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Re: feeder fish
Alysoun writes:
> Either these numbers are inflated, or I'm doing something *really* wrong.
> I've raised each of the above (except danios) and never had that kind of
> return. Not enough to 'pay for' the effort that goes into them. Initial
> spawn, yes... but not surviving fry, after a few weeks.
>
> What are your actual survival rates, to a size that they'd be useful food
> for a large fish?
That's a fair question. I've never kept danios, but I can get survival rates
approaching 90% up to 1/2 inch. After that, I quit losing fry. This requires
larger tanks, and lots of water changes. However, I generally feed my
convicts off before they are 1/4 inch. After that, the dorsal fins get fairly
sharp leading rays. Even 18 inch Oscars will eat 1/4 inch fry. It does,
however take a bunch of them to do the job. I had a friend who raised them to
1 inch for his arowana, and he raised only about 1/10 of his fry to that size,
and still had plenty to give away.
Bob Dixon