Are Feeder Fish a Good Option

jbassking · Apr 28, 2021

I was thinking of buying around 30 minnows for my tank to feed my larger fish while we're away. What I'm wondering is, would the fish then expect live fish to feed on and in turn go to eat some of the smaller fish in our tank? We typically feed them frozen cubes and silversides. The eel, grouper and wrasse usually eat an entire silverside while the others will feed on smaller pieces or pick apart one that I hold in the water.

Here's what we have:

Snowflake Eel ~ 24"
Miniatus Grouper (he's new) ~ 6"
Oriental Sweetlips (he's new) ~ 6"
Formosa Wrasse ~6"
Columbian Shark (catfish) ~ 5"
Mono - Large ~ 4" - 4.5"
Yellow Tang ~ 4.5 "
Blue Hippo Tang - ~ 3.5"
3 Ocellaris Clown. From 2.25" - 3"
Marine Betta ~ 4.25"
2 Chromis 2.5" & 3.5"
Pajama Cardinal 2.75"
Macolor Snapper ~ 4.25"

lion king · Apr 29, 2021

Not a good idea. 1st off minnows are a bad food choice, nutritionally they have very negative consequences, being a temporary solution you can kind of forgive this one. Minnows also have a tendency to bind in the gut, causing bloat and death. Was someone going to feed for you or were you going to put them all in, the fish would gorge again causing bloat and death. The chromis, cardinals, and clowns will all eventually be food for the grouper, sweetlips, and snapper anyway.