# Where should I buy my feeder guppies?



## YMS_1975 (Jan 6, 2013)

I've been reading through a lot of posts and I'm quite overwhelmed. I apologize in advance if this has been answered previously, but when I did my search it literally came up with 99 pages for me to sort through. 

I'm in Brampton, and all I want to do is purchase healthy guppies (at a decent price) somewhere closeby, in the GTA. Not even sure how many I should purchase (perhaps somebody can make a suggestion in that respect to).

I wish to breed feeder guppies simply as food for my turtles. Not interested in keeping them as pets or anything like that. I have a very small 13.5 gallon rubbermaid bin (52 Litres) to house them in, an Aquaclear 70 filter (yes I realize it's a bit overkill for such a small tank/bin but I may upgrade to a 50 gallon (189 Litres) rubbermaid bin later on, and a CA water heater.

I purchased like 20 feeder guppies from Big Al's (in Brampton) but they all died the next day. As soon as I put them into the chlorinated treated water (I used ReptiSafe but will be using "Prime" next time), they all migrated towards the bottom of the container and sat there. The next day, they were all dead.

After reading several posts online, I came to the conclusion that Big Al's sells diseased fish (as numerous others shared this exact sentiment). So my questions are :

1) Where is a reputable place to purchase feeder guppies from?
2) How many should I purchase (for my purposes) ?

Anybody?


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## Y2KGT (Jul 20, 2009)

I think pretty much all feeder fish are in bad shape no matter where you get them. Save yourself a lot of trouble and feed your turtle dry foods which contain all the vitamins and minerals it needs to stay healthy.
--
Paul


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## solarz (Aug 31, 2010)

I don't think feeder guppies would offer much nutritional advantage over dry food. After all, what you get is what you put in. What would you be feeding those guppies? Flakes? Then your guppies will have the same nutritional value as those flakes.

If you've got your heart set on breeding guppies as feeders, I would just get some healthy guppies, 1 male and 3 females, from another hobbyist, and put them into a cycled tank.

Likely your previous guppies died because your rubbermaid container was not cycled.


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## Twilight (Sep 9, 2012)

If you want to feed your turtle fish, go down to your local market and buy some fillets. Cut them up into small pieces for your turtle, trust me, he will like that. Also, fillets are easy to keep cause you just need to put them in your freezer.

Guppies, goldfish or rosie minnows are never a good choice as a basis for any diet for any animal. I feed my turtle 3 different premium brands of turtle food along with fresh market food. It is good for him and he is growing fast. You can also feed them crayfish and earth worms from a bait shop.

What kind of turtle do you have? Some become more vegetarian as they grow.


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## Jackson (Jan 30, 2009)

You want to raise some good live foods as a treat try snails. My turtles eat them up like candy.


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## YMS_1975 (Jan 6, 2013)

*...*

Well,

These feeder guppies would not be their main staple, but rather a treat. I'm not too fond of the idea of feeding them frozen foods. Asides from the feeder guppies being an occasional treat, it would also allow them to mimic (sp?) their natural hunting instincts in the wild. And yes, I realize they're not actually in the wild.

I feed them Mazuri Freshwater Turtle food for their nutrients; this is just a treat.
I'll try the snails idea as well. Where can I get healthy snails and guppies close to Brampton, that has a good reputation???


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## solarz (Aug 31, 2010)

YMS_1975 said:


> Well,
> 
> These feeder guppies would not be their main staple, but rather a treat. I'm not too fond of the idea of feeding them frozen foods. Asides from the feeder guppies being an occasional treat, it would also allow them to mimic (sp?) their natural hunting instincts in the wild. And yes, I realize they're not actually in the wild.
> 
> ...


Just put up an ad here. I'm sure there's plenty of people with extra snails and guppies.


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