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hi guys,ive often seen some fish keepers feeding there oscars,gts,red devils,etc,etc,smaller lizards from the garden,do u think this is a good practise,ive could never bring myself to do it,(im not sure about parasites and things),when i spoke to my local vet(exp fish keeper)he strongly advised me against this,he said that becasue the lizards live in the grass/garden full time they build up ammunity to pestisides,and could pass these toxins into your tank.do any of you guys use lizards...

in the wild those cichlids will eat one if it swam across in front of it
jsut like a small mouth bass will eat a frog and a pike will eat a dck or squirrel
i think it is ok
my piranhas get live lobsters and when smaller got pinky mice

live food brings best health i believe

Be careful collecting things from outside to feed your fish. It will be carrying any chemicals spread on your yard or any yard nearby. If you live in a city or with lots of neighbors that may be spraying their yard it's best to just pass it up entirely. You can usually buy various forms of live food from pet stores. Crickets, mealworms, baby mice... I've occasionally bought packs of feeder crickets to give the fish.

sorry to crash your thread HOKESE,
but how did the mentioned fish keepers catch the lizards? i wanted to keep 1 as a pet
u are talking about small skinks,right?

i do use live foods,but not from outside,i get all my live foods(except feeder fish,breed my own)from my lfsand yes im talking about the little garden skinks,do you know if you can buy these little lizards from local fish stores,i think my flowerhorn would love to chase one down and devour it if i cant find them in a store,do u guys think it would be ok,if i went and caught some from bushland,theres some bushland not far from my place i could catch some there,that way there would be no chance of any toxins or chemicals...and as for catching them,i pretty sure he got them from the bushland im talking about,it was my old nextdoor neigbour,and i think he just took a insect catcher with a sterdy pair of gloves and started turning over rocks and logs and stuff like that

I am not a fan of feeding live stuff but if I were I wouldn't chuck a garden captured crawlie inta my tanks. I would worry it had just eaten a poison pellet or walked across ant rid or aphid-b-gone or somesuch.

Then hey presto & Pfft, poisoned fish. Not worth rising it when you have nurtured your tank inhabitant for sometimes years. If you enjoy feeding live foods (not considered all that nutritious by some btw... just entertainment, which is fine if that is what you are into) then buy well or breed 'em.

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~~~ My fish blow kisses at me all day long ~~~

mmmmmm,i see your point,this is a touchy subject too,some fishkeepers frown heavly upon live foods while other swear by them.irekon ill just get em from the bush,no chance of any nasties getting into my tanks then...

hey guys,i went up and got some lizards from the bushland near my place,and wow i thought that my fish loved worms and feeder fish,you should my flowerhorn and my jds wolf the lizards down,the force that my jds took it with they just ripped it in half,and my flowerhorn the lizard bearly even hit the water and it was gone,and he was ready for the next 1,if yous can get some give em try,the fish LOVE EM

ps,and no the jds and the flowerhorn are not togehter.

They should appreciate the trouble you went to.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~ My fish blow kisses at me all day long ~~~

yeah but it was no trouble i was only up there for like 15 mins,and i got quite a few lizards,i will keep doing this but only as a treat for em...

Hi,
Not knowing what this fish was or looked like I did a
search and found this site:

http://www.aquaticcommunity.com/universal-viewid273.html

On another site I found where some were 10 inches
or more large. Ya really want a BIG tank for these
critters.

Frank


-->>> The Confidence of Amateurs, is the Envy of Professionals <<<--

you mean you have never seen a flowerhorn,and yes you do need a big tank,im just currently healing up 3 oscars for my mate,then my fh is going into my 200gal,he is 28cm now and is screaming for a bigger tank.he is currently in only a 75gal,and last nite i had to put my 2 jds in the 75gal with a divider a i said im fixing up the 3 oscars.

Somehow as a lizard keeper of old it seems weird to feed intelligent charming little lizards like skinks to a fish. Lizards across the globe are having pressure put on them for survival,global warming will ensure that lizard population worldwide will be taking a kicking, basically as it has a huge bearing on egg incubation, sex determination and hatching rates.Even if the skinks are livebearers, they will still be under immense pressure now.So many herpetologists around the globe are working their little behinds off trying to preserve reptile species and the diversity of populations around the world it seems a travesty just to go out and help yourself to an animal that is now undoubtedly facing a grim future and needs every individual possible to help save the species.

Seems a shame to waste such a fragile and special little life on something like a bloody fish in a tank to be perfectly honest. And thats coming from someone who keeps a hell of a lot of fish.

