Hey guys and gals,

we had been reading so much about the advantages and disadvantages of giving
feeders to our fishes, oscars or not. most of us is afraid it might be the source
illnesses and some kind will cause trouble like the toxin of goldfish, the parasite
in feeders, and so on. most of us have the same line of thinking on this, whether
we quarantine the feeders or raise them by ourselves.

i was told that there is a hidden benefit in giving our fishes a "healthy feeders".
1) it will relieve our fishes from hunger
2) unconsumed foods will not cause much bioload unlike the left-over processed foods
3) will give us free time without worrying of feeding, and
4) GIVE OUR FISHES A CHANCE TO EXERCISE, STRETCH THEIR MUSCLE, AND STRENGTHEN THEIR
AGILITY AND REFLEXES

vision focusing is an additional benefit but we do get the same even with pellets.
having been told of that benefit and watching my tank video, i realize it may be true.

what do you think guys and gals??? i need your input so that i can contest their
findings or i have to agree with them.

On the behalf of the cons, in gereral, thiaminase is bad for Oscars.

www.wetwebmedia.com/ca/volume_6/volume_6_1/thiaminase.htm

to add to that:
1: my fish never are hungry, they may have a good appetite.
2: aggreed, no left overs or remains from feeding fish to your fish.
3: I never worry about feeding, I look forward to it every day. Plus keeping a bunch of feeders in the tank will keep the most hungry fish happy,but the slower or more cautious fish will get less.

4: this is the best point and i totally aggree.
Especially for piscivore fish, like my Gar, the occasional hunting seems to do him very well and enforces natural behaviour.
Another downside to feeding your own bred feeders, is that you get easily attached to the babies.
This will leave you with more and more tanks and projects, and i think that's actually a good thing.

btw Paul, those lil' fish look like Aplocheilis,Killifish are they?

we call them "kataba". in some picture, they called them panchack, i'm not sure but
good to control mosquitoes. during my younger years working in the pond, we used tobacco
to poison them before releasing milkfish fingerlings. but in the city, i was surprised they could command good income to the one supplying the lfs.

i have put a fair bit of thought into this recently cos my arow. they do seam to want live food and are not as forgiving as oscars. for sure any fish don't get hikri pettets in the wild. fact. what would be the food make-up of a oscar or arow? how can we know? if our fish show signs that they will only eat live fish no one would change this in the wild. so it would live on its diet of fish. should we feed the fish what it eats as some people think or make it eat what we want it to eat?

PAUL wrote:

Aplocheilis Panchax!
I think they should make excellent feeders for an aro for they tend to stay in the top layers .They breed fast and grow fast. But i don't know if their nutricional value suits the arow...

after a week, half of the archers are still there. oscar and aro stop chasing them
for while but still gulp a lot of shrimp and pellets. i do believe feeders really
help my fishes to be active. a lot of splashing and chasing inside the tank and
i love to watch them.

however, they still wiggle the tails whenever i come close to the tank
the usual habit remain.

Strange how those big fish seem to get used to the company of feeders.
My lil' barb named Lucky has still no intention of being eaten and it's been allmost 2 months now since i put him in the big tank. My Gar and Oscar are not interested in chasing him anymore.

ahh the feeder fish issue... my view is that most predatory fish are opportunistic. oscars for example are picivores, and insectivores. tehy eat fish, crustacians, any insects that may fall into the water, maybe a bit of vegitation but i havent witnessed any of this first hand mind you, just my observations with local fishes here...

