Is this safe to feed my fish?

[duanes]

In nature when a fish eats a fish, they usually eat bones, guts and all (which include calcium, algae and many other components) that provide nutrients and minerals not found in just the flesh alone. And cichlids (and most other fish) have a 2nd set of jaws in their throat that can grind bones, scales and the like
You will notice some posts with people are Feeding just something like Tilapia fillets, which to me seems to be a very incomplete diet.
I feed ocean fish trimmings all the time because of where I live (a fairly remote island, with no pet stores) and some contain bones and scales, .

 

[Kelly_Aquatics]

ok good to know

 

[Joshuakahan]

Hello I have two packages of frozen fish herring and anchovies that I bought for a fishing trip we did not use all of it and did not even open the herring bag
so my question is could I cut it up and feed to my oscars bichirs and JD? would the ocasional bone or gut be a problem?
thanks!

View attachment 1431842

I would think it’s safe, I feed mine fresh tilapia all the time

 

[Kelly_Aquatics]

I do also I was just worried about the skin bones and guts

 

[Joshuakahan]

I do also I was just worried about the skin bones and guts

I think that should be ok since that’s what Piscivorous eat in the wild, there probably is a negligible amount of risk of parasites and bacteria tho

 

[maetsuen]

A local pet shop owner here feed those type of food, frozen and slized into gulping size. The Oscars love it and those guys are big and never seem to full.

 

[thebiggerthebetter]

Hello I have two packages of frozen fish herring and anchovies that I bought for a fishing trip we did not use all of it and did not even open the herring bag
so my question is could I cut it up and feed to my oscars bichirs and JD? would the ocasional bone or gut be a problem?
thanks!

Just what Duanes and others say. Your main worry should be the potential presence of foreign substances, chemicals, oil, spices, salt, seasoning, bait attractants, etc. If none of that is there, they are good.

Second worry would be about nutrition value and anti-nutrition value (the mentioned thiaminase) but only if you will use these as a staple, as I have. Then the pet fish must be offered and they must partake of a good quality all-in-one pellet and better yet, as I started to do for the last year, a soak in VitaChem should overcome any thiaminase and other anti-nutrition issues.

I'd not worry about bacteria. I don't when it comes to feeding frozen raw aquatic cuisine to my fish.

If it's just packed in ice water (no salt or any other ingredients), then it's generally safe. They do eat other fish in the wild. There's no guarantee that it will be bacteria free though. If you read through Viktor's ( thebiggerthebetter ) forum threads, he feeds frozen fish to his huge collection, but there are some instances in where after some years, he has experienced quite a few die offs that just happen relatively close to each other. There's discussion about whether or not there was bad bacteria in the food or not.

I do know of a pike breeder that puts whole fish in the meat grinder and mix it with gelatin to be fed to his SA pikes.

As my current understanding stands, it was the thiaminase and other imbalanced-nutrition issues (some needed nutrients decompose still even in frozen fish over time) that affected my fish who dissed pellets. Plus my cheap choice of Ziegler pellets. So I ditched Ziegler half a year ago and switched to 100% NLS and started too presoaking thawed herring and anchovy in VitaChem.

Perhaps in some years it will become clear if there is a desired effect across the board... but so far so good.

Hering contains thiaminase. So I would not feed it regulary or in bigger amounts.

That's true. Thank you. I answered that above.

 

[Kelly_Aquatics]

ok thank you! what is a better over all food anchovy or herring anchovy is really oily

 

[The Masked Shadow]

This is a cool thread. Now I know to feed herring and anchovies with caution. Thanks, everyone!

 

[thebiggerthebetter]

Both anchovy and herring are groups of fishes.

The fish I feed is what is caight localy in Florida https://www.fishbase.se/summary/Mastacembelus-dayi.html mostly:

bay anchovy
striped anchovy
scaled sardine
spanish sardine
gulf menhaden
atlantic thread herring
american shad

with ok results (coupled with some learnings).

I don't find them too oily for fish health or tank aesthetics.

What does harm fish is terrestrial fats found in cheap pellets.

I believe in a complete nutrition package, in whichever way you can achieve it. With one tank it could be easy to diversify feeds. In my position, I can't. So I resort to 4 staples, this is all I buy:

-- NLS pellets of two sizes, large and giant and
-- frozen fish 3" glass minnows (striped anchovy) and 8" atlantic thread herring, both soaked in VitaChem

for any and all our fishes.