# Feeder Fish????



## Goontar (Jun 13, 2009)

I have an up and coming tiger O that is ravenous to say the least and so far i have feed him crickets, meal worms, freeze dried krill and Hikari pellets. Now I know that feeder fish are a "No Go" but i also have a breeding pair of Neolamprologus Brevis that pop out about 40 fry on almost a monthly basis and i have been growing some of these out in the hopes of trading them in for fish food at my local PS. Sadly they are full and i still have quite a few babies left between .5 and 1 inch long. My question is can i feed these to my oscar and if so how often and if not why not???

I am new to the oscar game so any and all advise will be much appreciated.


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## kmuda (Nov 27, 2009)

Feeders you grow yourself are perfectly fine to feed to an Oscar, but beware.

Feeders that are faster than the Oscar are a big danger. Oscar's are very clumsy fish. I've seen then bash themselves into oblivion attempting to catch feeders, including taking out huge gashes of skin (and flesh) on decorations or the expose lips of HOB filter outflows..... and keep going after the feeder fish regardless, causing more damage.

As a result, athletic fish used as feeders are a potential hazard.

I tried to get rid of a group of convict fry by feeding them to my Oscar. He almost killed himself before he gave up. One of those feeders lived with him for several years before he got cocky and stood his ground (I guess). I woke up one morning and the Oscar had killed him, pinning him under a piece of driftwood. I guess that was payback.

As bad as it sounds, you may want to stun the feeder before adding it to the tank.


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## Dj823cichild (Mar 30, 2009)

Yeah I agree with Kmuda. I did feeders one time and my Oscar was running into the filters, decorations, and heater in attempt to catch the feeders. He had a nice gash on his side to ugh! lol


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## Goontar (Jun 13, 2009)

Well i just fed him one and long story short the way i feed the Fry its easy for me to catch them one at a time. so i just held one by the tail in the water and Fat boy came up and snatched him right out of my fingers. I think this might be a winning play!!! Now every day i give him a little of everything from the diff. types of food i listed earlier, are feeders a every day thing or should i make it a once in a while thing????


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## kmuda (Nov 27, 2009)

I would consider them a once and while thing. If fed to often, your Oscar will start to refuse other foods.


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## TheFishGuy (Apr 21, 2005)

I agree, while the feeder africans are great for the oscars health. Quality pellet food is even better...

Great advice kmuda. Would you consider joining the staff as a mod in this folder? I seem to be very short on time lately and if I wasn't sitting here icing my knee I would be outside doing God knows what. LOL


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## PepoLD (Dec 9, 2009)

> Great advice kmuda. Would you consider joining the staff as a mod in this folder?


Kmuda would be an amazing mod imo 

+10


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## Dj823cichild (Mar 30, 2009)

The boy got skillz! :thumb:


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## Ralphy The Oscar (Mar 17, 2010)

Yeah its true Oscars will chase a feeder forever until they get the prize, If i feed my O a feeder i make sure hes ready for it, when i have the feeder in the net i let the oscar get close then i release the feeder and my oscar pounces fast so he doesn't run into anything. *** had incidents where my oscar knocked over some decor to gulp the feeder down lol


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## Dj823cichild (Mar 30, 2009)

Good Idea Ralphy! :thumb:


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## Goontar (Jun 13, 2009)

*** been feeding them by hand to my O. he'll even come almost 1.5 inch out of the water to get them. so there is no chasing or anything like that.


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## lilly22 (Aug 26, 2010)

:fish: Hi dear all,

This is Lilly Michelle. I have visited this forum.What is feeder fish? I want to know this.so please give me some more information of Feeder fish.Thank you.

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## PepoLD (Dec 9, 2009)

inexpensive fish used to feed your Cichlids, in big species Goldfish, in small guppies most of times


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## TheFishGuy (Apr 21, 2005)

Feeder fish is something that's relative to the fish being fed. Some feeder fish can be 6". I fed 6-8 in blue gill to my catfish for a while...


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## walterharris (Sep 19, 2010)

Im thinking about buying an automatic fish feeder for a pond. Not a big pond, so Ill be getting one of the small cheap feeders. Anyone have any experience with the auto feeders? The pond is close to the road, so Im planning on making up something to make it difficult to run off with.


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## kinley121 (Nov 1, 2010)

I think this site is awesome. I absolutely no idea what a feeder fish was and now I know what it is and what do we grow as feeders. I didnÃ¢â‚¬â„¢t know people used to grow fish to feed other fish. According to this site not all fish can be grown as food for other fish. I didnÃ¢â‚¬â„¢t like the fact that gold fish are grown as feeders. I think they just cute pets.


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