Feeder Fish as Pets? O_o;

KerrieBerrie

KerrieBerrie

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Aug 10, 2006
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I'm just curious as to what kind of fish the standard 'feeder fish' at pet stores like Petco are.

My friend actually keeps one as a pet, and it's lived for a couple years already. It made me wonder what they are.. o_o And how they should be kept as pets.
 
Actually the feader goldfish can live an extremely long time if well taken care of--like in the 15-30yrs range. The problem is that they need really big tanks per fish and grow to quite large sizes and create a lot of waste. So the best way to keep them is put as few as possible in the biggest tank possible with the best possible water care.

Some of the feeders are minnows or guppys, though, and they have shorter lives I think. I don't know anything about their care, besides that they probably can be kept like other fish.
 
guppies do in fact have shorter lives, but that has to do with their metabolism being so high, and that is because the supplier of the feeder guppies raises the temperature of the water in the breeder tanks to around 90 so that the babes in the females develop at crazy speeds... almost a brood a week. they think all of their fish are going to have short lives anyway, so why wait a monthy for a single brood with the temp at 75 when you could have a brood a week when the teps are at 90. that way also, the guppies are feeder size faster, so the supplier can make money faster.
 
yeah, I was thinking about getting a few to put in with my betta. ( I already know what they say about guppies and bettas; my betta is very peaceful.)
 
I got a "feeder guppy" hitchhiker in a bag of ghost shrimp. I barely saw it as it was just a newborn, but I put it in a breeder net with some java moss and it's grown quite a bit in the last month or two. I think it's a female as it is now large enough it should be showing the male reproductive organ. My wife got attached to it right away and named it Baby Bob, hehe. It's destined to end up in the tank with my betta once it grows out a bit more, because it wouldn't last an hour in my Krib tank outside of the breeder net.
 
the only difference between feeder fish and their "fancy" relatives is that feeders are the "wild type" or how that fish would appear in the wild. the "fancy" ones are selectively bred for color, fin length, fin shape, body shape, etc. any fish can be a feeder. many people breed convict cichlids as feeders. usually feeders are fish that are easy to breed and produce a lot of babies relatively quickly.
 
My boss bought feeder goldfish for our concrete pond at work 2 years ago (pond about 12 ft long, 4 ft wide and 3 ft deep, and even after a complete clean up/renovation of the pond, with the GF who could be caught vacationing in an big borrowed aquarium, they live on and will be facing their third winter. Each fish is more than 4" long (originally about 1") and each have changed colors over the years. One went from carrot color to ghostly white (months ago I thought it was sick, but nope) and now has hints of deep yellow; another is deep carrot colored; others are taking on some black. They are all slim and have pretty but not fancy tails. The GF and too many minnows seem to be doing well.
 
I have 2 ponds out back (~200 gallons each) with feeder goldfish, which also serve to feed the turtles back there.

We've had 'em a few years, they're a good 6-7'', some good coloration, and have babies every year. We bought 10 origionally, and now there are over 30, including all the babies the turtles eat.

Feeder goldfish are super hardy, they survive the winters here where a 2-3 inch layer of ice forms, and you can see them still swimming underneath the ice.....
 
a good friend of mine has a large tank with a turtle in it, and some HUGE feeder goldfish in them. we cant figure out how, but they grew to be over 10" long! he has never fed them, and acctually they were suppoed to be food, but the turtle decided not to eat them
 
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