Would you feed you fish this?

[Tanker]

Hey all... found a bag of assorted seafood at Safeway. Octopus, shrimp, squid (all raw) and cooked mussels and clams all in a "seafood mix" bag to cook and enjoy.

I seperated each fish type and tossed it in my chopper (little mini-processor thinger that chops REALLY well) then froze each kind in it's own ziplock nice and flat. I ended up with 5 kinds of seafood all packaged much like the mysis comes... so all I had to do is cut/break off a piece and bingo... food!

Now my question is...

Should I feed this to my fish? At first I was all "oh this is a great idea for a varied diet for my fish" and now I'm thinking "this could be one massive poisoning just waiting to happen."

I'm assuming that the seafood is mostly saltwater so high soldium content and while it's 'safe for human consumption' once cooked... is it tank safe as raw?

I'd rather be out the $5 and not kill my fish... but if this is considered to be a 'safe' food option... wtf...

[Cap'n]

I've heard many times not to feed your fish food made for human consumption. And I know just as many people who do exactly as you did. One variation on your recipe that is common for SW tanks is to combine all the ingredients (squid, mysis, krill, nori, clam, shrimp, etc), freeze slightly, cut into cubes, then bag and freeze solid. I haven't done so yet, but I do pan to.

I can't really comment on how safe it is for your freshies, but I do supplement my tanganyikans NLS diet with small samplings of my SW food. All good so far.

Edited November 15, 2005 by CptCleverer

[Reza]

I've been feeding my cichlids and arowana clam meat, prawns and shrimp from Superstore for years now. I haven't seen any signs of a problem developing. I've heard of a lot of people feeding their fish beef heart too.

[RD.]

Beefheart is used by many Discus breeders (especially in Asia) due to the fact that it allows Discus to grow large, in a short period of time, which means they can be sold faster. This certainly doesn't mean that it's good for the overall longevity of the fish, or that it's a highly digestible food source. If it was a highly digestible food, that produced little waste, Discus keepers wouldn't have to perform 80% water changes every 2 days. People use it because they read something that Jack Wattley wrote over 40 years ago, and although in many aspects Jack was a man well ahead of his times, a nutritional expert he is not.

Freshwater proteins, vs saltwater proteins, is not not nearly as large of an issue as the lipids found in these food sources. The lipid profiles between fresh & salt water species can vary greatly, and this is the main reason why a marine fish should never be fed freshwater feeders. (even if one raises them in a pathogen free environment themselves)

Dr. Rob Toonen explains more on this subject in detail in the following article.

http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issues/dec2003/invert.htm

By & large most frozen foods contain more water than anything else, and have rather poor protein & lipid levels. About the only plus you'll find is in the fatty acid profile, but again, it depends what species you're feeding this food to. If used sparingly as a supplement chances are there shouldn't be any issues, but there's always a risk of introducing unwanted pathogens that your fish may not be capable of dealing with IF you're feeding uncooked seafood. Some sound tips for choosing, storing, thawing, and cooking seafood can be found here:

http://www.inspection.gc.ca/english/corpaf...as/page2e.shtml

HTH

Edited November 15, 2005 by RD.

[Pufferpack]

I buy that same mix and feed it to my Snakehead on a regular basis, he also loves the jumbo black prawns and Tilapia fillets....no problems so far (other than he is growing an inch every month or two).

[dunl]

I know there has been some talk with seafood brushed or sprayed with a mild preservative that may be harmful to fish, although many (knowing this) still feed it to their fish anyway with no apparent effects.

As for shellfish....as long as they are live, there shouldn;t be any issue whatsoever.

[Garhan]

I have been doing this for years with my discus, wild angels, Geophagus, Cardinals,Rainbows, Catfish and any other fish I keep. I do although add Naturose, B12, C, D, and E vitamins to the mix and a multivitamin sometimes. I have never lost a fish to this diet and it has produced great looking fish and very healthy fish. I also like the price. Often I get the same ingreidence in a raw state.To me it is a much better a diet than just 1 food base, whether only flake or only Mysis even. Yes I like Mysis, the point is vary the diet.

All my fish in any of my tanks will eat Flake, home brew fish foods or Mysis, Bloodworms, etc.

It makes it easy to use up excess foods or when I run out of 1 thing or the other. They dont hesitate to grab and eat the next morsel thrown in the tank.

Life is good !!!

[RD.]

As for shellfish....as long as they are live, there shouldn;t be any issue whatsoever

As previously mentioned, it depends what species you're feeding this food to.

I can think of a number of species, including some of the various cichlids that I certainly wouldn't be feeding 'live shellfish' to.

As far as mysis, while some of the better brands such as PE mysis certainly can be used as supplement, again, the protein & lipid profile of PE mysis (if purchased in a frozen state) is rather low, while the amount of water (82%) is rather high.

Unless you don't mind paying for water .......

Frozen Mysis (% concentration)

· Protein 10.46

· Crude Fat 3.29

· Moisture 82.27

[Tanker]

Unless you don't mind paying for water .......

I got my PE for free

[RD.]

bonus!

[dunl]

As previously mentioned, it depends what species you're feeding this food to.I can think of a number of species, including some of the various cichlids that I certainly wouldn't be feeding 'live shellfish' to.

I'm thinking mussels, clams, oysters, etc. fed to (of course) carnivorous or omnivorous fish, not strict herbivores. Am I missing something here?

[RD.]

So far, the only thing missing is the species of fish that Tanker was planning on feeding this mix to.

[neatfreak]

DO NOT FEED shell fish Beefheart !

IT WILL kill,but

Ifeed my south NO PROBLEM.

let me ask this......

would you like chicken EVERY NIGHT?

I myself would LOVE a STEAK once in a while.

frozen is as close to live is you can get,

DEPENDING on species!!!!!

Do the research,

Don't rely one others ,only you will kill,or be successfull!!!! :thumbs:

[Tanker]

Thanks for the input, all. I have decided against the ground up mussel/clam mixture as it's VERY 'dirty' and polluted my test glass of water. The clam, shrimp and octopus will all be enjoyed, I'm sure. Nights those foods are fed will also be supplemented with sinking wafers for veggie content.

Oh, and regarding the water content, more specifically; I did not add any water to the foods when chopped/frozen. There will only be the actual moisture content of the foods, themselves.

I keep a mix of livebearers, rasboras, puffers, corys and bettas. If I should ever get into anything 'specific' on a large scale I may consider blending my own vitamin fortified foods but for my needs and fish I think I'm doing ok.

Really... as far as I am concerned at this point my fish are doing FAR better than 95% of the fish keepers out there... how many people feed their fish the same brand of flake food their entire lives? Hell, my fish eat a more varied diet than I do, some weeks.

[dunl]

I personally have never seen any problem with feeding any freshwater fish to another freshwater fish, or saltwater fish to another saltwater fish - the reason being that in the wild if they are hungry, most of the fish we keep will devour fry if given the chance.