Camacho

i was wondering what can i breed that is easy so i can feed my cichlids live food that has no illnesses? i was think those blue and red little tiny fish i see all the time at petshops but idk is there different choises? something that could fit into a 1-5 gall tank

Nick G

By the little red and blue fish I assume you mean Neons? I wouldn't bother with them as they're pretty tricky to breed. The easiest fish to breed for feeders is the Guppy.

Camacho

are guppys my only choice?

Nick G

No, but they're by far the easiest. Platies, Mlloies and Swortails are easy to breed too, as are Convicts and Kribs, but all of these fish need a lot more space to grow up than Guppies do. You could breed anything you wanted as feeders really.

Camacho

ok cool thanks.... now i keep seeing peas? what kind of peas? and do u boil them first

thorpbrian

I just use ordinary frozen peas. I mircowave them for 30 secs, remove the outside casing from each individual pea, cut it into smaller peices and feed them to my goldfish.

And guppies would be the easiest to breed as feeder fish. If it were me I'd buy several of the feeder guppies and then put them in their own tank. I'd feed them well and get them in good shape, making sure they didn't have any diseases and let them breed. After you know they don't have any disease and begin to breed I'd use them to feed your cichlids. This would be much better than actually buying the feeder fish from the store and feeding them to your fish because most of the ones from the store aren't very healthy. By keeping them for awhile getting them into good health and letting them breed you'd be able to give your cichlids some fish that actually have nutritional value and are disease free.

Camacho

cool thank you guys now will the guppies eat the eggs or the young?

Gouramiguy17

They are livebearers which means they give birth to lovenyoung and they will eat their young if they are in the same tank

Tony G.

I agree, guppies are the easiest. I have found that the light cream colored ones dont eat the fry. I dont know why, but they dont. All other females ive kept eat them, so if you dont want them to be eaten go with cream colored fems. You could also separate the fry into a maternity or breeding box untill they grow big enough to be used as food

Slug

What type of cichlids do you have that you want to feed?

Camacho

i got JD's and convicts

sirdarksol

Some guppies eat their young, others don't. It's down to particular lines. For example, some purple Moscows don't, and other purple Moscows do.
It will be hard (though not impossible) to breed healthy guppies in a 5g tank.
It may be impossible to breed enough to have a steady supply for your cichlids.
The small tank will allow nitrates to build fast enough that it will wear on the guppies, weakening their immune systems, forcing their bodies to use much of their nutrients to survive and stay healthy.
A few guppies could survive very happy and healthily in a 5g, but a decent-sized breeding colony would produce too much nitrogen, I think.

bolivianbaby

Convicts don't require live food, but if you have a pair, they'll have enough fry to feed the JD's. All you need is a 20 gallon tank for them.

How many convicts do you have and could you list them in your aquarium info, please?