White cloud as feeders?

[morphyrichards]

If it's above 24 degrees Celsius as I suspect, then dropping them in your axie tank seems just a bit cruel to me.

I agree with this. I started off raising guppies as feeders in a separate 20L tank, where they were happy enough. When I put them in the colder axie tank though (even after trying to slowly acclimatise them) the difference in them was painful to watch. They would become completely sluggish and unable to swim properly, looking utterly miserable until Ro finally found and sucked them up. It seemed a really horrible way for the gups to have to go and meet their maker so I stopped doing that.

I now have white cloud mountain minnows in the tank with Ro, she enjoys chasing them occasionally (but rarely) catches any. The minnows are good tank mates because they are clean and don't go for Ro's gills or anything.

Additionally I started breeding cherry shrimp in a little 20L tank, I started off with 9 and after a couple of months I had too many to count. I've added some of these to Ro's tank as well, they are great little housekeepers, cleaning out all those hard to reach nooks and crannies where I cant reach with the turkey baster, produce next to no waste, they breed in there too and Ro snaps one up whenever she can.

It's also good to know I can go away on holiday for a couple of weeks and there will be enough in the tank to keep Ro happy.

Most importantly though is the staple diet of earthworms I feed her, one big one every couple of days or so or a small one every day depending on what I can get hold of.

 

[JWERNER]

As far as I know, guppies are tropical fish...does anyone know what temperature a guppy should be kept at? If it's above 24 degrees Celsius as I suspect, then dropping them in your axie tank seems just a bit cruel to me, after all, the guppy is probably going to survive hours or even days before being caught. I'm a little uncomfortable with the idea of feeder fish, but if you're going to do it, at least use a fish such as a White Cloud Mountain Minnow, which is adapted to cold water and of a speed which gives it a fighting chance.

I have had Guppies breed at room temps in plenty of Vivs/Paludariums.

Im sure a Axolotols tank, unless your using a chiller to make it way colder, is fine.

 

[ted22]

wcmm are good i had bout 15 with my axie about a month ago and got bout 4 left in axie tank now (yum yum), because theyre faster they seem to last that little bit longer than guppys but i cant get the little buggers to breed I got a seperate breeding tank for them and everything but no luck! I got guppies coming out of my ears tho i end up with 100 or so every month without doing anything except my usual waterchanges! I only put the guppies into axie tank a couple at a time as they seem to produce alot more waste than the wcmm and cant be bothered to keep hoovering my sand!

WCMM are great little fish but from my experience (which is abit limited) they wont breed as readily as the guppies. all my guppies are at room temp (a little cooler in the axie tank) and seem to be thriving! Ive never even seen a wcmm egg or fry or anything and been trying for a good 3-4 months!

(bear in mind that as the wcmm fry are so tiny you will have to find a source of micro food (infusoria/microworms) for them! guppy fry just eat crushed version of the adult food!)

I have also used zebra danios as feeders as my lfs has them at same price as wcmm, they are bloody fast little fish so thought they might stand a good chance, no chance! they are as quick or quicker than wcmm and abit bigger but because they dont seem to be scared of anything they quickly get eaten by swimming to close to gomez's mouth!

Id say if you are after a self sufficient food source id go for a 10-15 gal of guppies and red cherry shrimp and a 5-7 gal for the fry and baby shrimp to grow in (you may want another small tank for the male/females so you can separate them if it all gets outta control!) you will have baby fish and shrimp every 4weeks or so!)

All in all the minnows are great little fish stunning looking little things up close, but for ease and simplicity go for guppies they are good fun to breed and the girls have abit more meat on em than wcmm so might be more nutritious!

Just remember to quarrantine any fish before putting em in with axies unless they are home bred so know for sure that they are free of parasites and other nastys!

Id just go guppy and shrimp you will have a plentiful constant supply with no extra effort on your part! (because of lack of breeding going on I now just buy wcmm like i would crickets or other treats I get 10 - 20 every month or two put em in quarrantine for 30days and pop em in the main tank as and when needed!

