should arowana be fed mice

[Fishman Dave]

Well, saw this thread and never posted cos it seemed such a no brainer, yet suddenly turns out some folks manage not to have a brain and think it’s a good idea and nutrition for the creatures we look after would not be important.
Can’t fault the argument that somewhere along the line the odds are stacked against the fish we keep dying for a multitude of the other possible reasons rather than poor diet BUT they won’t get the chance to die from one of those other reasons if we feed them crap ( and crap in the case of fish probably means all the things we humans would consider better than bland old flake, pellets, etc. Such as beef, chicken, mice, birds and the list go’s on).

 

[Fishman Dave]

I need a trigger trophy ?

No, not a trigger trophy, BUT, IF these are actually your real true thoughts and opinions then I would suggest what you do need, for the sake of the fish in your care, is a new hobby!
Who says we should put diet in a list of things important to the longevity of our fish and limit that to five. Diet, temperature, tank mates, power, water quality, tank size, water change frequency, lighting, filtration, daylight hours, stress ……………….
We keep fish, we don’t get to chose which of these is important or indeed more important than any other one of them, they are all number one, and the day they are not is probably that day we mentioned in other posts when the fish dies. It’s also the day we should try harder or pack in!

 

[MultipleTankSyndrome]

Fishman Dave really hit the nail on the head, I'm in disbelief as to why I didn't think of what he pointed out earlier.

I think this is somewhat akin to saying that your dog will probably prematurely die from canine distemper or hip dysplasia, so feed it all the grapes and chocolate you want.

 

[Fishman Dave]

The main issue I have is that Egon doesn’t feed his fish crap. He is a dedicated fish keeper with huge tanks and huge fish. Even has some fish that have lived very long lives.
Hence my comment “if these are your real thoughts and opinions”

I don’t agree with telling folks to do things I don’t do myself or wouldn’t do myself.

 

[jjohnwm]

And I repeat: classic, textbook...troll.

 

[esoxlucius]

The nutritional value of their food won’t be a factor in that fishes very short life time. Truth bomb.

Looking at this further, and re-reading some posts again, i believe Egon has a point, though his wording could have been better.

If there is a power outage, you have a few hours. If a fish jumps, a lot less. If you get a glass banger, it could be instantaneous. Feed your fish a poor diet and they won't die overnight, but long term???....now this is where Egon should have added a caveat to his initial post in this thread, and he may have saved himself some aggro.

He should have put, "the nutritional value of their food won't be a factor in that fishes very short life time, though long term, diet does indeed play a significant part in a fishes longevity".

 

[Egon]

The main issue I have is that Egon doesn’t feed his fish crap. He is a dedicated fish keeper with huge tanks and huge fish. Even has some fish that have lived very long lives.
Hence my comment “if these are your real thoughts and opinions”

I don’t agree with telling folks to do things I don’t do myself or wouldn’t do myself.

Thanks for the kind words. Full disclosure, I have fed my fish pinky mice. Yes, alcohol was involved. I don’t do it often. There’s a post here somewhere with my Bala shark eating a pinky mouse. That Bala shark is 15” and 15 years old. My oldest fish is 25. I’ve killed fish about every way possible in this hobby and “fatty liver” just hasn’t happened. Thanks all for the discussion, it was fun and really gave this thread a bump

 

[fishdance]

I'm unsure where the notion of mammalian meat/fats can't be digested by fish comes from? Animal fats (lipids) have been used in aquaculture feeds for decades. You don't need much since lipids are so concentrated. The main reasons they aren't used more is cost and fear of disease transmission (to humans)

 

[Michael Alebrtus]

One thing that we do know with certainty, with data to support it, is that diets high in fat are generally not a good idea for the vast majority of species.

just curious, why the most healthy looking discus have diet mostly on beef heart?

 

[Krismo962]

Rip Michael