Two of the biggest drawbacks to breeding and caring for feeder fish are: they can be very costly, and you can easily introduce diseases into your tank if you don’t know their health history. Because of these factors, people with the time and resources usually breed their own feeder fish. While the initial investment may be high, breeding your own feeder fish can save you money in the long term. If you don’t know how to breed feeder fish, you can accidentally create an unsafe environment for them—which can end up costing you more. Don’t worry. Here are some ways you can safely breed and care for feeder fish.
Know What Feeder Fish You’ll Breed and Their Tank Requirements
Before you set up their tank, you need to know what type of feeder fish you want to start breeding. You can choose guppies, goldfish, minnows, or mollies. Each has its own tank requirements and breed at different rates, and whichever you choose depends on your predatory fish’s nutritional needs. For example, feeder guppies need at least ten gallons to breed freely and thrive in water with a neutral pH (6.5) and warmer temperatures (78?). When you create an optimal environment specific to your feeder fish, you ensure that your feeder fish are healthy and can breed effectively.
Check Parameters as You Would for Your Main Tank
As you may already know, stressed fish make sick fish, and you don’t want to introduce and encourage illness into your main tank by feeding sick fish. Here are some easy aquarium maintenance tips that you can follow to understand how to best care for any tank. As a general rule, you’ll want to keep an eye on your feeder tank in the same way you would care for your main tank. This level of care goes beyond checking water parameters, and it should include looking for signs of sickness, such as fin rot, Ich, and dropsy. It’s common for illnesses to spread quickly among tank mates, and if you’re not attentive, you may end up having to quarantine an entire tank.
Breeding Happens Naturally, but It Takes Time
Depending on the type of feeder fish you choose, you’ll likely need a few dozen, but it’s best to ask the seller how many they think you’ll need of the selected species. Initially, it will take a few months for guppies to start breeding, so you may have to use other feeding methods during this time. However, after the first two or three months, you should start to notice babies being born. Remember to leave a few in the tank so the rest of the fish have new, healthy tank mates. You’ll also want to remove almost half of the breeder fish per year and replace them with new fish so their genetics stay strong and they continue to produce healthy babies.
Now that you know how to safely breed and care for feeder fish, you can ensure that you’re giving your predatory fish the best nutrition possible while providing them with plenty of enrichment!
