Feeding Smelt

[badreverend]

I feed whole smelts to my fish, and when a fish bites into the smelt and theres eggs in it, the predator then shakes his head to get the eggs out of his mouth- littering everywhere in the tank with eggs- not only wont the smaller fish eat the billion eggs that are everywhere, but the big fish wont even eat the mothers that they just had- but if theyre not laden with eggs or I rinse the eggs out of them- no problem- its their favorite meal, its pretty strange-
the other odd thing is at least 70% of the smelts are carrying eggs- I feed 10 smelts to my fish every meal so Im basically forced to check- and the figures are accurate- 70% is a lot ,right? Thanks for any input

 

[nubz]

i know smelt row is used for sushi...its quite good... are you buying them from a food market? if so some smelt farms will try to mainly sell pregnant females for human consumtion. so keep rinsing. or throw a sushi party!

 

[SuperDave]

Strange how your fish do that. How big are the smelt your feeding?

 

[T.K.O.P. 8=X]

Better off gutting them or buy them already that way no head & degutted. I feed wild caught smelt to my piranhas never had any problems except for a few shredded pieces. That i'd have to net out. They are low in fish oil meaning good for your filter system.

 

[badreverend]

i know smelt row is used for sushi...its quite good... are you buying them from a food market? if so some smelt farms will try to mainly sell pregnant females for human consumtion. so keep rinsing. or throw a sushi party!

I get them fresh and refrigerated from a regular supermarket- not a frozen block like LFSs sell silversides- its the only store I know of that carries them-
why would they specifically sell the pregos?
Ill keep rinsing, because the people that go to sushi parties smell like fish!

Strange how your fish do that. How big are the smelt your feeding?

The smelts range from 4" to 5"- I think its their full size- but I know its their sexual maturity size

Better off gutting them or buy them already that way no head & degutted. I feed wild caught smelt to my piranhas never had any problems except for a few shredded pieces. That i'd have to net out. They are low in fish oil meaning good for your filter system.

The one place that sells them just has whole fresh fish- but I have seen some with what looks like a stab in the belly for some reason? Id prefer the heads on and guts in, my reasoning is that the parts removed probably have certain nutrients other parts dont-
I didint know they were low in oil, thats a good thing- I just saw a tray of fresh 5" fish that would fit in my fishes mouth without having to prepare them- oh well