Dilemma feeding live food
- Thread starter badukang
- Start date
My apurensis catfish has zero interest in anything but mussel and white fish... He does get any suffering fish tho. I had an old peppered Cory that was giving up in a grow out and the cichlids were battering him about, chewed some of his face off... He was listless and disorientated, the apurensis had him, in that case I'm fine with it.
Damnit. I was going to avoid posting here, but you two have dragged me into it anyway.
OP, I also can't feed much live food. Like
Hendre
mentioned if I feed live its insects and the like, and very rarely.I also don't feed live feeder fish at all for a few reasons that I will dot point below, in no particular order.
• Live feeder fish are known to carry diseases, disease is something I do not want in my tanks because I know that I'm likely unable to get rid of it with the medications available to me here in Aus.
• My fish are all too small to swallow most "feeder fish" whole. And I really don't want to subjugate any animal to being torn apart bit by bit. It happens in nature, sure. But my tanks aren't nature, they're a (semi) controlled ecosystem and therefore such events need not occur. If my fish could swallow feeders whole I probably still wouldn't feed live feeders lol
• Most common feeder fish are very low in nutritional value, so my fish are getting a more balanced diet eating the pellets. And balance is key.
• Let me just say now that I am TERRIFIED of bugs. Anything with more than 4 legs and less than 8 just creeps me out and I don't know why (other than I'm a sook). But even if my friends offer to catch a moth or whatnot I still mostly tell them "no". This is because I have the same mental delema that the OP has, I can't kill a healthy animal, even if its a species that I "don't like" eg: mosquito.
Someone earlier in the thread asked the OP if they still consume meat (I assume to assess the hypocrisy of it all), let me say now that I gladly consume meat. I'll munch on a T-bone until the cows come home (excuse the pun) but that's because I don't have to slaughter the cow myself. If I did have to slaughter the animal, I'd likely be a vegetarian. I'm very hypocritical (if thats the word I'm looking for?) in that way.
I'm not sure where I was going with this, I'm typing this "pre-coffee" so I'm still a little fuzzy. If when I wake up properly I remember where this was going, I'll finish whatever it was I was trying to say. Otherwise I'm sure that's enough of my nonsensical dribble for any one thread.
I personally dont live feed since none of the species I raise demand it. I think most agree, if your species being kept can be pellet trained, that is preferred for nutritional reasons not to mention moral/ethical.
Hello; Let me admit I first had the notion to drag you into this. However I lacked the skill needed to place the summons that would show up when you logged on to the site. Hendre did it in your particular case. He has given me instruction as to how to produce a summons. I now can send a summons directly.Damnit. I was going to avoid posting here, but you two have dragged me into it anyway.
Kittiee Katt
By the way your post took me back to when I was a child with my mother yelling at me. For a time I thought my middle name was "damnit".
Hello; Yes but you are a very honest hypocrite and I like it. I guess some depends on how we are raised. By the time I was six years old I was catching and killing chickens for family dinner. As an adult I have no interest in raising food animals. I hire someone at Krogers Supermarket. I do have memories of half a frozen pig on the back porch and cutting pork chops with a hack saw. Maybe I am wrong and deluded but I imagine the food tasted better back then. A trick is to not name the ones you plan to eat.
I feed my Piranhas, Mice , Cichlids , Goldfish , Guppies , Oscars , Flowerhorn , pretty much anything cheap and live I can buy from gumtree that people are selling to re-home obviously I don't tell them it's for piranhas to eat
Sooner or later you will introduce a disease into your tank by doing this, almost 100% guaranteed. Especially if you are really getting random fish from random people it's only a matter of time something is introduced which wipes out your tank. It's probably not right to take fish that people think you are going to look after and use them as food but that's another topic altogether.
If you want to feed live fish get some convicts or some kind of live bearer and breed your own supply, you can then guarantee they are disease free.
There's nothing wrong with live food if that's what you want to do but there are much easier and safer ways to feed piranhas than what you are doing.
You should chill a bit with all these live food posts anyway, having a tough fish doesn't make you tough too, just in case you thought it did.
Thanks for the reply and yes I will look at breeding my own feeder fish and I know it doesn't make me tough lol but 6 years in the British Army did ??
Piranha fans are something else.
Apart from the moral dilemma of taking other peoples pets, given to you in the confidence that you'd care for them, there's also the disease risk. No real need to provide live food to most fish. Especially most Piranha that are known to take prepared food.
Apart from the moral dilemma of taking other peoples pets, given to you in the confidence that you'd care for them, there's also the disease risk. No real need to provide live food to most fish. Especially most Piranha that are known to take prepared food.
