Does powerfeeding affect lifespan?

[FINWIN]

Doing it long-term or with the wrong type of food is definitely unhealthy and can even kill a fish. Over the last few years I've seen many fish with fat liver, too much fat around the guts etc. And not all were even power fed. Often too much calories and especially too much carbs is enough to cause a life shortening increase of body fat.

Interesting. I also wonder if some species are more prone to this issue. I saw the correlation being made with dogs, but smaller dogs live longer than larger breeds anyway even allowing for care and nutrition. A great Dane will be lucky to hit 10. Shepards do a bit better, maybe 12 or 14. Small dogs can range from 14-30. I know the topic is fish, but this reminds me of a church member who had a small poodle mix that had a whole china cabinet full of pills...heart, liver, etc. A freaking pharmacy. Dog still made it to 20 even though it could barely walk, see or feed itself. My point is I suspect some fish species are going to be longer lived anyway or more 'resistant'. Catfish have to be some of the toughest characters around. Their main kryptonite seems to be salt. Scaleless and armored fish are a whole 'nother' thing.

Just like I've read here the Black Nasty is prone to bloating, etc. Of course this doesn't account for ovebreeding/inbreeding, weird strains, etc

 

[Milingu]

Interesting. I also wonder if some species are more prone to this issue.[...]

That's a complex matter. There are differences but it's hard to generalize them. One issue is the different types of fat a fish can store and if these fat storages can be metabolized if needed.
When fish eat too much carbohydrates they store them as fat. But it's a different type of fat compared to the fat they store from eating fat.
The first type of (unhealthy) fat is way harder to metabolize and it needs quite warm temperatures. Which results in a fat storage that is often totally useless for the fish.
For example in colder countries there is the phenomenon of fat and round koi fish dying of starvation in the early spring. This happens when the stored fat was gained from low quality (=high carb) food. The koi's metabolism increases in spring due to rising temperatures and they need more energy which they would normally draw from their fat reserves, but since they cannot metabolize these unhealthy fat reserves due to too low temperatures, they starve despite being fat.
They can metabolize the unhealthy fat, but only during the 1 or 2 hot month in summer when food anyhow is abundant.

Now compare a koi that is used to an omnivorous diet with high plant contents to a fish that mostly feeds an insects or other fish. These fish have even more problems metabolizing the unhealthy fat and may not be able to get rid of it at all.

Besides that the unhealthy fat often sits around the inner organs and can harm their functionality.

 

[duanes]

I've been working with Andinoacara coeruleopunctatus, since 2019
It's interesting that the largest Andinoacara I catch in nature, are only about 3" to 4".

Yet in my tanks, males easily attain double that size.

Females 1/3 smaller, below a female guarding fry

I assume predation has a lot to do with life span in nature, and the lack of it in a tank has to do with regular feeding, and lack of predaores.
Although I tend to skip at least 1 day of feeding per week, sometimes 2.
When I collect Darienheros in nature, they hardly ever have a bloated gut.

Same for Isthmoheros, usuallcaught at only 3" or 4"

Adults in the tank are quite large.

Of couse as you've seen me rag on as nausem. ......in nature none of these cichlids are found where nitrates are even close to detectable.

I believe there is a correlation.