# Lake Fish



## cduuuub

Me my buddies, and my stepfather go blue gill/crappie fishing 1-4 times a week the summer time. I also have a friend i go bass fishing with. But that is not the point, my question is, is it safe to feed my p's fish caught out of a lake. Pretty much just blue gill. Bass I'm a catch and release type of guy.


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## Tensa

i do it all the time. sometimes i stock a tank and quarantine them. just make sure the source you get the fish from is a safe source. and check the fish for any signs of disease etc.


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## cduuuub

Sweet! What do you normally feed them when you do?


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## Piranha_man

I've done it when trout fishing...
The only thing I don't like is the MAJOR mess it makes in the tank, with the scales and blood in the water.


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## Tensa

you can do a million things with them feed whole the messy way, filet them, clean the scales off, etc. but i usually try to stick to the pan fish like bluegill but i catch a lil of everything. im not a fan of feeding catfish so i never feed those.


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## jp80911

a lot of them may have parasite on them so watch out for those. quarantine them if you want to feed live or just clean them up, gut them and freeze them for a while then feed them to your Ps. if they are too big to eat in one meal you can fillet them or cut them up in smaller size.


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## JoeDizzleMPLS

I feed my fish walleye, bluegill, bass, and pike in the summer, I just make sure to avoid feeding fish with signs of external parasites and I freeze everything first.


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## Sylar_92

Even though Im pretty young still, Iam I seasoned sport fisher who believes in the catch and release rule for all wild caught fish. If you do keep the blue gill though I wouldnt keep them with your piranhas, because they have parasites and it may harm your piranha. Blue gill are also known to grow little tumors when kept in a aquarium those are garanteed not to be good for your piranha. I would suggest convict as a good subtitute, because they are fairly cheap and breed extremely easily in any type of setup, it doesnt matter to them.


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## Johnny_Zanni

I should be trying it this year. I don't see why it would be bad at all as long as the wild fish are healthy and disease/parasite free.


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## cduuuub

Sylar_92 said:


> Even though Im pretty young still, Iam I seasoned sport fisher who believes in the catch and release rule for all wild caught fish. If you do keep the blue gill though I wouldnt keep them with your piranhas, because they have parasites and it may harm your piranha. Blue gill are also known to grow little tumors when kept in a aquarium those are garanteed not to be good for your piranha. I would suggest convict as a good subtitute, because they are fairly cheap and breed extremely easily in any type of setup, it doesnt matter to them.


Already have a good batch from my convicts, jut curious about other things to change up the diet.


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## Dolphinswin

why would anyone put a whole live fish in a tank with piranha? Thats sicker than mouse. Mice skin is way easier to pentrate and rip compared to a fish.... but yet people complain about that.


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## Johnny_Zanni

Fish are at home in water. Mice are not.

And no its way easier to breach a fishes scales and skin then a mouse's.


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## Piranha-Freak101

poor catfish....


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## cduuuub

Dolphinswin said:


> why would anyone put a whole live fish in a tank with piranha? Thats sicker than mouse. Mice skin is way easier to pentrate and rip compared to a fish.... but yet people complain about that.


who ever said anything about live feedings? Im not going to go out of my way just to feed my p's free fish, I would think the only time i would be giving them a lake fish is after i already have it filleted, and about ready to go in the deep fryer. I would set a couple peices aside for them as i like fish just as much as they do.


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## greenmonkey51

Skip the bluegill for a food source. Most people have no clue on the amount of parasites in most freshwater fish. I've been a part of bluegill parasite studies and if you saw what is there you'd most likely never eat fish again. Freezing theoretically should kill all parasites, but tossing the filets in the freezer in a ziploc isn't the best way to kill parasites.


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## Vince302

I'm with greenmonkey51...

White meat fish as lots of parasite, sometime I remove like 20-30 1 " worm in a 20" sauger ! perch is also full of black spot .

and i'm pretty sure their is lot more we can't see without microscope .

still eat them but i freeze them couples of days and be sure the meat is well cook .

i don't feed them to my P's ,sometime a little chunk of yellow walleye but never more ..


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## Redruckus

i know most bass in canada in the southern ontario area have paracite worms in the meat small mouth more then large mouth but still i dont know if i would feed my fish that meat but i probably wouldnt i still dont know if they would get them but i would feed them pike, pickrel, perch, white fish, and trout..if i didnt eat it first but other then that sucker fish are ok same with carp if they dont have any visible parasites or illness i would fillet the carp to check the meat and for easier portions and not having to scoop out bones... but if you dont eat crappy and bluegill scale them to reduce the mess then depending on how many fish you have toss it in or cut it up and toss it in but still freeze everything just in case


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## BRUNER247

Interesting! Seems the ones that are against feeding goldfish or minnows for fear of parasites are also the ones that do or want to feed wild caught fish.& freezing fish won't kill the parasites in the meat. I feed minnows once a week but I would NEVER feed wild caught native fish. Damn I'm greatful for missouri's zero tolerance for baitfish diseases & parasites. Nice walking in my baitshop & have minnows, goldfish, sunfish ect already in medicated water. Imo your taking a big risk feeding wild caught. I'm with dolpin(I don't feed mice)I'd rather feed a clean feeder mouse than a parasite ridden native fish.


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## JoeDizzleMPLS

Freezing fillets in the deep freeze for a few days will kill the parasites, even the standard freezer/fridge combo will take care of them after a week or so.