Good luck with what ever you go for, breeding fishys is fun!

 

[morphyrichards]

seem to last that little bit longer than guppys but i cant get the little buggers to breed I got a seperate breeding tank for them and everything but no luck!

I came back from holiday recently and I noticed three tiny tiny little WCMM fry swimming around near the surface, they were in a sort of little enclosure made by some overlapping plant leaves that must have kept them safe somehow. Next day I could only see one so I've removed it from the tank and made a temporary 'fry-arium' out of a chinese takeaway container with a little airstone bubbling gently. I got something called "liquifry 1" which has microscopic food particles suspended in liquid for a few quid from a lfs and am using that to feed it.

A while ago when I was using guppies as feeders there was one female yellow which I think must have been the equivalent of a guppy Macgyver, it lasted for months when all it's fellow guppies had been gobbled after just a few hours. It eventually got eaten after I did a spot of 'gardening' and accidentally took away all it's hiding places which was a shame because we'd got quite attached to it, (we even named it, "Guppy" the guppy). Amazingly though in it's last moments on earth it must have managed to squeeze out one single fry which I rescued and it now lives in an ornamental glass vase bowl thing. When the WCMM fry gets big enough it can go and join Son of Guppy in the bowl. (Minnow, the minnow and Guppy II, the guppy). We're getting quite a collection of extra unintended little pets.

A few of the female WCMM's in the tank with Jim and Ro look like they might be gravid so I'm keeping an eye out for more fry, if there is any more and if manage to figure out what it is that's encouraging them to breed I'll post it on here.

 

[Jadore axolotl]

Just thought I should throw in my two cents here,
about oh maybe 8 months ago I decided to try and use some feeder fish for my two axolotls and my yellow belly slider. Basically all I done was take female guppies from my community aquarium and let them give birth in both the axolotl and turtle tanks and then put them back in the community aquarium. The fry have been in the tanks now for a few months and a lot more than I thought have survived to adulthood in both tanks and neither the turtle or axolotls seem interested in them at all. The guppies in the axies tank swim into their hides and in all sections of the tank but the axolotls never pay any attention to them yet when it comes to feeding time they eat like savages! Basically my point is you may end up with a lot more fish than you had planned if your axies like mine just don't seem to want to eat feeder fish!

 

[bitenomnom]

Re: the guppy temperature, I'm not super experienced with guppies or anything, but I've had a handful of (fancy, I think?) guppies for a little over a month in an area where I'd say the average temp is 18-19C and they seem fine. At least two or three of the five females are pregnant.

 

[blackdog]

@ Steve & Ed, the cherry shrimp look really cool and interesting!

You said your guys snap them up every now and again.

Do the exo skeletons give the axies any grief? I guess with shrimp i always think of the ones on the barbie , i wouldn't want the axies to have anything sharp in their mouths.

What has been your experience?

Bren

 

[morphyrichards]

@ Steve & Ed, the cherry shrimp look really cool and interesting!

You said your guys snap them up every now and again.

Do the exo skeletons give the axies any grief?
What has been your experience?

Bren

The cherry shrimp only grow to about an inch, and you can sort of see their internal organs through their chitin so I think it's pretty thin and relatively unlikely to cause injury.

Sometimes a few of them come out of their hiding places to graze on little bits of detritus on the sand and when that happens Speckled Jim actually stalks them like a cat. She seems to notice them from the other side of the tank (who says axl's have bad eyesight?) and creeps up on them slowly, she actually hides behind rocks and plants, moving closer until she is basically on top of them and then goes for one ... and nine times out of ten misses! The shrimp shoots off, they can really kick up a burst of speed. It's great fun to watch, gives the axl's something to be interested in and I think it must be pretty close to recreating their natural way of feeding.

 

[blackdog]

Thanks Steve, I am really enjoying learning about axies and all these off shoots!