pbass food

[silverdragon]

ok.. you guys know i'm gonna add my 2 cents..

i don't like pellets for 2 reasons. come guys sing along.. you know the words..
1. you have NO control over the ingredients
2. fish, most specifically, peacock bass, are CARNIVORES, they eat MEAT, other fish, worms, creatures that fall into the water, bugs.. there is precious little "meat" in pellets and it's been cooked and processed with all kinds of things these fish aren't supposed to eat, and can't digest normally.

so.. while i do not feed live feeders intentionally (we've had a few peacock bass eat tankmates over the years). I do feed them meat, market shrimp, catfish nuggets, chicken breast chunks, krill, smelt, turkey leg meat, heart (turkey, chicken, beef and emu), salmon (rarely because it fouls the water), tuna (rarely for the same reason). And every once in awhile, i find a new and interesting lean meat to drop into a peacock bass tank to see what they think.

the point is, peacock bass eat meat, so feed em meat. raw meat, not cooked, and NOT freeze dried.

sorry i'm such a party pooper guys..

damn cath, by the time your pbass get to 24" their gonna be beasts, you could probably feed them whole oscars

But i understand what your saying, i mean thats what pbass naturally eat in the wild, no one goes out and throws pellets into the amazon lol..

 

[bOOsteN aUdI]

damn cath, by the time your pbass get to 24" their gonna be beasts, you could probably feed them whole oscars

yeah or die from a heart attack lol

i agree and dis agree with you Catherine .. sorry

yes it may be a balanced meal but i feel that a quality pellet is just as good, super color enhancing, balanced and fully loaded with all the vitamins possibly needed and it won't foul up your water quality as bad as some of those other foods. i do give them treats though, just don't feed them whats on your menu everyday. i never had any thing bad come from feeding carnivorous fish pellets and omega one is supposedly made from actually fish and no additives ect.

 

[Morledzep]

just don't feed them whats on your menu everyday.

i don't feed everything every day.. and i don't feed the big fish every day, only the little guys eat daily.

the fish over 6" get fed every other day at the very most, sometimes they go 2 days inbetween feedings because they ate so much the last time. They determine when they are ready to eat, i just pay attention and feed em when they ask.

actually, they will eat tomorrow, they were just starting to do the "feed me" dance this evening, but my head was hurting too much, i haven't even fed the wolves yet, and i might wait till morning to feed them too.

tomorrow they will get catfish nuggets, i only have 1/2 lb of frozen krill left and that isn't enough to feed everybody. and in a couple days they will get either beef heart or emu heart, i have plenty of both. and probably shrimp after that, shrimp is by far the easiest thing to feed them, requires a LOT less preparation.

 

[bOOsteN aUdI]

i don't feed everything every day.. and i don't feed the big fish every day, only the little guys eat daily.

the fish over 6" get fed every other day at the very most, sometimes they go 2 days inbetween feedings because they ate so much the last time. They determine when they are ready to eat, i just pay attention and feed em when they ask.

actually, they will eat tomorrow, they were just starting to do the "feed me" dance this evening, but my head was hurting too much, i haven't even fed the wolves yet, and i might wait till morning to feed them too.

tomorrow they will get catfish nuggets, i only have 1/2 lb of frozen krill left and that isn't enough to feed everybody. and in a couple days they will get either beef heart or emu heart, i have plenty of both. and probably shrimp after that, shrimp is by far the easiest thing to feed them, requires a LOT less preparation.

yes i understand where you are coming from but with a pellet it is as if you were feeding them a complete varied meal the one time you are feeding them. IMO, sorry Catherine, you just can't beat the balance, nutrients and color enhancements of a pellet. aslo beef heart isnt good to feed fish, it hold no nutrients once so ever and just acts as a filler, i'm sure the same thing hold for emu heart. there were a few arguments on this and a few threads if i remember correctly. i am not nocking your method, i just don't agree with all of it.. i don't recommend you to feed pellets everyday for years straight and nothing else, variety is key to giving fish a proper diet and keeping your fish healthy. possibly even switch up and alternate diff types of pellets. (if so i would stick with hikira and omega, these are the only two that i trust) along with feeding pellets it is great to also include feeders (which i still gutload), meat, shrimp...ect ect as a treat.
you have to remember this is me, this is what i like and this is what has worked for me over the years, everyones method of raising cichla varies slightly. i have seen your cichla Catherine and they are beautiful, so odviously it works.

 

[fishbee]

Cheap???? Bio gold is good....shrimp, mussels, krill, sliver sides any thing but feeder fish.

well, some keepers are not as deep pocketed as others. just to get them bass is already ridiculously expensive here in OZ. and with the amount of food they eat, if i give them premium brand all the time i'll have to start training them to eat my kidney as well lol.

sorry to derail the thread a bit but what i meant by fish was not live feeders, more like fillets. the other thing is
i agree that no one throw pellets into the river they came from, but at the same time, even though some of them grow big, i heavily doubted that they'll jump out of the water and take a chunk of silversides out of a living cows or chomp a hole on the emu and take their heart and liver

c'mon dudes, a piscivorous fish might take insects and bugs also, but mainly they eat other fishes.

ps. i didn't mean to disrecpect anyone who are knowledgeable in pbass keeping, i've seen some of you guys photos and vids, they look awesome, wish we can get them in oz. but with our lawmakers planning to put all of them in their noxious fish list next month, mite as well download all the nicest pbass pics, print them and stick them on my fish tank, and move them around every now and then to resemble movements in real life

 

[Morledzep]

the big 'treat' my fish get is about once a month when i buy crickets for the stupid lizard i wish i didn't have to feed, i throw a handfull of them to the peacock bass and arowana.. but it's never enough for a meal, i would have to buy 3 times as many crickets and spend the entire day chasing crickets and putting em back.. lol.

i found a cool cockroach the other day and brought it home and dropped it in the tank with the brats.. they had a blast tossing it around till someone finally swallowed it.

 

[fabalust]

thanks to all of ya. i will go out and buy some and see what happens.
ill try dmack way to get them off live and switch over.

 

[channarox]

hey cath,i dont think cichla get chicken or beef or such in the wild either.
i both disagree and agree with you.
like boosten said,theres some pellets that really do good for the fish.

 

[Morledzep]

hey cath,i dont think cichla get chicken or beef or such in the wild either.
i both disagree and agree with you.
like boosten said,theres some pellets that really do good for the fish.

it still goes back to no control over ingredients.. i like to KNOW what i put into my animals.

they may not actually eat beef or chickens as we know them, but the amazon and it's tributaries are strange and wonderful places.. and there are animals being shredded or torn up by other fish, or animals in the water. that includes possibly birds and herbivorous animals, which would make limited amounts of meat from those animals available to peacock bass..

not everything a wild peacock bass eats is fresh and/or alive.. my wild caught Orinos are the least picky of any of my cichla.. they have no problem picking stuff out of the rocks, and they are the first ones to eat whatever new food i toss in the tank, the farm bred ones are the picky ones. they taste everything and spit it out first, and it takes a couple tries to get them to eat something new.

 

[bOOsteN aUdI]

its not always to match their diet perfectly but to give them all the vitamins possible and nutrients in a wide variety. you have to remember the fish, birds, small mammals that they are eating also have insects, grains, and water vegetation, larva, micro organisms..ect