm 2 blocks from me big field of cows. I went to look at the livestock tubs the farmer offered to give me one but opted for the home depot "pond" as it had shelves built in to place water lilies,etc at different water depts not to mention it was old rusty and junk lol
My home depot "pond" was $80 but it looks nice and easy enough to dig in. I gave him 50 young swordtail X Molly x platy hybrids for his kindness .
As his kid wanted some fish