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RDFISHGUY
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Well the next time I keep em Ill have to try that.... My tig, tiger shovelnose and redtail cat wont touch NLS at all.... And it makes such a mess in the filter I try to feed it sparingly for just the fish that will actually eat it.

Never seen 2 gents turn there nose up at beefheart like that before lol..... You guys have a bad experience or are you vegetrian or what? Its been recommended to me since forever.....and thus far i havent had a problem adding it to anyones diet? But if theres a reason..... Ill gladly pull it from my regieme

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They won't touch NLS because they are holding out for the frozen food, and whatever else you are currently feeding. I could have your catfish eating NLS out of my hand in less than 1 week. :) But I would use the wafers to train them, not those big honking 10MM pellets that are as hard as rock. None of your fish can handle those pellets in a single gulp. Most likely why you are seeing a mess in your filters. The key when feeding pellets is for the fish to take them straight down the hatch, not have tiny particulate matter blowing around the tank from excessive chewing.

Also, first mistake when training fish to eat any particular type of food, is to not stop feeding everything else. If there's a choice between frozen or pellets, frozen such as MP will always win out. If a puffer can be trained to eat pellets, catfish should be (and are) a walk in the park. lol

As far as feeding beefheart to tropical fish .....

Fish aren't hard wired to assimilate the fatty acids found in beef, anymore than they are hard wired to assimilate large amounts of carbs. These excess lipids get stored in & around the organs, and eventually shorten the fishes lifespan. Can these foodstuffs offer amino acids, and solid growth, yes, no question about that, but that doesn't qualify them as being a good source of food. Some of you guys don't keep any one fish long enough to see the end results of feeding foods such as beef heart long term, but for anyone concerned about longevity beef heart is considered a D grade of food.

Even a lot of the major discus keepers have moved away from beefheart over the past decade, for these exact reasons. It's a great food for breeders that simply want quick growth in their juvie fish (so they can take them to market quicker) but it is most certainly not an ideal long term diet. Lee Newman, Curator of Tropical Waters at the Vancouver Public Aquarium has spoken out against feeding beefheart many times, for the same reason as I do, over time it tends to lead to fatty degeneration of the liver. According to one of the DVM's that specialise in aquatic animal medicine at the U of FL, fatty liver disease is considered as being one of the main causes of death in aquarium fish.

HTH

Edited by RD.
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Like Neil says if you give them a lot of frozen foods its difficult to get them to eat pellets. Its like offering a kid a choice between a popsicle and a brussel sprout.

The only fish I have that won't eat NLS are my small rays (they are starting to eat it a bit) and my aros who eat SW with vitamins. The aros only get 25 SW/day because they are a pretty fatty source of protein. If I let them eat until satiation they would probably eat 100 or more. Sure I'd have some big, pumped up aros... but for how long?

Even the WC plecos I just got are huge fans of the NLS wafers. Even my little distichodus eats the wafers. I started him out on flakes. That lasted about 2 days and he was eating 3mm and wafers.

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...Fish aren't hard wired to assimilate the fatty acids found in beef...

Nor should they be; How many cows do you find swimming around at the bottom of lakes and rivers with fish? :P I completely agree, in fact, I'd even say I find the notion of feeding beef to be a little silly lol.

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Why, are you thinking of feeding beef to your fish?

No, I was actually wondering if there were any studies to be found that discuss the correlation between beef and liver disease in fish, that someone could point out?

I thought that was pretty clear. :smokey:

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