Pellets vs Fish fillet - an observation

C

cephalofoil

Jack Dempsey
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Sep 17, 2013
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Has anyone ever had this experience. I've been weaning my mac piranha from fish fillet over to pellets for variety. I've been doing daily siphoning to remove uneaten food, and i've noticed there is a lot more fish poop than when compared to the all fish diet. Are pellets easier to digest?

When i was only feeding fish fillet i would never see any poop at all. Not any solid poop at least. anyone else experience this?

also i'm thinking about using hikari sinking carnivore pellets eventually, do they easily break down in water? The pellets i have now break too easily and cause a huge mess. Plus the ingredients are less than ideal.
 
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cephalofoil

Jack Dempsey
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Chicxulub said:
More poop = less of the food digested.
Click to expand...
dang i didn't even think of that. When i was reading the ingredients these are the first 5.

Shrimp meal, wheat gluten, wheat starch, krill and fish meal.

i was only using the pellets cause i had them on hand.

I guess the fillers or something aren't digestible and are causing more poop...i guess i'll switch to freeze dried or frozen krill.
 
Chicxulub

Chicxulub

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Pellets aren't neccessarily worse for your fish just because they poop more. Some high quality pellets are actually more nutritionally complete than fillets even WITH things like starch and ash on their ingredient list. Some of those undigestable substances are essential for supporting the elements that the fish needs. For example a particle of ash encrusted with trace minerals that your fish doesn't get from fillets. The ash will be pooped out, but it delivered things that your fish needs that it otherwise wasn't getting.
 
RD.

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Also keep in mind that the main constituent of fish flesh is water, which typically accounts for approx 70-80 per cent of the weight of a fresh fish fillet. Whereas the average water content of an extruded pellet is typically less than 10%. In order to compare solid waste on an equal scale one should really be comparing both foods on a dry matter basis.
 
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cephalofoil

Jack Dempsey
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Chicxulub said:
Pellets aren't neccessarily worse for your fish just because they poop more. Some high quality pellets are actually more nutritionally complete than fillets even WITH things like starch and ash on their ingredient list. Some of those undigestable substances are essential for supporting the elements that the fish needs. For example a particle of ash encrusted with trace minerals that your fish doesn't get from fillets. The ash will be pooped out, but it delivered things that your fish needs that it otherwise wasn't getting.
Click to expand...

wow haha i'm learning so much. okay! new plan. use up the rest of these pellets, then switch to NLS or hikari since i've heard good things about those brands.

thanks rob!
 
C

cephalofoil

Jack Dempsey
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RD. said:
Also keep in mind that the main constituent of fish flesh is water, which typically accounts for approx 70-80 per cent of the weight of a fresh fish fillet. Whereas the average water content of an extruded pellet is typically less than 10%. In order to compare solid waste on an equal scale one should really be comparing both foods on a dry matter basis.
Click to expand...
didn't think about it like that either! thanks for the info
 
screaminleeman

screaminleeman

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Wow, I am jealous.

It took almost a year to get my RBP's to eat anything that was not small, alive and swimming. It was a pure stroke of luck that I ever got them off of live and onto fillet. Three years and I never in my wildest dreams could I ever conceive of getting lucky enough to have my piranhas take pellet.

I use the NLS pellet line for most of my fish, and if anything I notice FAR LESS POOP and food waste from these pellets and the fish defecation then from fish fillets.

I would personally switch to NLS pellets as their staple diet and on an occasion use fillet as a treat. Good job getting P's on Pellets in any case!
 
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cephalofoil

Jack Dempsey
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screaminleeman said:
Wow, I am jealous.

It took almost a year to get my RBP's to eat anything that was not small, alive and swimming. It was a pure stroke of luck that I ever got them off of live and onto fillet. Three years and I never in my wildest dreams could I ever conceive of getting lucky enough to have my piranhas take pellet.

I use the NLS pellet line for most of my fish, and if anything I notice FAR LESS POOP and food waste from these pellets and the fish defecation then from fish fillets.

I would personally switch to NLS pellets as their staple diet and on an occasion use fillet as a treat. Good job getting P's on Pellets in any case!
Click to expand...
It wasn't too bad. I conditioned my mac to expect food when I flashed an led light. I would flash the light then immediately offer fillet. If not eaten I'd remove within 5 min. When he figured it out he would expect food after the light. I would just drop the pellet after the light and tricked him into eating. Still took a little time to switch over due to flavor/texture. But it worked. Been training it like this for 1.5 months after a 2 week acclimatization time after buying. Took 2 weeks for pellets to be taken, but they aren't taken as vigorously as fillet.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using MonsterAquariaNetwork App
 
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