Anybody feed their big Americans stuff like chicken livers or hearts? Do you do any sort of preperation? Just curious. I cooked a whole chicken tonight and though about it as I went to throw that stuff away.
Organ Meat for Large Cichlids?
- Thread starter terd ferguson
- Start date
I don't feed any mammalian foods at all. Definite digestion challenges there. A true carnivore probably wouldn't have any problems (Piranha, etc.), but definitely not good as an ongoing food source for most omnivores.
I have never fed my fish stuff like that but I do use it for bait when I go fishing. They definitely take the bait but I'm not sure what effects it would have on our fish friends, whether it is fed as a treat or part of their daily diet.
Anxious to know too.....
Anxious to know too.....
Good home made fish growth recipe I used to use when I was a breeder:
3 parts beef heart
5 parts fresh shrimp
1 part high quality flake or pellet food
1 part gelatin
Dice it all up in a blender after you've melted down the gelatin, then wrap it into baseball sized balls and suran wrap em' for the freezer. Gelatin is only so that the remaining food doesn't disintegrate and foul your water.
3 parts beef heart
5 parts fresh shrimp
1 part high quality flake or pellet food
1 part gelatin
Dice it all up in a blender after you've melted down the gelatin, then wrap it into baseball sized balls and suran wrap em' for the freezer. Gelatin is only so that the remaining food doesn't disintegrate and foul your water.
Beefheart is the only thing mine get. I feed it to my polys in the same tank, so they get their share. I cycle through different foods for the polys, so they only get it once every couple weeks at most. I get it fresh, cube it (cutting out all fat), and freeze it. Other than that, all the treats they steal from the polys are aquatic (shrimp, scallops, clams, oysters, talapia, squid.....)
sorry to derail the subject but I was just looking at dirtyblacksocks' avatar and made me laugh... 
anyway, back to the subject... I used to give chopped beef meat to my big oscars and they loved it but someone told me it's no good so I stopped.
anyway, back to the subject... I used to give chopped beef meat to my big oscars and they loved it but someone told me it's no good so I stopped.
I used to feed my Red Bellies table scraps til the average life span was decreasing to several years...............seems they got the"McDonalds" effect. Their fish bodies can't metabolize Fat...............I was told to steer clear from beef and chicken, use turkey only as a rare treat.............the fat content of beef heart and liver should be zero but what we use to cook it can transfer fats into the organ........too risky for me, i don't do it anymore my P's live on imitation crab meat w/ zero trans, my oldest is 7. Ocassionally my SA/CA's get the imitation as a rare treat.
A lot of people on here try to claim that fish can't digest mammalian protein. But yet they never have any proof of there claims. I can tell you for a fact that my group of 7 discus grew from 2 inches to all 6-7 inches in about 1.5 years on a daily regiment of beefheart and turkey heart. They got a small amount of flakes and bloodworms, but about 70% of there diet was beefheart or turkey heart. That's a lot of growth for feeding food that cannot be digested. I also feed my bigger cichlids beefheart cubes and turkey/chicken liver from time to time as a treat. I have been experimenting with cubed beefheart and cichlid delight (has a good amount of turkey heart) with my geo's as well and have been getting some good growth.
The key is to feed foods that do not contain very much fat. Animal fat is indeed bad for your fish. Liver, gizzards, hearts and such have little to no fat and are a excellent protein source. Decades of dicus breeders have pretty much proven this. If you want to feed these foods and not use the precubed stuff you can by at pet stores you can get it at almost any meat counter. You can chop it up real fine and use a mix as suggested above with spirila, shrimp, beefheart, flakes and such. Put it in a zip lock bag and flatten it out and stick it in the freezer. Break off a piece to feed. You can also just pitch in the pieces of liver, gizzard, ETC that is the correct size for the fish you are feeding. Just wash it really well first to get any blood out of it.
These foods do tend to dirty up your tanks a little quicker, so either up your water changes, feed less often, or give it only once or twice a week.
The key is to feed foods that do not contain very much fat. Animal fat is indeed bad for your fish. Liver, gizzards, hearts and such have little to no fat and are a excellent protein source. Decades of dicus breeders have pretty much proven this. If you want to feed these foods and not use the precubed stuff you can by at pet stores you can get it at almost any meat counter. You can chop it up real fine and use a mix as suggested above with spirila, shrimp, beefheart, flakes and such. Put it in a zip lock bag and flatten it out and stick it in the freezer. Break off a piece to feed. You can also just pitch in the pieces of liver, gizzard, ETC that is the correct size for the fish you are feeding. Just wash it really well first to get any blood out of it.
These foods do tend to dirty up your tanks a little quicker, so either up your water changes, feed less often, or give it only once or twice a week.