Live food growth question

[Champagne Papi]

Do bichirs get larger if their fed more live food than frozen? I'm asking because their getting fresh proteins and organs instead of frozen meats that lose vitamins and proteins due to the freezing process. Does live give them a boost in growth hormones? I've noticed that my bichirs growth has been spiking faster since I feed more live and only tilapia and shrimp. Live foods I've been using earthworms, red worms, shad, shiner minnows, crickets, and mealworms. I'm not asking for the pellet advice I feed pellets too, and they go missing but I've never caught any eating them. I know WC and CB play a role in size but I can't really try this experiment quite yet to get accurate results.

 

[moe214]

Well I can't say for bichirs really, but for other fish I've experienced faster growth than others have when I feed mine strictly live for awhile and the other person didn't. My odoe for example, up until she hit about 8-9" I was feeding her goldfish that I'd QT and fatten up and then I'd feed them pellets right before I gave her them to eat so she was getting more nutrients in my mind atleast. I experienced 1.5-2x what people normally get in growth. In case you don't know the average growth for an odoe is 1" a month mine grew 1.5-2" a month up until 8-9" then I started feeding krill and other non live food and it has definitely slowed, she's about 11" now. I assume if the same were done bichirs probably would grow a bit faster too

 

[framcosco]

YES...... they will grow faster eating LIVE.

 

[Champagne Papi]

I thought that so much. Thanks for replying I've seen stickies in other forums but never one about bichirs with this topic. I gut load the feeder fish with protein pellets for the pellet enthusiast out there. But I have quite a few CBs and I'm trying to get them to hit the 12 inch mark. The albinos I know is a long shot. I know genetics play a role in this but I believe wild caughts are bigger too not just because of variation in genetics but also the vast bit of live food they prey on. I say this just because i relate their feeding patterns to people's. I think protein pellets are just like meats with growth hormones in them not saying their bad, but they aren't natural. Like the bichirs body was made to break down their food like the energy pyramid from biology class (I'm not trying to persuade against pellets, I use them for the live food they eat). I just have quite a few CBs in my tank and I would like to make them larger than the average CB and from the post in the poly section all they say is pellets and frozen food are better than live food due to lack of diseases and that's understandable.

 

[smitty03281964]

I can not agree that they grow faster eating live. Not saying that they don't I just have not seen anything concrete to support the claim

 

[Champagne Papi]

I hope this thread gets a lot of comments the more we can see the results. Me and fram for, smitty disagrees anybody else in the forum?

 

[pops]

quality pellet or carni sticks type foods. any thing else a treat. IMHO

 

[shookONES]

Live is the best diet. If I could afford and source good quality live foods on a constant basis, I'd have no objections to feeding nothing but that. My bichers get a lot of nightcrawlers and it really helps bulk them up.

 

[Champagne Papi]

Thanks for your input shook

Live is the best diet. If I could afford and source good quality live foods on a constant basis, I'd have no objections to feeding nothing but that. My bichers get a lot of nightcrawlers and it really helps bulk them up.

 

[Dr.B]

This is an interesting topic that I've been debating about with myself for a while now. I've been an advocate for not feeding live food for a couple different reasons. 1) Through live feeders your fish can contract diseases and parasites. 2) It can promote aggression. However over the past year I've looked around and seen that some of these monstrous bichir collections you see, are on live feeders. Also in the wild Polys don't eat pellets, they eat live fish (plus other things). I currently don't feed live because of the second reason. And when I say aggression I don't mean they are becoming more aggressive, but they start to get a little bit more nippy around feeding time. That wouldn't bother me if I didn't have a size difference of about 15"-16" from my biggest to smallest fish in my tank. As far as diseases and parasites, it's just a matter of watching the feeders. I'd assume that picking the healthiest looking ones, and QTing them for a couple days would prevent that. So I'm glad this topic was brought up, because it kind of made me question my own stance on Live food or not. If I didn't have such a large size difference in my tank I would probably feed live a lot more often.