Fish and Food

[Linds]

Firstly, I would like to state that I know very little about fish. I am not in to fish keeping, and just simply can't get 'in to it' all. Some of it is cool, but the cool factor just doesn't last long or strong for me ;) But whatever, everyone has their thing. I still like to learn about them.

I was reading <a href="http://www.ssnakess.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=57759&perpage=15&pagenumber=1">this thread</a> and it got me to thinking about feeding.

I know that for the most part, dry prepared foods for reptiles, dogs, cats, rats, hermit crabs, etc. are not as suitable as they are made out to be. They are either lacking in proper formulation, and/or contain harmful additives (preservatives, etc.). The very least, it lacks the fresh factor. I've actually never looked at fish food really, but I would assume this is the same?

On the subject of feeding live...
How high functioning are fish? I know it is widely accepted to feed live crickets, snails, etc. due to the fact that they are lower functioning animals. I see people recommending that animals be fed a commercial diet instead of live food. Is there not an inbetween that is more acceptable, such as prekilled or frozen foods? Or a combination of insects and prekilled or frozen foods?

[homebrewed]

Originally posted by Linds
Is there not an inbetween that is more acceptable, such as prekilled or frozen foods? Or a combination of insects and prekilled or frozen foods?

Many fish do eagerly accept frozen foods (shrimp, fish, squid, scallops... etc) which is great for them, and help enhance color. Some fish are stuborn (ie wildcaughts) which are more used to catching their prey. IMO, it is worth starving these guys to get them onto prepaired foods being that feeders are generally not the most nutritius food for them and can often carry disease.
As for insects, the same thing applies to fish as they do for reptiles. Unless they are gutloaded, they aren't as good as they could be.

[marisa]

Linds- Shane actually just wrote a nice long informative post about this over on ata.....it talkes about flakes, pellets, etc.

Frozen food are readily available for fish! Tons of variety in frozen foods at Big Al's.

Marisa

[BOAS_N_PYTHONS]

LINDS:

I kept fresh water fish (Discus) for years and now have some salt water set ups instead. While doing the Discus hobby of owning and breeding them for North America. I tried many procedures in raising the fish on the best food I could put together. Like most people start with the flake food - pellets - natural veggies - live food - research processed food. I used them all and in the end my processed homemade mixture was the best with a live food alternative. Like feeding them my mixture for 3 days them maybe milk or blood worms that were raised bu a friend who did this as a business. Around holiday season my family eats alot of shrimp and during the shrimp season many times we got batches where they had there eggs all frozen with the parents ll packaged and sold at Safeway or any food market. These eggs are sweet but the ones not eaten were washed under fresh water and served to my fish. This and my live food in addition to the homemade mixture made my fish vibrant and very healthy....I guess variety is what works :)

Tony Pharosx