I need your recommendations

[jimmyk]

If i can not drop food costs I am going to have to sell/trade some big fish. :(

I have a 120 with a:
17" clown knife
14" Oscar
and a
12" spotted shovelnose catfish.

The feeding of these guys is getting to be much more expensive than I anticipated. Does anyone have any ideas about a broad spectrum food I could use to supplement or replace feeders? Several of these fish are rescue and will take pellets or feeders. My only requirement for the food is that the clown knife will eat the pellets. I can work on training him once I have an idea of what is available.


I would need the food to be fairly large caliber, and fairly inexpensive. (these fish eat 3-4" goldfish feeders with no problems)

It would need to be sinking since I have a W/D sump on the tank.

[supersmirky]

Mice produce like crazy...why not little hoppers? In house production?

[REYREY]

haaa... little micey..... hehehehhe...

now.... kensfish.com look there... great food.... great prices for larger sizes on the pellets and such.... if the knife fish does not take to them quickly.... get some garlic extract from the store and soak the pelets or sticks... that will get all the fish eating....

but.......... big discounts on the cost for food...

let me know.....I am going to place an order soon....we can save a little on shipping costs....

anything else will kill you with costs associated with running a breeder tank and the such.... live foods end up costing sooo much!!!!

[endo213]

get u a tank set up with platies.

[sap]

order bulk foods from Ken's....go to the feed store and get tilapia feed..... it comes in a 50 lb sack.

[jimmyk]

I found some food at http://www.jandjaquafarms.com/ the 22 lb bag for 4 bucks+ shipping. .

These guys were going through 100 large feeders in a week and ignoring any pellet food unless the feeders were gone... but hopefully this will all work and thanks for the idea about the garlic that will really help out!

[biggin]

Have you thought about growing your own feeders?

[ElijahTurtle]

Have you thought about trying Dog Food....
My Pastor used to feed his catfish dry dog food. That pond had the fattest, healthiest catfish I have ever seen.
Yeah I know it's a crazy thought.

[biggin]

I have used dog food for fishing but most of it floats.

[sap]

i would think dog food in a aquarium could foul the water up quick.....causing more money spent on chemicals and water changes...bulk fish foods online is the way to go....

[Austin]

I have 3 oscars at 10"-14", 2 green terrors at 4"-6", 1 20" silver arowana, 1 13" lima shovelnose, 1 7" jardini arowana and 5 clown loaches. I make my own food. try searching for european shrimp mix or pm me and i'll help out.

[flamenco-t]

Smelt - $ 1.99 per lb at the chinese grocery store
Market Shrimp - $ 4.50 per lb at albertsons
Krill - $ 8.50 er lb at DFS

The above is only for treats...

The main diet is Hikari Massivore delight 2.2 lbs at $ 44
Arowana Stix 2.2 lbs at $ 40
Hai Feng $ 30 per lb.

I tried growing my own feeders, but it takes too long and my fish can devour 100 3/4" convicts within minutes..

Diet Schedule -

1/2 - 3/4 cup of pellets per day

I feed frozen 2-3 times per week, consist of 8-10 smelts, 20 pieces of krill and 5-6 pieces of shrimp

My fish are -

Bichris-
Endlicheri 15" and 7"
Lapradei 14"
Ornate 13" and 7"
Delhezi 8" and 6"
Buettikoferi 6"
Senegalus 6"

Datnoids-

2 Widebars 10-11"
1 Indo 12"
6 Indos 6"
2 Thin Bars at 7" and 5"

Arowanas -

4 Black aros at 14"
1 Leichardti at 12"

Catfish -

Tigrinus 9"
Juruense 8"

Others-

Fei Feng - 15" and 6"
Clown Knife 18"
Jade Goby 11"
Blood Parrots 2 at 6"
Severum 9"
Florida Gar 12"

[REYREY]

nice selection of fish...

nice food bill.....

let us know when the fish fry happens..... I have some I can through in!!!! LOL!!!!!:D

[flamenco-t]

Yeah, i'll have to charge a door fee at around 50-100 bucks per person and BYOB lol

flamenco-t added 9 Minutes and 1 Seconds later...

Back to original topic,

In the end, pellets are your cheapest and most healthy diet you can give to your fish. Feeders are so full of disease and not too mention, they get expensive after a while.

Get your fish to train on pellets...it's not easy but all my fish are trained on them.

My recipe ? Determination and creativity..

For example, my big indo dat. He was never on pellets or frozen, the original owner fed him on feeders all the time.

Step 1. Starve them for a week.

Step 2. Start with krill, drop one at a time...and try to have the krill "jump" into the tank. Fish are trained to look up for prey. Do this in a dimmed light environment, if the fish are in a room, turn the main light off and run a night light if you can.

If he shows no sign of interest, pick up the krill and wait 2 more days.

Keep trying...it may take a week, it may take a month. (btw, fish will not starve themselv to death, they have strong survival skills, in the end, they will give in..). My Lapraide bichir did not eat for 6 weeks.

Step 3. After they took, their first krill. Wait for another 2-3 days.

Step 4. Start feeding them on krills daily (about 2-3 pieces per day) for a week.

Step 5. Once they are used to eating 2-3 krills per day, start alternating krill and pellets. I'd do 1 krill, then 1 pellet, then 1 krill, then 1 pellets and etc.

he may not take pellet on the first try, but keep trying...

Step 6. Start alternating to 1 krill for 2 pellets, then 1 krill to 2 pellets and etc..

Step 7. Take the krill completely off and just do pellets..

I used krill because in my experience, fish loves the orange color, it stand out just like fisherman uses colored bait.

It takes time, I have fish converted within 2 weeks, I have fish that took 2 months..but the end results is much better for you..healthier fish and lesser food bill..

I used frozen stuff mainly for calcium purpose only.. the shell and bones provides a lot fo calcium than no pellets can provide.

stan

[tsunderl]

Holy cow, Flamenco! What do you have those monsters housed in???

[biggin]

He has perhaps one of the cleanest looking tanks I have seen.

[flamenco-t]

The larger one is on a 240 and the smaller guys is in a grow out which is a 75 gallon tank.

240 uses drip system, running 50 gallons per day of freshwater in at 2 gallons per hour rate. Within 1 week, the tank changes about 55-65% of the water on its own.

75 uses massive filtration, AC 100, Eheim 2217 and Fluval FX5. I do WC twice a week at 50% rate.

I am looking for a 120 gallon for the grow out and will be doing drip system as well on the new setup once I move out to a house lol

[REYREY]

DUDE... MY BRO HAS THAT 125 GALLON CHUBBY TANK FOR SALE....200...

TANK AND STAND.... 4 BY 2 BY 2 OR SOMETHING LIKE THAT....

LET ME KNOW IF YOU WANT ME TO SHAKE HIS arse DOWN TO GET HIM TO MOVE ON IT.... IT IS SITTING IN HIS GARAGE COLLECTING DUST....

i AM NOT HAPPY WITH THAT... CUZ...




MTS



lol!!!!!



LET ME KNOW

[laurelty4]

try night crawlers, $3 tub from Walmart. plus you can make your own tablets. I'll try and find the recipe. its in one of my books somewhere. I have a 2ft arowana, 2-12 inch Oscars, a 8 inch sun cat and 2- 1.5 ft Turshiki cats in one tank, plus a 9 inch Xingu pike in another tank, and a 5 inch Leopard Ctenopoma in another. So I understand what you mean by cost of feeding them :)

get you a colony of convicts going? breed/grow quicker than livebearers

[sap]

http://www.aquacultureoftexas.com/prices.htm