Carnivore Tropical Fish Primary Diets

[EphesusExotics]

Hey!

I'd appreciate if members of this forum currently viewing this post may contribute to the poll. This will greater assist and give many carnivore fish aquarium fish keepers a broad and general understand on the popularity of certain diet options available.

Note:
Would be appreciated if all results introduced unto the poll are based of experience and success. Please do not contribute to the poll if you have not had success AND experience with the diets listed.

Important:
This post EXCLUDES the following,

• Herbivores

• Omnivores (Unless 80%+ of their diet consists of meat based diet)

• Snack Diets

 

[Colin_T]

Hi and welcome to the forum

Where you have natural, dry and frozen, I would have used live, dry and frozen but either way it's the same. Whilst I have picked that, some fish won't eat dry and can be fussy about frozen. But most can be trained to eat dead foods and don't need live foods.

Regarding live foods, I do not use live goldfish as food for other fishes. I will use brineshrimp, daphnia, glass shrimp and worms, but won't use live fish due to diseases they carry and I don't think it's nice putting fish into a tank where a bunch of predators are waiting to rip them apart. It's not a nice thing to do to any animal. There are some people I would like to drop in a cage with a tiger or lion but not a fish.

Whilst a lot of people that keep predatory fishes think it's fun to watch their fish chew up a goldfish, I don't think it's nice and certainly isn't nice for the fish that are severely stressed out if they don't get eaten instantly. They usually hide in corners or by the surface and are very stressed out waiting for something to get them. Not a nice end for any animal.

 

[itiwhetu]

I have my Discus on a diet of venison, and they love it.

 

[GaryE]

I have my Discus on a diet of venison, and they love it.

Oh deer.

 

[EphesusExotics]

Hi and welcome to the forum

Where you have natural, dry and frozen, I would have used live, dry and frozen but either way it's the same. Whilst I have picked that, some fish won't eat dry and can be fussy about frozen. But most can be trained to eat dead foods and don't need live foods.

Regarding live foods, I do not use live goldfish as food for other fishes. I will use brineshrimp, daphnia, glass shrimp and worms, but won't use live fish due to diseases they carry and I don't think it's nice putting fish into a tank where a bunch of predators are waiting to rip them apart. It's not a nice thing to do to any animal. There are some people I would like to drop in a cage with a tiger or lion but not a fish.

Whilst a lot of people that keep predatory fishes think it's fun to watch their fish chew up a goldfish, I don't think it's nice and certainly isn't nice for the fish that are severely stressed out if they don't get eaten instantly. They usually hide in corners or by the surface and are very stressed out waiting for something to get them. Not a nice end for any animal.

Thank you for the warm welcome!

Sadly I heard Gold Fish - In particular contain unsafe levels of Thiamine, which in return could potentially jeopardise the health of all aquarium fish consuming the Gold Fish.. Such an unnecessary risk in my opinion.
There is always other more beneficial options for the fish and fish keeper

 

[EphesusExotics]

I have my Discus on a diet of venison, and they love it.

Wow that's really interesting!

Could you please give me some more information on how it works for you & your fish (Just out of curiosity), E,g How do you prepare it, feed it and store it.

Thank you!

 

[Back in the fold]

I have my Discus on a diet of venison, and they love it.

I haven't heard of that practice in years. Old timers used to feed beef heart.

 

[itiwhetu]

Wow that's really interesting!

Could you please give me some more information on how it works for you & your fish (Just out of curiosity), E,g How do you prepare it, feed it and store it.

Thank you!

You can see it here post #20

Discus Rediscovered

Yesterday I received my 5 New Discus, these fish have come from the other side of the South Island overnight to me. I thought it would be nice to have a journal for them I paid $30 each for them plus $55 frieght They are Turquoise Discus hatched November 2021 and are around 3 inches long

www.fishforums.net

 

[GaryE]

The feeding of animal meat to fish was a big thing 60-70 years ago, when better foods weren't available. There are still diehards doing it like old Herbie Axelrod said to in the sixties. It works with super lean meats - heart meat from deer, cows, or goats. Fish can't digest animal fats, so the meat has to be the leanest.
There were a few Discus guys in our club who stuck by the old recipes well into their eighties, but most had modified the old recipes and used fish or seafood bases instead of mammals. In the days before refrigerated air travel, seafood was only for people on coasts to buy.
It works. I've seen some beautiful Discus raised and maintained on beefheart and goat heart. It is a lot of work to prepare compared to easier to digest foods, but it works.
I have a herd of 20 deer in my field out back, and this morning I was watching a white spotted fawn and her mother walking by the back window of my fishroom, unaware of my being there. I will not be feeding them to Discus...

When I keep carnivores, they are small ones, so cultured foods are the easiest for me. I'm not sure how we divide carnivore and insectivore in our hobby.

 

[DoubleDutch]

The feeding of animal meat to fish was a big thing 60-70 years ago, when better foods weren't available. There are still diehards doing it like old Herbie Axelrod said to in the sixties. It works with super lean meats - heart meat from deer, cows, or goats. Fish can't digest animal fats, so the meat has to be the leanest.
There were a few Discus guys in our club who stuck by the old recipes well into their eighties, but most had modified the old recipes and used fish or seafood bases instead of mammals. In the days before refrigerated air travel, seafood was only for people on coasts to buy.
It works. I've seen some beautiful Discus raised and maintained on beefheart and goat heart. It is a lot of work to prepare compared to easier to digest foods, but it works.
I have a herd of 20 deer in my field out back, and this morning I was watching a white spotted fawn and her mother walking by the back window of my fishroom, unaware of my being there. I will not be feeding them to Discus...

When I keep carnivores, they are small ones, so cultured foods are the easiest for me. I'm not sure how we divide carnivore and insectivore in our hobby.

And piscivore
I think there isn't one diet for any fish and what they (or better we like to feed) like isn't always what they need.
Variation is the key word IMO to provide vitamins, minerals and different kinds of protein. I feed dry, freeze dried, frozen.

 

[Guyb93]

Predatory fish are primarily piscivore , feeding of mammal meat is in my opinion not natural for fish .some larger fish will eat avian species like ducks but really how often is a fish going to eat beef in the wild

 

[GaryE]

The answer lies in the fact a fish can't digest beef, except for the heart, the leanest muscle. The old timers had that figured out, and using eart muscle was a clever hack. How it ever became a "tradition", I don't know. But heart muscle works.
For my insectivores, variety is everythings. I try to provide different foods with every feeding.
Even when I was a kid saving up and buying little canisters of flake, I always rotated 3 types - never the same food twice in a row. It just makes sense. Now, flakes are not good for my killies, but artemia, mosquito larvae, whiteworms, Daphnia - they all go in the rotation.

 

[Colin_T]

The reason people used beef heart was because it was cheap and nobody wanted it. It can also contain a lot of fat.

 

[Guyb93]

Fresh water Fish don’t eat mammals .
Only fish I know that eats mammals are sharks . If I’m wrong please educate me

 

[Guyb93]

Fresh water Fish don’t eat mammals .
Only fish I know that eats mammals are sharks . If I’m wrong please educate me

I’m wrong ... fresh water trout will eat shrews and barracuda will eat seals # educated lol