Is Silver Dollar herbivorous? I have read that Silver Dollars are herbivorous fishes and only need a veg diet. Can anyone please throw more light on this issue. Being a strict vegetarian, I am looking for fishes which are exclusively herbivorous.
Is Silver Dollar A Herbivorous Fish?
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nmonks
A stroke of the brush does not guarantee art from
There's a difference between "herbivorous", which many fish are, and "vegetarian", which is a lifestyle choice made by people. Herbivorous fish (or any other animal) are animals that eat plants. This doesn't mean they never eat animals or scavenge for carrion.
Thus, silver dollars eat plants in the aquarium, but will also eat flake, bloodworms, and anything else they take a fancy to. In the wild, they probably eat a variety of different things we cannot replicate in aquaria (not having access to a rainforest!). Tilapia are herbivores, as are scats, both feeding heavily on plant matter in the wild. But both also eat small animals if they can (though in the wild neither are very good at it). Scats will eat basically anything -- they're Latin name means dung-eater -- and I'm sure could be fed tofu!!!
When aquarists refer to fish as "herbivores", what they really mean is that the fish will eat aquarium plants. Most don't eat plants, so it's not an issue, but some, like silver dollars, do, and so cannot easily be kept in planted aquaria.
Cheers,
Neale
Thus, silver dollars eat plants in the aquarium, but will also eat flake, bloodworms, and anything else they take a fancy to. In the wild, they probably eat a variety of different things we cannot replicate in aquaria (not having access to a rainforest!). Tilapia are herbivores, as are scats, both feeding heavily on plant matter in the wild. But both also eat small animals if they can (though in the wild neither are very good at it). Scats will eat basically anything -- they're Latin name means dung-eater -- and I'm sure could be fed tofu!!!
When aquarists refer to fish as "herbivores", what they really mean is that the fish will eat aquarium plants. Most don't eat plants, so it's not an issue, but some, like silver dollars, do, and so cannot easily be kept in planted aquaria.
Cheers,
Neale
Thanks Neale for pointing out the difference between Herbivorous and Vegetarian. This is most enlightening. I now understand what they mean when they say Herbivorous fish. You have always been very helpful. THANKS A TON.
§tudz
A True Oddball
his is a master 
he's written articles for PFK magazine 
he's written articles for PFK magazine 
Tokis-Phoenix
^_^
Nmonks, mollys are not herbivores, they are known omnivores, and will not do well on an all-veg based diet (think slow growth and weak imune system, lower fry birth rates and more pregnancy complications)- in the wild they are primarily insectivores with a large bulk of their diet consisting of critters they find swimming aroundin the water as well as other fishes fry.
Practically all food chains stem back to algae, but there are few animals or fish for that matter in this world that live directly and only off algae or plant matter.
I would not advise feeding mollys an all-veg based diet, of course there are quite a few plants that have a relatovely high protein content, but to substitute an omnivorous or insectivours fishes diet with mplant matter only, you would have to feed very large quantities of it for the fish to get all the nutrition it needs- and even then, it is likely to suffer malnutrition in other area's of its diet.
For example, omega oils cannot be obtained from plants as far as i am aware, it primarily comes from fish.
Silver dollars as far as i am aware are primarily herbivores, but are also insectivores and would need other food sources to bulk out their diet a bit and give them the nutrition they need to thrive.
Even oto's, which spend a vast amount of their time eating algae, will not say not to eating other fishes corpses or slime coats.
Practically all food chains stem back to algae, but there are few animals or fish for that matter in this world that live directly and only off algae or plant matter.
I would not advise feeding mollys an all-veg based diet, of course there are quite a few plants that have a relatovely high protein content, but to substitute an omnivorous or insectivours fishes diet with mplant matter only, you would have to feed very large quantities of it for the fish to get all the nutrition it needs- and even then, it is likely to suffer malnutrition in other area's of its diet.
For example, omega oils cannot be obtained from plants as far as i am aware, it primarily comes from fish.
Silver dollars as far as i am aware are primarily herbivores, but are also insectivores and would need other food sources to bulk out their diet a bit and give them the nutrition they need to thrive.
Even oto's, which spend a vast amount of their time eating algae, will not say not to eating other fishes corpses or slime coats.
pica_nuttalli
don't be a twit
actually, nuts and whole grains (esp. flax) are good non-meaty sources of the omega oils (which, btw, are the essential fats)(that is, they're the only kind of fat that we *have* to eat; all those other fats are just tasty.)
