Feeder fish Totally Explained

Everything about Feeder Fish totally explained

Feeder fish is the generic name for certain types of inexpensive fish commonly fed as live prey to captive animals such as sharks and turtles.

Advantages of using feeder fish

The species of fish usually sold as feeder fish are invariably some of the easiest fish for fishkeepers to rear and breed, such as goldfish and guppies. Typically, these species are tolerant of overcrowding and have a high fecundity and rapid growth rate. This makes it easy for fish farmers, retailers, and hobbyists to maintain large populations of these fish that can sold off more cheaply than more delicate ornamental fish that require better conditions.
In some cases, species of predatory animals, typically large fish such as catfish and cichlids but sometimes also animals such as freshwater turtles, are provided with feeder fish because they accept them more readily than alternatives. Other animal keepers believe that feeder fish are particularly nutritious, being what their pets would eat in the wild. Still others view feeder fish as a stimulating treat that encourages predatory animals to exhibit their natural hunting behaviours. Some animal keepers simply enjoy watching the hunting and eating techniques involved when one animal eats another.

Disadvantages of using feeder fish

Many aquarists view the use of feeder fish as cruel and unnecessary. Since the feeder fish is dumped into a small tank it has no chance to escape, and such a contrived situation can't be considered “natural” in any meaningful sense. Most predatory species that eat live fish can also be weaned onto dead alternatives with more or less ease, so that the use of feeder fish in most situations tends to be because the aquarist wants to use them rather than needs to use them. Some of the species used as feeder fish (goldfish and rosy red minnows) contain high quantities of thiaminase, an enzyme that destroys Vitamin B1 and when fed in large quantities cause nutritional imbalances. Because of the squalid conditions under which feeder fish are reared and held, they're also likely to carry bacterial infections and parasites, and these can be passed along to any fish that eat them. The only safe fish to use as feeders are home-raised livebearers (mollies, platies, guppies). A large disadvantage of using feeder fish particularly goldfish is that they don't actually simulate what tropical fish are eating in the wild. They are less nutritious and often unhealthy because of the poor conditions they're kept thus providing an inefficient sustenance. Since they're kept in over crowded tanks they're prone to illness due to poor health from stress, overcrowding, lack of nutrition from competition for food. Most Aquarists wouldn’t introduce a new fish or other inhabitant into their tank if they knew it was raised in poor conditions. Many fish keepers won't introduce fish into their tank unless they're quarantined. Many feel simply it doesn’t make sense to jeopardize the health of their tank by tossing in unhealthy, undernourished disease prone feeder fish.

Species used

Several fast-growing and hardy species are commonly sold and used as feeder fish. Depending on the locality, feeder fish may include:

Low-quality guppies
Small cyprinids, particularly rosy red minnows and goldfish
Unwanted livebearer and cichlid fry
Female Siamese fighting fish
Young tilapia
Defective and weak fry
Young Bluegill

Opinions within the hobby

Although the use of feeder fish is fairly common in the United States, in the United Kingdom it's much less common, with aquarists and hobby magazines in Britain generally rejecting the use of feeder fish as being unnecessary and likely to cause health problems.

Legal considerations

In the UK, the Animal Welfare Act 2006 prohibits deliberate and “unnecessary suffering” to animals, but contrary to widespread belief, it doesn't explicitly outlaw the feeding of live feeder fish to other fish. However, it does prohibit introducing two animals for the purpose of “fighting, wrestling or baiting”. Nonetheless, the assumption is that a legal case could be made to class the use of feeder fish as a “fight” and though as-yet untried in the courts, the risk of such a prosecution has led many retailers and hobbyists simply to treat the use of feeder fish in the UK as illegal.

Further Information

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