Feeding

[juliehainsworth]

Just wondering is it ok to give fish a small amount of cooked meats? I've found that my fish seem to really enjoy eating chicken, esp my silver dollar, siamese fighter and glowlights. They all went mad when a small amount fell in my tank moreso than what they do when they get daphnia and bloodworms.

 

[modernhamlet]

cooked meat of any sort should not be in the diet of any fish.

and how does a small amount of cooked chicken "fall into" a tank?

 

[juliehainsworth]

My 5 yr old niece wanted to feed the fish and was in the middle of eating her chicken sandwich when some fell out into the tank as she fed them with the other hand!

 

[juliehainsworth]

Just thought surely having the fish eat chicken is'nt any more wrong than feeding them peas, cucumber, egg etc that other enthusiasts feed they're fish! Afterall cucumber, peas, and eggs arent found in they're natural habitat anymore than the chicken is! Its the same with brine shrimp as brine shrimp come from salt water and not fresh water if I'm not mistaken? Not saying that I was right to allow the fish to devour the piece of chicken but we feed our fish all sorts of different things and they seem fine and health?

 

[dwarfgourami]

Just thought surely having the fish eat chicken is'nt any more wrong than feeding them peas, cucumber, egg etc that other enthusiasts feed they're fish! Afterall cucumber, peas, and eggs arent found in they're natural habitat anymore than the chicken is! Its the same with brine shrimp as brine shrimp come from salt water and not fresh water if I'm not mistaken? Not saying that I was right to allow the fish to devour the piece of chicken but we feed our fish all sorts of different things and they seem fine and health?

That is not the point: as I explained in your other thread many tropical fish do not have digestive systems designed to deal with the fatty tissues found in animal meat. Ham in particular is way too fatty for them. (In the case of ham you are also talking about a heavy concentration of salt and preservatives, none of which has been tested for its suitability for fish). You can feed them brine shrimp or bits of fish because that is different nutritionally speaking.

Fish such as livebearers can quite easily die from indigestion if not fed the right kind of food: it's not nothing to do with what is in their habitat, everything to do with nutritional composition. If you keep piranhas, then that would be a different matter.