/end off topic
Tokis-Phoenix
^_^
actually, nuts and whole grains (esp. flax) are good non-meaty sources of the omega oils (which, btw, are the essential fats)(that is, they're the only kind of fat that we *have* to eat; all those other fats are just tasty.)
/end off topic
On the other hand though, cereal products and nuts are a completely un-natural food source for fish, a lot of poorer quality fish foods contain large levels of cereal products.
nmonks
A stroke of the brush does not guarantee art from
As I think I said pages and pages back or on another version of this same question, herbivores frequently eat animals. Mollies certainly come into this category, no question. What I have been trying to clarify is that herbivores (in the wild) are not the same thing as vegetarians (a human choice). You're right, mollies would be difficult to keep purely on algae. I am sure you could do it, you would just need a wide range of algae, and that algae would have to be growing thick and fast to support the fish. Once the algal turf is growing it would have its own microscopic community of life, rotifers and the like, and mollies would do fine on that. It would basically be eating "aufwuchs", which is what a lot of poecilids, killifish, catfish, and cichlids eat in the wild anyway. Phenomenally difficult to recreate in an aquarium, but certainly possible in theory.
Lots of animals feed exclusively on algae, including some fish (desert pupfish is the example that springs to mind). Among the animals: bivalve molluscs feed largely on phytoplankton, and many gastropods feed on algae that they scrape off rocks. Sea urchins feed heavily on algae. Practically all zooplankton -- including baby fish -- feeds on phytoplankton. In terrestrial ecosystems, the majority of ungulate mammals feed primarily or exclusively on plants, taking in animals only indirectly. Sheep and cows are classic plant-eaters, though presumably they eat ants and bugs and other little things stuck to the grass they eat. In fact, in terms of biomass most animals feed on plants all or most of the time. It has to be this way, because only 10% of the energy gets passed up each level of the tropic pyramid. So plant eaters get 10% of the energy that plants take from sunlight, the first level of meat eaters get 10% of that, and the next level 10% of that, and so on. So a meat eater 3 steps up, like a tuna fish, which ate an anchovy, which ate a krill, which ate a diatom (the "plant") is only able to use 0.1% of the sunlight energy the diatoms turned into its body. Hence, meat eaters have to be rare, or ecosystems would collapse.
Among aquarium fish, the only two I can think of that could be kept as "vegetarians" in the human sense are scats and Panaque catfish. The latter have to kept on wood and plant food anyway, and the former could be fed anything, including, I'm sure beans, corn, tofu, or whatever else.
Cheers,
Neale
Lots of animals feed exclusively on algae, including some fish (desert pupfish is the example that springs to mind). Among the animals: bivalve molluscs feed largely on phytoplankton, and many gastropods feed on algae that they scrape off rocks. Sea urchins feed heavily on algae. Practically all zooplankton -- including baby fish -- feeds on phytoplankton. In terrestrial ecosystems, the majority of ungulate mammals feed primarily or exclusively on plants, taking in animals only indirectly. Sheep and cows are classic plant-eaters, though presumably they eat ants and bugs and other little things stuck to the grass they eat. In fact, in terms of biomass most animals feed on plants all or most of the time. It has to be this way, because only 10% of the energy gets passed up each level of the tropic pyramid. So plant eaters get 10% of the energy that plants take from sunlight, the first level of meat eaters get 10% of that, and the next level 10% of that, and so on. So a meat eater 3 steps up, like a tuna fish, which ate an anchovy, which ate a krill, which ate a diatom (the "plant") is only able to use 0.1% of the sunlight energy the diatoms turned into its body. Hence, meat eaters have to be rare, or ecosystems would collapse.
Among aquarium fish, the only two I can think of that could be kept as "vegetarians" in the human sense are scats and Panaque catfish. The latter have to kept on wood and plant food anyway, and the former could be fed anything, including, I'm sure beans, corn, tofu, or whatever else.
Cheers,
Neale
THANKS EVERYBODY for posting all possible aspects of information. Neale Monks has certainly made me understand the issue which I was wrongly assuming, 'that Herbivorous means Vegetarian'. And since I don't wish to subject fishes to cruelty, they are out of keeping. By being on this forum, I have learnt a lot. The most important being, that there are still people around who would share information selflessly. THANKS & BYE.
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