Many MFKers myself included have learned a lot of authoritative knowledge on fish nutrition from RD and his likes - the professionals in this field. If anyone want to learn quickly about important diet issues, I'd suggest doing a search on RD's threads and posts and read for 1-2 hours. I predict you will know more by the end than in 10-20 hours of other efforts.
JJ:
thebiggerthebetter
had a thread in which he voiced concerns about the suitability of some varieties of bulk catfish foods for long term maintenance of large cats. I was disappointed to read it because I had been thinking that a commercial diet like that would be perfect for large aquarium cats and perhaps other carnivores. ... After seeing his comments, I wonder if perhaps the commercial feeds are designed to produce maximum growth in minimum time, resulting in nice big fillets to market as quickly and profitably as possible...but we as aquarists aren't looking to butcher and eat our fish as soon as we can. We want them to live long and healthy lives, and this probably requires much more attention to the details of proper nutrition.
TBTB: I agree. Based on my experience, related in that thread (with RDs input BTW too). I fed FinFish Aquacuture Ziegler Bros. pellets to our thousands of fish for 10 years. $30/44lb bag. I've raised many show size fish only to start losing them way, way well before their time. In the end it is not worth it to me, not to mention the ethics, but purely economics. A fish I have been raising for 5-10 years and which is supposed to live for many decades, kicks the bucket... and time is irreversible, the effort is gone in a puff. I have started buying the best quality pellet I know of - NLS. Sure I pay 10x more but to me it is worth it. Plus I started religiously presoaking thawed feeds in VitaChem. These are the only two things I have been feeding our fish for the last 1-2 years. Too short to make a claim yet. Time will show. Maybe I was losing my prized fish mostly due to reasons other than the diet. It is possible. At least I believe I've eliminated one important potential reason - malnutrition. Next!!!?
TBTB: When it comes to fish feed pellet, price usually = quality, long term fish vitality and longevity. $1 or less per lb = bad. $5 per lb = mid way. $10/lb and more = good, NLS, Hikari, and their likes. IMHumO, NLS is better than Hikari, while cheaper. Flour is only the binder in their formulas. EVERY OTHER ingredient is AQUATIC origin, not terrestrial, not highly processed and refined chemically enhanced and processed ingredients, which BTW humans should avoid too.
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JJ: A few decades ago, Big Al's stores in Toronto sold trout chow, re-packaged in-store into small 1- or 2-pound bags. Like many other keepers, i used a lot of the stuff...but I also fed a lot of other foods as well: frozen bait minnows (trapped) small pan fish caught angling, frozen mayflies (could be collected by the bushelful back in the day), nightcrawlers, marine Caulerpa macro-algae, duckweed and many other foods that became available by chance or circumstance. These items could be fed "straight", or could be combined into DIY gelatin mixes with different proportions of meaty or vegetable ingredients depending upon the species being fed. ... I recall that those of us who scrounged a variety of foods had universally better longterm success with our large fish than the aquarists who,..through a combination of laziness and having more disposable cash...fed their monsters nothing but trout chow. Their fish did great and grew like gangbusters for a few years but never seemed to last much longer than that.
TBTB: This is perfect example. Great effort (or $$) in = great result. Garbage in = garbage out.
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JJ: My point...and I do have one!
...is that the best way to ensure complete nutrition seems to be providing as great a variety of foods as possible. Always stay on the lookout for new sources of suitable foods, and never rely on single foods to be completely adequate...regardless of what the labels and marketing say...
TBTB: IMHumO, with the exception of NLS and other perfectly thought-through and made without compromises sources.
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Honestly why not make your own food once in a while go to the clearance section where theres all veggies thats pennies on the dollar that need to be prepared for that day or next day you got priceless nutrients from that alone. blend it all in make gel food out if it you can add cheap frozen seafood to it to make it tasty for them. Most of the food ingredients are just fillers if reading the label anyways flour flour meal blah blah its useless fillers to me IMO
My old Jaguar cat group gobbled up canned green beans like candies.that was one of the things that was cheap
Im not crazy about putting my hand in the water knowing the aquarists is feeding avian meat to fish purely because we have closed system which is a breeding ground for awful bacteria stuff its more complex proteins yes natural but we are not providing natures true complex filter system - bovine diet is not normal diet and even same logic for not doing avian diet either.
It was bad enough when I was smelling some discus even angelfish tanks back then at dads friends or fish shops when i was a kid not knowing they were fed beefheart it gives off a certain smell back then when my nose was extra sensitive even if water looked crystal clear and they just did water change. It was very repulsive like a rotten roadkill thats started to turn sour smell but a note of it. I hated beefheart since when realized it was the beefheart they were given when i could faintly smell it a decade ago and asked what they were fed. So no beefheart in this fishroom ? it does smell different when its more broken down and processed into a chow trust me.This is why Im against it in a closed water system ?
Very interesting take. Never occurred to me. There may be something behind this too, that extends beyond the aesthetic displeasure of the smell
into the serious realm of health and life and death.
A knee-jerk on the opening paragraph: Terrestrial veggies are not recommended to aquatic organisms, such as fish, in general, of course there are some exceptions but big predatory or scavenger catfish are not them.
