Understanding Fish

[Paul B]

Paul, please explain what you mean and how you "inject" the feeder fish.

Barb to inject feeder fish you catch the feeder in a net and hold the fish in a small part of the net. Fold the net around the fish and hold it tight, inject it through the net into it's belly. Just inject a tiny bit. The oil in a fish is about a quarter the volume of it's eye. I don't keep morays or anglerfish anymore so I have not done this in a few years. You can inject vitamins like Selcon or Cod liver oil just don't go crazy, too much of this will also probably kill your fish. I only would do this if I could not get appropriate food for a carnivore or if I wanted to get some extra vitamins into it. It is not a substitute for the fishes proper food.

Cracker, if you fish you can get salt water sand worms which are used as bait. These can be frozen and fed to fish. As you know sand worms get to about a foot long and now they are about 50 cents each. You can also feed them alive but cut their head off as they can give a nasty bite to you and your fish. I would imagine that the roe of saltwater fish would be an excellent additive to food. I wouldn't feed just that as it may be too rich in oils. Fish eat whole fish along with the organs not just the organs.
I also fish and dive and the marina where my boat is full of tiny fish and shrimp. Many times I take a small net on my way home and catch some of these little vitamin packets. They don't live long in a pail but they are fed as soon as I get them home. The grass shrimp are excellent food and will live indefinately in your tank until they are eaten. The only problem with these is that they jump out if they are chased.

In an other post, You suggested that marine animals, sponges, inverts ,fish from temperate & tropical waters may not be safe as they carry parasites & diseases that a cold water fish wouldn't.

I think I said in that post that I was not sure if tropical animals and sponges would carry paracites into your tank. I doubt northern cold water paracites
would live in a tropical tank. I know ich will not live in cold water. Our water here in NY gets to about 35 degrees in the winter, ich would not have a chance so I assume that temperate foods would be fine. I have always fed these foods to my fish and never had a problem with disease.
Don't forget, I am not a Doctor, vetenarian or researcher. These are my opinions from many years of experimenting. I never read about injecting fish or the benefits of Cod liver oil or worms. The few people that wrote the books in the sixtees when I started are mostly dead now but they were the pioneers of this hobby. There was no foods specifically for salt water fish so we had to make our own. I was lucky to be born on an Island and my family was in the fish business so I always had a supply of foods.
I was also lucky to become a diver when that hobby started and I learned vastly more underwater watching fish than I could from books although I do read everything I could find. I don't however believe everything I read.
I myself published quite a few articles in aquarium magazines and other publications and what I write I believe to be true but I have no credentials and everything that I ever submitted was published without question. I could be making this stuff up. I am only stating this to show that just because you read it in a book does not make it so.

Kathy, the only list of what fish eat is in an old book written by one of those old deceased authors. The one that I have is by Robert Straughn. It was written in the early sixtees and I am sure there must be an updated list out there somewhere. We can also assume what a fish eats by it's species. If it's a tang, it needs mostly vegetable matter, If it's a carnivore it needs fish
(whole fish) butterflies are different as they all have different food preferences. You can also sometimes tell by the shape of the fish. If it has a snout like a copperband butterfly it needs small prey it finds in coral heads like worms. Copperbands will live a nice long life on almost nothing but worms. I have kept them for many years by giving them black worms almost every day.
I spent a lot of time diving with moorish Idols and they eat mostly sponge. They will eat anything but I believe they need whatever is in sponge to be really healthy. I collect sponge locally to feed them.
Have a great day.
Paul

[BarbMazz]

Thanks, Paul. I figured you literally meant injecting them, but I wanted to make sure!

What you are saying about feeding fish makes literal, natural sense. When I thought about this, I realize I feed my dogs this way; raw meat and bones, with an organ meat and vegetable slurry (the last to mimic stomach contents), and my cat, too.

I think it's really good to get away from food "marketing" when trying to keep healthy pets. It's good to know that some of the convenience foods are adequate for occasional use, but when long lives and best health are desired, it makes perfect sense to mimic a wild/natural diet.

Thanks for helping me include my soon-to-be tank in this genre of pet keeping!

[Paul B]

Barb, thank you. Of course we all feed our animals "regular" aquarium food sold in pet shops but this should not be relied on exclusively.
There are a lot of choices out there. As you said, fish will live on store bought foods and some of them are very good but to keep fish in excellent condition they really need fresh foods which they were designed to eat.
Not all fish need the same thing.

[kathywithbirds]

Thanks Paul. That's what I'm after. Good to know about shape too. Even a beginner can tell that a fish's mouth shape helps it get its food -- I know snouty fish will pull things off rocks, but I don't know what all would be in the rocks. Awesome info. I have to go get books for school today, I'm going to peruse the college bookstore for some interesting reads.

[Paul B]

Kathy have fun at the bookstore. I can't recommend any books that would tell you what a particular fish eats, the books I have are way out of date and looking at one now, I don't even agree with a lot of the foods.
Good luck.
Paul

[Paul B]

I forgot to mention that even though I often tout the benefits of live black worms, they should not be used every day because the fish like them so much that soon they will not want anything else and may stop eating other foods. My Bangai Cardinals love worms and they used to love everything else but not they give me dirty looks when I don't give them worms. They eat other things but not with the gusto as the worms. I have them on a very limited worm diet now while they eat some other things. I can feed worms on one side of the tank while the casrdinals are on the other side. They are not too observant which is probably why they are endangered and only found on one small Island chain.