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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