Saltwater Feeder fish

[MrCote]

Does anyone know of any feeder fish that will live in saltwater. I have a one gallon tank that is plumbed into my system and it is filtered, aerated, and heated saltwater. I have been buying brackish water feeder guppies and have tried a one hour acclimation from brackish water to saltwater and out of 10 of them only 2 survived for 3 days. So I would like cheap feeder fish that I can keep alive in the one gallon tank for as long as I need them to stay in there for. I heard mollies are easy to breed and do good in saltwater but I dont think they would be willing to breed in a one gallon tank.

 

[Steven Pro]

Mollies will acclimate, but they are not really as cheap as feeder guppies.

 

[Edward]

Some of my friends with aggressive fish they feed feeders have Molly grow out tanks and just breed them. They breed like rabbits and are very easy to care for.

 

[Sherri]

I have been breeding mollies for a while for my lions. But now my lions eat everything I put in the tank so am thinking about giving up on the mollies. I agree that 1 gallon might be too small but you could try with one pair. You do need to take more time to acclimate them though. 1 hour is too quick. When I go from fresh to salt I take like 10 hours or so with a very slow drip. You would need to do at least 4 hours I would think going from brackish water. You can lower salinity faster than you can raise it. The fish has a lot of adapting to do in just 1 hour. What are you feeding them to?

 

[MrCote]

I am feeding them to My antennata lionfish. And will feeder guppies be able to acclimate from brackish to full salt water and live? I was thinking about giving them like a 6 or 8 hour acclimation but that would be kind of hard to do seeing as you only get about 2 cups of brackish water with them. So I was thinking of every hour raise the salinity a tiny bit by mixing up a seperate gallon of water taken from my tank and add freshwater to it to bring the salinity down and keep doing this every hour until I get the salinity up to 1.025. But I just dont want to waste a whole day doing this if it isnt going to work. Have you ever had success doing this sherri?

 

[jarrodsanborn]

Feeder guppies will convert to full salt water if you do it slow enough. The fancy guppies have a bit harder of a time with it. I never saw my feeders breed in the full salt water though.......

 

[Skeeter7424]

(this is turtletrax624) go SLOWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW I have not even done it because i know that we do not even have enough time to do it. I would say drip acclimation is the best way to do it. As we have all learned in the salt water hobbiest world, everything takes time, even when it has to do with the cheapest thing you can think of, such as feeder fish. I am usually horrible with my feeder fish for my terrapin who lives in a brackish environment, but I know that in a salt it would take time. I feel that if you put in the money, we might as well put in the time.

 

[Skeeter7424]

guppies are amazing at breeding, they are live barriers, if you are in the fresh water world, as a hobbiest, most consider a pain in the @$$.... but if you are using them as a feeder fish, like I was, I think its a great idea. Best "free" way to support the hobby, but I suggest allowing them to grow in a separate tank, such as a 10 gallon fresh to get some size to them so the can be a substantial amount of food as a feeder than just an appetizer. imo.

 

[Sherri]

Mrcote -- I have never tried the guppies so I cannot tell you. What I can tell you is that the mollies acclimate and breed without any problems as long as you get the right kind of mollie. If you want to come and take a male and female pair -- they are yours. My lions are completely on frozen now and I am thinking of putting an angler in this tank!

 

[MrCote]

thank you very much for the offer but mason New Hampshire is very far from me.