if your fish eats feeders for to long of a time it is possible for it to get a disease called hole in the head which literally creates a hole in its head and if not caught early it can become irreparable which can and will lower its immune system. also it can just kill it.
My tank- need advice on bichir growth!
- Thread starter Ponera
- Start date
Hole in the head is a desease which causes erosion of the head and lateral line. It is caused by poor water quality and a fish that is significantly weakened from exposure to bad water quality. It has NOTHING to do with feeding or feeders.
Sorry to hear that your Bichir died, they do indeed love floating plants. I have kept senegal bichirs with a bunch of american cichlids with no issues but the only bichir I kept with africans was a Ornate. The ornates are more hiders and nocturnal so they don't get constantly harassed by the africans. Whereas senegals are more open swimmers and out all day long they will get ragged fins and beaten on by the africans. My senegal was MUCH more active when he was smaller, he tends to do a lot of laying around inside a fake floating plant but he has his moments of being very active.
And yes OP I am in Calgary, Shawnessy to be exact. Wish I had easier access to the fish stores in the north though as I am unable to drive XD
actually not trying to argue but most feeders are low on many vitamins which then gives your fish a lack of vitamins which can cause hole in the head. yes the main cause is bad water quality but feeders have been know to cause it.
Mctubins find me some literature that proves feeders with "low vitamins" produce hole in the head. I'm not attacking you personally but it sounds like the kind of thing someone heard at an LFS and just passed on as knowledge. you would be amazed the crap I have heard at LFS's. If you keep your fish in good stable water conditions and keep them happy and healthy including feeders in their diet is not going to do anything bad to them. If you had no filter and did only waterchanges and fed only goldfish then yes you might get HITH on your fish, but I think the diet would be the least concern and the living conditions would be more important.
There was a Giant Gourami I saw online that had been fed only on kit kats and reached full adult size. It was in a British tabloid (the closest thing they have to news)
There was a Giant Gourami I saw online that had been fed only on kit kats and reached full adult size. It was in a British tabloid (the closest thing they have to news)
One I dont know what LFS is, pet store or website maybe? Two ill see if i can find the research if i do ill post it here. NEVER trust bridges pets by the way.
"Thiaminase (an enzyme that metabolizes or breaks down thiamine) is also considered a problem that may be a problem in fish afflicted with HITH. Thiaminase is introduced via feeding fish such as Goldfish/Fathead Minnows, or via bacteria. Thaimase breaks down thiamine, and thiamine is an important vitamin necessary for carbohydrate metabolism and normal neural activity. If "feeders" (goldfish sold for the purpose of feeding other fish) are fed as a large portion of your fish’s diet, it likely will develop a thiamine deficiency.
Although many dry prepared foods contain fish flesh that also contains Thiaminase, however the process required to prepare a dry food/pellet likely destroys this enzyme." This is taken from http://www.aquarium-pond-answers.com/2008/02/hole-in-head.html this in-fact is not the only site i have found to mention this. he dose say that he has not done to much scientific research on it but he believes with his over 25 years in the fish business and research he dose believe to to be a cause.
Although many dry prepared foods contain fish flesh that also contains Thiaminase, however the process required to prepare a dry food/pellet likely destroys this enzyme." This is taken from http://www.aquarium-pond-answers.com/2008/02/hole-in-head.html this in-fact is not the only site i have found to mention this. he dose say that he has not done to much scientific research on it but he believes with his over 25 years in the fish business and research he dose believe to to be a cause.
That is really quite interesting! so if a fish has HITH already, it is much likely to worsen the condition by being fed mainly on feeders? Even though it seems totally legitimate you still have to agree that the fish most commonly associated with getting HITH are not really fish that are fed on feeder only diets unless you are one of those retards on youtube that keeps an oscar in a 20g and feed it only with feeders
It's not just in aquariums thiaminase has caused massive death tolls in alligator populations when gizzard shad, fish which also contain thiaminase, where introduced, something like that I watched it on natgeo lol
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Rafini i totally agree with you oscars are not feeder diets only kind of fish nor are most other fish that get HITH but with one of those diets of mainly feeders you can give it HITH. And yeah most those people on youtube are dumb-asses when it comes to this. That being said i do feed my fish feeder gold fish but i also feed them really nice pellets and they dont get fish all the time. But what is LFS? When I said that I didnt know what it was I was hoping you would answer that in your last post.
Oh I'm sorry LFS = local fish store. so any kind of place where you can buy fish from a chain store like petsmart to a locally run independant store. Yeah I feed my bichirs on a mostly pellet diet with feeders as a bonus for them. The only fish I have that feeds only on feeders is my florida gar because hes 15-16" and wild caught, so I doubt he will ever adapt to prepared foods.
