Saltwater feeder fish

[mattman91]

I don't have anything that needs feeder fish, so this isn't a dire question, but I know there are obviously feeder goldfish and guppies for freshwater, but are there any live saltwater feeder fish that someone can buy? I have never seen any in a LFS, but I was wondering maybe online or something? Or is frozen the best we got?

 

[btldreef]

Quote:
Originally Posted by mattman91 http:///t/390679/saltwater-feeder-fish#post_3461054
I don't have anything that needs feeder fish, so this isn't a dire question, but I know there are obviously feeder goldfish and guppies for freshwater, but are there any live saltwater feeder fish that someone can buy? I have never seen any in a LFS, but I was wondering maybe online or something? Or is frozen the best we got?
Mollies can live in saltwater if acclimated properly. I've also used small damsels, small gobies, etc. Ideally, you want to get them onto frozen.

 

[wartooth1]

I don't recommend feeder fish since with feeder fish you run the risk of introducing diseases or parasites to your system.
If you really want to feed your tank something live, you could buy live brine shrimp eggs that hatch pretty quickly. You could raise them in a separate kit (which I've seen for like $15) and then feed your tank live brine shrimp.

 

[btldreef]

Quote:
Originally Posted by Wartooth1 http:///t/390679/saltwater-feeder-fish#post_3461151
I don't recommend feeder fish since with feeder fish you run the risk of introducing diseases or parasites to your system.
If you really want to feed your tank something live, you could buy live brine shrimp eggs that hatch pretty quickly. You could raise them in a separate kit (which I've seen for like $15) and then feed your tank live brine shrimp.
You can rule out risk of infection and parasites by QT'ing the fish you're feeding. You're going to want to feed them healthy foods to make them more nutritious to the fish you're feeding them to anyways.
Brine shrimp are a great little snack, but hold little nutrition, and for larger fish, such as a lionfish, they're not going to eat brine, you'll need the feeders to start converting them onto frozen. That's really what the feeders are for. Ghost shrimp work great as well, but can be very hard to find.

 

[wartooth1]

Well yeah that's true about brine but since the OP said he doesn't have anything that *needs* live food I only suggested it more as a want than as a need. Also after watching videos on youtube of corals catching and eating brine I'm wondering if introducing live brine shrimp to the tank would increase the chances the corals can capture the shrimp than just being lucky enough to have a dead frozen one drift into its mouth?

 

[btldreef]

It's probably about the same. I only feed live brine every once in a while just to give my fish something to do. I like watching the wrasses chase them around. I have live mysid living in my system, and they'll literally crawl over corals without being eaten, so I'm curious if the same is true of the brine.

 

[wartooth1]

I've seen some cool vids of dendros literally grab brin swimming by. I don't have any dendros (yet) but judging by the way I've seen my duncans and open brain welso grab food, I'd imagine a live brine shrimp wouldn't stand a chance ;')