Can I feed my Spotted Gar a salt water fish? I am planning to feed him non l8ve since I have work and can't always catch live fish from the river for him.
Can I feed Sea Caught Fresh Fish to my Spotted Gar?
- Thread starter uprisingjohn
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As long as the water they live in is clean I suppose you could, I've been using marine fish and invertebrae in my food mixes for a few years and haven't noticed a problem. Maybe feed some tilapia or other freshwater fish every now and then just to balance it out. Of course I'm not nutrietionist (if that's even a word), but this works pretty well with me
Niice. Thank you sir. Yes they ar
Yes it is clean and very freshly caught because my town is just located on the coastline.
Hello; I am going to assume your question includes potential problems with feeding wild caught fish. There are some posts about this over the last several years. My take from reading has been there is a risk of disease and parasites. So yes you can feed but may introduce pathogens or parasites.
There is suggested in these posts that wild caught fish which are flash frozen to very cold temps can be safe. Apparently commercial filets can be cold enough. I have also been told some residential freezers can get cold enough but apparently many do not get cold enough. best I can recall is
RD.
had some comments about this so maybe he will chime in as i forget the recommended temp.
So my opinion is there is a risk to this if the fish are not frozen cold enough.
There is suggested in these posts that wild caught fish which are flash frozen to very cold temps can be safe. Apparently commercial filets can be cold enough. I have also been told some residential freezers can get cold enough but apparently many do not get cold enough. best I can recall is
RD.
had some comments about this so maybe he will chime in as i forget the recommended temp.So my opinion is there is a risk to this if the fish are not frozen cold enough.
I read a thread saying that Gars are not prone to parasites. So far I'm gonna follow that thread I will stick to live until my Lepisosteus Oculatus reaches 12". These species of Gars are known to be difficult to train to eat pellets and non-live. But they are such magnificent creatures due to their spot patterns I'm willing to do everything I can to keep my gar that way. HeheHello; I am going to assume your question includes potential problems with feeding wild caught fish. There are some posts about this over the last several years. My take from reading has been there is a risk of disease and parasites. So yes you can feed but may introduce pathogens or parasites.
There is suggested in these posts that wild caught fish which are flash frozen to very cold temps can be safe. Apparently commercial filets can be cold enough. I have also been told some residential freezers can get cold enough but apparently many do not get cold enough. best I can recall is
So my opinion is there is a risk to this if the fish are not frozen cold enough.
Not prone to parasites, from eating live food? I think that someone is talking out of their arse. Live foods come with a certain amount of risk, no matter the species of fish eating them.
Maybe Matt can chime in on this.
Lepisosteus
My advice when dealing with fresh fish products, buy fresh, freeze for 48 hrs at 0F (-18C) to destroy any potential parasites, and use up within 30 days or so. Freezing will not destroy all micro-organisms, so there is still some risk involved in feeding frozen products, but freezing certainly minimizes those risks. Also note that frozen fish that have been unthawed under refrigeration, should be fed within 24 hrs. (or discarded)
Freezing tends to also increase the concentration of thiaminase in tissue, so the shorter the duration in the freezer, the better. Little is known as to how thiaminase affects various species, and according to various studies the amounts found (even within the same species of fish) tend to vary as well. As previously mentioned most public aquariums tend to supplement to avoid deficiencies. (especially B1, vitamin E, and vitamin C) IMO fish kept in captivity require full vitamin & trace mineral supplementation to some degree or another. This is a non-issue if one is feeding a commercial pellet as the staple, or even stuffing "some" pellets into frozen foods, or supplementing via a commercial liquid vitamin pre-soak that contains B1.
BTW - all gar can typically be trained to eat non live, most can be trained to eat pellets. In fact once beyond YOY stage gar's raised in captivity are all converted to pellets. Some long interesting discussions about this in years past here on MFK by those who worked in these kinds of facilities and studied gar. This fat & sassy gar in the pic below was a friends fish, that actually ate floating pellets from the surface.
My gar don't mind hikari tropical sticks but not interested in hikari carnisticks