now having said that... as far as what we pick to feed them... having learned a bit about what their nutritional needs are and what is good and bad for them... i have no problem feeding live prey to oscars. provided that it is a type of prey that is nutritional without any health hazards for them. if my oscar wants to eat 50 baby black convicts a week then by all means it can eat 50 baby black convicts a week because they are in the food chain from where it comes from. but by that same rule of thought i do not feel its appropriate to feed something alien to them like say a goldfish, a coldwater fish. basically i would feed tropicalfish with tropical foods, not just because the food source will live better in the tank untill its consumed, but due to the health factors for the fish. im not sayin go buy convicts and breed them... im just saying a snack once in a while surely cant hurt anything. I fed 100's of goldfish to my oscar when it was younger before i learned it was advised that it was not a good practice to feed goldies to O, and people always say thats bad for them, well in a years time my oscar is a foot long, and fat and happy and seemingly healthy, without any signs of disease. but at the same time i stopped feeding them goldfish too. so i cant say if i had continued that practice if they would be in good health or not but i know "I" have not yet experienced any problems feeding live fish to my fish provided the proper care was given to quarenteen the feeders before hand for a week to keep any sickness out of my main aquarium.

heres a list of things i know first hand that my oscar will readily devour.

goldfish. minnows. electric yellow ciclids. black convicts. baby oscars. pictus catfish. small perch. lizards. geckos. baby pink mice. kenyi cichlids. crickets. spiders. cockroaches. the list is alot longer than that but you get the idea. and im not saying these are good foods either, id rather have kept my cichlids, and id my baby snake hadnt been stolen id have never had pink mice to feed it either. but all this stuff was done back when i didnt know any better, and the oscar definatly did not seem to mind the snacks.

these fish will eat whatever they feel looks appetizing to them in the wild that they are able to actually get in their mouth and swallow. and if they are happy with a food that is still nutritional and good for them then by all means give your fish a treat once in a while.

i mean they say steak and potatoes is a great meal, and i agree, but if i ate steak and potatoes EVERY DAY id get bored with it and maybe want a hamburger or a porkchop you know what im sayin? its commonly stated that a well balanced and varied diet a key point in maintaining happy and healthy fish. i cant think of anything that could be more nutritious for a fish... than perhaps another fish? its protines, minerals, vitamines, fats, and all the good stuff the fish needs, all rolled into one little fast moving bundle that gives the fish's we keep a bit of excerise in the process of having dinner. of course you can say they are missing key elements and nutrients... well... nothing is perfect, and in the wild the oscar may well be suplementing its diets needs with other sources such as insects or tadpoles or whatever it can happen to catch. but now having said that if your keeping your fishes inside in an aquarium your the provider and decider on its nutritional intake, and it really is up to the caretaker to pick and choose what is best for the fish. and while feeder fish may not be nutritionally perfect, a quality pellet is supposed to provide all the fish needs. BUT... that can of super premium fish food... it cant be much better... heres a can of tetra cichlid jumbo sticks... first few ingredients, shrimp meal, wheat gluten, wheat starch, krill, fish meal, dried yeast, soybean oil, monobasic calcium phosphate... ect.. i just wonder how all the cichlids swimming in the wild of the worlds waters survive without their daily dose of "wheat gluten" and "monobasic calcium phosphate" enriched with dried yeast and soybean oil... it all sounds good till you start to think about it.... its all coming out of a lab... on a massive scale. ive even seen fish foods with activated carbon IN THE FOOD to help maintain clear water... surely that cannot be good for the fish.





the point is... in the wild they eat what they can catch and eat.. they may have preferences... but survival is survival and a hungry fish will eat if given half the chance.

so if your fish is hungry, drop some small fry in there, maybe a worm or a cricket or two. your fish will thank you.

well said Win. that is the way i am thinking of the fishes in the wild.
the debate i had with the breeders pointed the facts that fishes in captivity
had limited movements.... yes, we used to give them varied foods but the space
available make them move slow. most of us used to drop the food at one location
that is convenient to us. that is why our fishes in tank become fat.

the point is, fishes need something to chase to improve their reflexes and agility.
it is more on exercise, not on the nutritional value.

Oscars are not built to mainly eat fish although they will eat one when the get a chance, they mostly eat insects, so if you want a natural diet go catch a lot of insects and put in the occasional fish. I personally think it is cruel and unnecessary to put live fish into the tank, as the fish clearly dont want to be eaten. Companies make very good food to feed to our fishes and also we can get various insects (lives ones if you want the fish to eat live food).

Some fish will only eat live fish and if you want to keep these types of fish then you will have to accept that you will have to put live fish in