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## Tensa

yea and we also treat for parasites if we feed live as well during the quarantine process. for those who may do that.

cough cough


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## BRUNER247

JoeDizzleMPLS said:


> Freezing fillets in the deep freeze for a few days will kill the parasites, even the standard freezer/fridge combo will take care of them after a week or so.


Where are you getting this? I've always heard freezing won't kill the parasites.I'm not sayn your wrong.


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## JoeDizzleMPLS

I'm sure I can find some sources if I look, but I've just heard it/read it a bunch of times over the years and I have looked into it in the past -- usually you can find the info in the context of human consumption. Just doing a quick freeze won't wipe them all out, but sub-zero temps for a few days to a week will kill them. I've never caught a fish, filleted it up, and dropped it right in the tank -- they've always spent time in the freezer first.


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## BRUNER247

What about mercury? Freezer make that disappear too. Have at feeding wild caught, but I'd research lil more about parasites & freezing & might wanna read up on mercury while your at it. sh*t feed the farm cats idc. I'll stick with farm raised. & its not farm pond.


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## JoeDizzleMPLS

Depends on where you're catching your fish, but there isn't much concern about really high mercury levels around here... Besides, mercury could be found in farmed fish as well. It's not like I feed exclusively wild caught fish -- I just mix in a fillet or two a month during the summer.


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## BRUNER247

There's many heated debates on this(freezing)subject in the food service industry, fish hobbiests, USDA ect. What I got from it was it kills parasites but not bacteria. BUT some parasites are single celled & freezing doesn't effect them. Its well known it takes weeks of being froze to kill parasites in pork. & the frozen theory has flaws.the ones that say freezing kills multiple celled organisms is wrong. Several fish & frogs can be frozen for extented amounts of time & be thawed & will still live. So to think a parasite couldn't live through a week-to even weeks of being frozen is wrong. Imo anyhow. I also read that no fish in the wild is parasite free including freshwater & saltwater. Just cause you don't see em doesn't mean they aren't there. Idk GL


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## greenmonkey51

If you stick with a saltwater fish filet you do not have to worry about parasites. The parasites can not make the transition to freshwater.


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## jp80911

BRUNER247 said:


> There's many heated debates on this(freezing)subject in the food service industry, fish hobbiests, USDA ect. What I got from it was it kills parasites but not bacteria. BUT some parasites are single celled & freezing doesn't effect them. Its well known it takes weeks of being froze to kill parasites in pork. & the frozen theory has flaws.the ones that say freezing kills multiple celled organisms is wrong. Several fish & frogs can be frozen for extented amounts of time & be thawed & will still live. So to think a parasite couldn't live through a week-to even weeks of being frozen is wrong. Imo anyhow. I also read that no fish in the wild is parasite free including freshwater & saltwater. Just cause you don't see em doesn't mean they aren't there. Idk GL


any idea how was freezing done during those experiments? if flash freeze then parasites might have higher chance of surviving but if freezing slowly (in our freezer) then the water in their cell will more likely forming large crystals and damage cell wall which kills the parasites. 
do we have any member here that has access to microscope? maybe can do some experiments?


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## BRUNER247

It actually is flash frozen, like sushi is. I know pork is froze at like -20 or -30 for weeks. I used to work at meat packing house, fresh out of high school.


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## jp80911

that's what I figured, flash frozen happens so quickly the water in cell doesn't have time to form large crystals so there shouldn't be much cell wall damage if any and with parasites being so small the chances are they will deforest instant (well sort of) so there won't be much internal damage to them hence why they are likely to survive. if being freeze slowly that would be a complete different story. 
for commercial purpose it doesn't make sense to freeze them slowly cuz that will damage the texture of the meat or for other reasons. so by slowly freeze the meat in our household freezer the outcome (parasite wise) could be quite different.


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## BRUNER247

Idk jp I what I got from it was that a common household freezer don't get cold enough to properly freeze a item to the point where cells are crystallized for several weeks. I know I'm not taking in chances. If it takes several weeks in a blast freezer at -20 to kill parasites in pork than I sure aren't chancing it in a home freezer where temps are nowhere even near this temp.


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## jp80911

i think it depends on size and thickness of the meat being frozen. a thin filleted fish can't compare to a big chunk of pork.

here's a link I found. for fish you need an internal temperature at -4F for 7 days. i need to check what temp my freezer can get down to. 
http://seafood.ucdavis.edu/pubs/parasite.htm

as long as the freeze can reach -4F or below I think it just matter of time for the entire fish to reach an equilibrium as the external temperature.


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## jp80911

just checked, I have my freezer set at -2F now but I can set it to as low as -14F if needed.


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## BRUNER247

Is that a deep freeze/chest type freezer jp? I doubt most refrigerator/freezers get that low. Mines in high teens.


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## JoeDizzleMPLS

Most freezers on freezer/fridge combos should run at 0 degrees -- at least that's what is recommended.


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## jp80911

Mine is a Samsung French Door, recommended fridge temp is 38F and freezer temp is -2F but base on the setting I can have it set down to -14F.
It's the older version of this one, click here. I think only few minor things were changed, like the internal light is now LED and has the easy pull handle on the freezer door, etc. main functions are identical.


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## BRUNER247

Lol I used my fish room thermo/hydro meter thought it stopped in teens,which it did but then damn think froze up & shut off. Must be below its range.


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