Caloric over feeding

[rlane]

Just for argument sake, my mind was wondering like it often does and I started thinking about feeding of rays. So we are all in agreement that rays eat a ton and are always on the look out for their next meal. In nature they are eating shrimp, snails, insects, fish of any type, worms, etc. These foods all have different caloric make ups but when broken down- they are no where as nutrient rich as pellets, when compared weight to weight. I just checked my massivore bag and it didn't have how many calories were in each pellet, but I think I recall reading that one massivore pellet is equal to a few goldfish or something like that. For argument sake, rays have evolved to eat tons of food to fuel their high paced metabolism, but if one were to feed only pellets, could the massive amount of calories have negative effects on the rays (or any fish for that matter). For example, let's say a pellet is equal to a shrimp (I have no idea if this is accurate or not) but let's say a ray could eat 4 shrimp in a day. Pellet wise, to fill the rays stomach it could take tons of pellets to fill it up (my small male currently eats about 1 full shrimp per feeding or 8-10 pellets per feeding). Using my ray as an example, if he ate 3-4 shrimp in a day and was full and could live on just eating that, if I were to feed him just pellets, he could eat 30-40 pellets in a day, so he would be getting roughly 40 times the calories a day (if one pellet is equal to one shrimp). Once again I don't know what the ratio is between pellets and shrimp but you get the point. In nature they aren't taking in that many calories a day. Can getting that many calories lead to health issues- fatty liver or something like that?

I believe in a varied diet and feed my rays a bunch of everything as I do with all my different species of fish and never had any issues that I know about, but it is an interesting thought. What do you guys think?

 

[Zoodiver]

Yes. Too much food with more calorie intake than their body can naturally process will lead to health problems. Fat storage in the liver and renal failure are to things rays (and most elasmobranchs) suffer from when over fed while under human care.

 

[T1KARMANN]

I don't find shrimp has hardly any cals in so if that's all that's fed it will fill them up but they won't be getting what they need to help them grow

I find rays eat like crazy be it shrimp or pellets up to the size of 12"14" as they are growing fast and need more out of the food
After 14" the food intake slows down

Pellets just help them get to the 12-14" size faster like you say in the wild they would be eating all the time when small to get to a size they are at less risk from preds
In a tank we only feed the amount of food that goes fast due to water conditions


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