Lizards are also a prime host for salmonella and a multitude of flagellate protozoans, and EVERY wild lizard will have a roundworm and a pinworm infection they simply dont come without them, the nature of their primarily worm, slug and snail diet basically ensures that 99% of all lizards are an intermediate host for parasitic worms, and quite possibly tapeworm too and you dont want that anywhere near your fish. Your fish can eat a whole range of easily available and cheap foods, theres no reason to stick it to the lizards. Some large fish keepers will collect frogs from various locales thinking it is a natural practise, but unless the species are verified as common there really is no excuse for this either. A human has hunting abilities that are massively more advanced and indescriminite compared to natural predators and evolution is not served by your intervention in the selection process of prey. Stick to the common foods and dont make an impact on your local environment.

Lots of people collect wild food for their animals, and largely if you stuck to just insects that reproduce in profusion its not so bad, but wild collecting reptiles and amphibians is now a hugely irresponsible thing to do. People do it, but that doesnt mean its not dumb to the point of bloody stupid. Not having a go at you in any way, just laying it down as it is for you. Those who have already adopted the habit need to have a severe think about changing their ways. I wouldnt do it, nor would I ever respect anyone who did. There are a thousand alternatives, and now with populations of reptiles and amphibians decreasing all over the world there is absolutely no excuse for wild collection outide of scientific purposes.If you wanna captive breed lizards to give to the fish, thats fine I guess, but wild collecting is now completely irresponsible. For zoo keepers of endangered species that wont feed any other way there is an excuse. For joe public there is no excuse. Times are such that we have to think about the consequences of what we do now.

As the keeper of a fish kept in an independant body of water you also have a responsibility to that fish, and for its wellbeing that means avoiding the parasites associated with wild living. This is because in a contained environment a host animal is basically captive prey, there is no parrallel between the captive environment and the wild one on so many levels its hard to know where to begin.Those who believe giving their fish wild food is somehow bringing it closer to nature are denying the reality of their position. Its an environmentally expensive, ridiculously romantic and basically erroneous point of view that can be scientifically disproven as valid at any level you care to choose. If you want to give your animal live food, breed that live food first, and vet it for suitability. Better yet do the sensible thing and buy what is already available, you will find your fish is admirably catered for.

There is also a noticably growing and sick fraternity of people who believe that ( probably as an excuse) giving a fish live prey stimulates the fish and enriches its life quality, and outide of increasing the chances of disease this might be true, but then if you really wanted to increase the life quality of a fish you would do so by enriching its environment to say a tank that might actually be more than just three times the length of the fish, and actually giving it something to look at, have to negotiate and feel comfortable in. When i look at someone who has a monster fish in a bare block of water barely big enough to turn around in somehow i dont get the feeling that environment enrichment or the improvement of life quality is their primary concern, so much as being cheapskates and getting a demented thrill from watching their animal tear something apart without having to pay goldfish prices. Im not saying this is what you do, but im finding growing evidence that a lot of this stuff is linked up , and i like to discourage any and all parts of it.

Wild food collection, under anything but exceptional circumstances where the survivability of a rare animal depends upon it , is not a good idea, on any level.

Taking the life of something like a wild lizard that actively contributes to its environment for a pet fish in a tank that will never contribute to the environment has to be surely one of the daftest things that anyone can do.

For ease of understanding ill put it into human terms.If i skewered your pet fish, barbequed it and ate it, youd be furious.Even past all the rage about losing a much loved pet youd be thinking I was an idiot , eating something to be needlessly vain, exotic, when I could have just gone and eaten a farm produced chicken and had a much better meal out of it to boot. Thats the point really. That fish of yours should be on its equivalent of my farmed chicken too.Its not a wild animal anymore. That life is over , and it can be happy eating any number of foods, just as I can.No hunting required.

ok i see where you are coming from,and not knowing about the lizards being in danger dosent sit with me to well ether,all i was trying to do was find a cheap way of adding more varity to my fishes diet,thats all,jeez im glad ive only gone up there once.well thanx for the tip,i guess ill just pass on the lizards.my jds and fh wont be happyi dont aggree with people having huge fish in a tank that can bearly turn ether,this is why my fh is going into my 200gal,and aslo its becoming hard to fill my fhs belly,im constanly after new food to keep him interested and full,healthy,not to keep his hunting skills on point,he is 28cm and still growing,thats soley the reason why i opted for lizards,and please dont pigen hole me with these other nitwits that are to tight to pay for goldfish or feeders,i dont even use goldfish as feeders,i use my own feeders from home

Cheers for the positive response bud, its nice to know that people care enough to do the right thing.

/:'

thats cool i just didnt want u to think that i was one of them nasty to animals people,ill also tell my freind who i got the idea from,NO MORE LIZARDS,BOYCOT THE LIZARDS

just something else,i found out today,that those little lizards are on the indangered list,so thanx again for making me see the light