Frozen food exclusively...

[luigi7908]

Hey guys. I keep mostly SA cichlids and carnivorous plecos with a few CA cochlids as well. I give them a pretty varied diet but I was wondering if I could feed them frozen food exclusely if it was varied enough. Say, shrimp, calamari, scallops, talapia, bloodworms, brine shrimp and probably earthworms and shelled peas once a week.
I mainly want to know how would it affect the fish long term. Growth? Color? Health? The expense isnt an issue at all. Thanks

 

[Rocksor]

Shelled peas can cause digestive issues for even omnivores. I would change that to freeze dried seaweed, like preservative free Nori found in the Asian stores. It's really cheap.

 

[krichardson]

I'm no nutritionist but it sounds pretty good to me.People have kept fish over long periods and have fed them far more inferior foods.

 

[luigi7908]

Shelled peas can cause digestive issues for even omnivores. I would change that to freeze dried seaweed, like preservative free Nori found in the Asian stores. It's really cheap.

Wow Ive never heard that. Got any articles that I can study up on?

 

[Backfromthedead]

a lot of folks here are of the opinion that marine food sources like your shrimp scallops and squid shouldnt be fed to freshwater fish. something to do with chemicals that cichlids can't digest or are toxic in high doses.

im sure if you constantly had enough frozen food it would be great though. my fish wish they got frozen bloodworms morning, noon, and night.

just remember that frozen is mostly water. one 3mm cichlid pellet probably contains as much nutrition as one of those frozen cubes. plus frozen can be very messy.

 

[luigi7908]

I'm no nutritionist but it sounds pretty good to me.People have kept fish over long periods and have fed them far more inferior foods.

Good to hear. In your opinion, do you think the fish would grow faster on pellets?

 

[luigi7908]

a lot of folks here are of the opinion that marine food sources like your shrimp scallops and squid shouldnt be fed to freshwater fish. something to do with chemicals that cichlids can't digest or are toxic in high doses.

im sure if you constantly had enough frozen food it would be great though. my fish wish they got frozen bloodworms morning, noon, and night.

just remember that frozen is mostly water. one 3mm cichlid pellet probably contains as much nutrition as one of those frozen cubes. plus frozen can be very messy.

The frozen seafood is a lot cleaner in my tanks than the NLS pellets that I feed ime. Do you have any articles concerning the effects of feeding freshwater species marine fair?

 

[krichardson]

Good to hear. In your opinion, do you think the fish would grow faster on pellets?

Yes,in my experience fish have shown a better growth rate when fed almost exclusively on good quality pellets.

 

[Rocksor]

Wow Ive never heard that. Got any articles that I can study up on?

High level of dietary pea protein concentrate induces enteropathy in Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar L.)
http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.865.6828&rep=rep1&type=pdf

Pea protein concentrate in diets for sharpsnout sea bream (Diplodus puntazzo): effects on growth and health status.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27666681

If you are feeding peas for "fiber content", I would personally stick with insects and crustaceans like freeze dried krill.

 

[luigi7908]

Yes,in my experience fish have shown a better growth rate when fed almost exclusively on good quality pellets.

Cool beans. What about high quality live vs pellets?