One crazy question. To Eat or not To Eat?

[crazy clowntang]

What I am about to ask might bother some people but I do not want to offend anyone. Here goes......

What type of dechlor would you use if you are planning to eat the fish you own? Most dechlor bottles say to use on ornamental fish only, not on fish to be consumed. The reason why I ask this is because last year when I was in El Salvador I had some grilled Pacu..You heard (saw) me right I said (typed) PACU. Which was very good BTW. I see a lot of people with huge pacus and don't know what to do with them, and instead of just killing them, why not eat them? I know people are going to say "How can you eat a pet?", but the point is, if you can grow your own fish to eat i.e. pacus, tilapia, bass, etc, why not do it? Especially if there are a bunch of overgrown pacus in our hobby that most people can't keep, and end up killing them anyway, why not eat them? I really don't know how it is that pacus have not made it to American grocery stores. I personally think it is a very good fish to eat and if you can grow your own, I guess you could eat them.... Why Not?

Leave the Pro's and Con's, no bashing at people from other parts of the world that eat fish that we consider pets.

 

[Ullopincrate]

If it's just chlorine you are removing I'd buy a large trashcan and let the chorine go out naturally overnight. Use an airstone. If I was eating the fish I'd want the chemicals at a minimum

 

[cassharper]

I would use reconstituted RO water myself, that way you don't have to worry about getting rid of the chlorine. If that's not an option, a carbon block filter at least.

Sodium thiosulfate (main ingredient in most dechlorinating solutions) has been used to treat cyanide poisoning in the past, so I assume consuming minimal amounts of it wouldn't harm the body. Instead of using a dechlorinating solution, you could buy bulk Sodium Thiosulfate from a photography supplier or bulk chemical dealer. It's ridiculously cheap, for about $150 you could get enough to dechlorinate a lake (well, one that's about 113,000 gallons at least). If you have chloramine in your water, a strong enough solution of this stuff will take care of that too, but not the residual ammonia so if you raised the fish in water treated like this I would put them in a quarantine chamber of filtered water for a week or two before extermination.

 

[cassharper]

P.S. I did not answer the poll seeing as how you didn't specify if I owned this fish for ornamental or aquaculture purposes. Many people raise their own fish for consumption (usually because they have this innate fear or mercury poisoning)

A popular way to gather water for aquaculture is to use aged rainwater and letting plants hydroponically filter it, BTW.

 

[crazy clowntang]

I meant to ask if it was a fish you owned. A fish from your main display (ornamental). I can't edit the question so its not clear sorry.

 

[oscarcrazy]

I might have a bit of trouble eating fish that I had kpet as a pet. Reminds me of the simpsons episode with the pig. I've killed and eating literally thousands of fish as an Alaskan fishing guide, but never a fish I kept in a tank. Guess it would be a bit like shooting my own horse and eating it.

 

[jmart.cooper]

The reason I couldnt do that is I would be afraid/grossed out by the living conditions of the pacu. I dont have anything against eating fish, just not fish that have been raised in conditions like fish farms or worse. Really all commercially produced meat is nasty. If you saw where your poultry, meat, and fish you ate came from, you would have a hard time eating it.

 

[ShipOfFools37]

I would have no problem eating it. Thats probably just the fisherman/hunter in me, however. I can see how it might be difficult to eat a pet you've raised, I probably wouldn't eat an oscar, but thats because, as far as I know, they're not a fish thats raised for food/I've never heard of anyone eating them. Not to say it doesn't happen, I've just never heard of it. I would absoutely raise and eat a bass, that wouldn't bother me in the least, probably pacu too.

 

[birmansandbettas]

I couldn't do it, but it makes sense to want to raise your own meat. Organic vegetable gardening is basically the same concept: control what goes into the food.

Anyway, I agree that I'd just let the water sit in buckets before adding and avoid chemicals if at all possible.

 

[crazy clowntang]

I might have a bit of trouble eating fish that I had kpet as a pet. Reminds me of the simpsons episode with the pig. I've killed and eating literally thousands of fish as an Alaskan fishing guide, but never a fish I kept in a tank. Guess it would be a bit like shooting my own horse and eating it.

Is horse meat good to eat? I thought horse was not good, but in this case a pacu is a good fish to eat.