# Native fish as the staple diet for RBP's



## BASSFISHERMAN (Feb 22, 2004)

I'm thinking about changing my p's diet to ~90% whole fish. I would just catch a whole shitload of perch, pumkinseed, rockbass, bluegill etc. and freeze them. Then thaw one out and toss it into the tank. what do you guys think about this?


----------



## TheSaint (Apr 15, 2004)

Sounds like a cool idea, I wish I could fish!. As long as you can ensure that your fishing from unpolluted areas then I see no problems with this. Deep freezing will kill off any bacteria present.









Ooooh I've just seen where you live ! I really want to holiday in Canada it looks beautiful, whats it like to live there?! (PM ME).


----------



## BASSFISHERMAN (Feb 22, 2004)

The lake i will be getting the fish from is considered to be one of the cleanest lakes in the province, I occasionally eat fish from it too.

But my question should have been phrased as: Is a diet consisting of 90% whole fish a suitable diet for P's?


----------



## Guest (Jun 18, 2004)

A good percentage of the non-shrimp meat my piranha eat are from fish I caught this spring. In fact, sometimes I catch my own small minows and feed them live to my piranha.

There is a theoretical risk of passing diseases to your piranha from feeding other freshwater fish, but thankfully I haven't had any problems with this yet.

Your piranha will probably make beter use of the meat if you cut it up for them. There's something about sunfish that makes them hard to eat whole. It probably has to do with their slab-sided shape that's hard to get a grip on, or their thick scales and tough skin.


----------



## TheSaint (Apr 15, 2004)

Whole fish is very good but I would definately include pellet as part of the 10% as this will provide the nutrients and vitamins that may be lost due to the freezing process.


----------



## BASSFISHERMAN (Feb 22, 2004)

TheSaint said:


> Whole fish is very good but I would definately include pellet as part of the 10% as this will provide the nutrients and vitamins that may be lost due to the freezing process.


 btw, i pm'd you


----------



## BASSFISHERMAN (Feb 22, 2004)

Bullsnake said:


> There is a theoretical risk of passing diseases to your piranha from feeding other freshwater fish, but thankfully I haven't had any problems with this yet.


 you can pass a disease to them even from frozen fish?


----------



## Guest (Jun 18, 2004)

bassfisherman said:


> Bullsnake said:
> 
> 
> > There is a theoretical risk of passing diseases to your piranha from feeding other freshwater fish, but thankfully I haven't had any problems with this yet.
> ...


I don't know anything for sure, but I would say it's possible.

Frozen doesn't necessarily mean sterilized. Although the freezing process likely kills off the higher annelid-type parasites, I think bacteria and viruses can survive household freezer temperatures.



> At temperatures below 32OF bacteria cannot grow, but most are not killed either. Temperatures above 140OF and below 165OF stop the growth of most bacteria, above 165OF kills most disease causing organisms.


from: http://www.culinaryarts.com/sani.htm


----------



## BASSFISHERMAN (Feb 22, 2004)

Thanks for the link...from what I understand, freezing will make the fish reasonably safe for consumption.:nod:


----------



## Judazzz (Jan 13, 2003)

One thing I was wondering about:
When you feed wild-caught predatory fish, how big's the chance toxins, heavy metals and other crap that doesn't break down and accumulates in these predatory fish, will over time affect your piranha's.
Years ago, mainly birds of prey, but other predators as well, died en masse because they ate prey items that accumulated small amounts of toxins. After consuming enough 'infected' prey items, the toxin levels reaches leathal amounts...

Anyone?


----------



## BASSFISHERMAN (Feb 22, 2004)

I think that as long as the wild fish are from a lake that the government labels as being very 'clean' you dont really have to worry too much about it.


----------



## hyphen (Apr 4, 2004)

Judazzz said:


> One thing I was wondering about:
> When you feed wild-caught predatory fish, how big's the chance toxins, heavy metals and other crap that doesn't break down and accumulates in these predatory fish, will over time affect your piranha's.
> Years ago, mainly birds of prey, but other predators as well, died en masse because they ate prey items that accumulated small amounts of toxins. After consuming enough 'infected' prey items, the toxin levels reaches leathal amounts...
> 
> Anyone?


 i believe those toxins are usually merucry deposits that have been ingested by fish. all of the little amounts in teh fsih accumulate in the predatory birds that eat fish. only certain bodies of water are affected by mercury...usually not lakes.


----------



## Judazzz (Jan 13, 2003)

Well, I live in a country where three trees next to each other is already considered nature, so I would never even consider to use wild-caught fish, but I was just wondering.
I guess there's enough more or less intact nature in the US and Canada left to savely catch fish for consumption - lucky bastards


----------



## BASSFISHERMAN (Feb 22, 2004)

Judazzz said:


> Well, I live in a country where three trees next to each other is already considered nature, so I would never even consider to use wild-caught fish, but I was just wondering.
> I guess there's enough more or less intact nature in the US and Canada left to savely catch fish for consumption - lucky bastards


----------



## Guest (Jun 19, 2004)

Judazzz said:


> Well, I live in a country where three trees next to each other is already considered nature, so I would never even consider to use wild-caught fish, but I was just wondering.
> I guess there's enough more or less intact nature in the US and Canada left to savely catch fish for consumption - lucky bastards


 I guess it depends on where in America you live. I live in the armpit of America --New Jersey. Every one of our waterways, including our "pristine" reservoirs has a mercury advisory on consuming the fish from it. Every animal that's high on the food chain has an accumulation of pollution in its body.

The Passaic River, that runs by my house is the second most polluted river in the U.S. An analysis of the fish reveals dangerous levels of everything from PCBs to Cadmium.

I wouldn't eat fish from there myself, but I assume it's okay for feeding fish. Afterall, the fish living there are doing okay. I just hope that my fish don't live long enough to get sick from the accumulation of toxins in its body from eating other fish.


----------



## BASSFISHERMAN (Feb 22, 2004)

Bullsnake said:


> I live in the armpit of America


 sounds nice


----------



## fishypoo2 (Jan 29, 2004)

What about feeding the ps live natives? You could quarantine them first for a while. Though, I suppose that might not remove everything that freezing would, but it might be more exciting. Heck, think of all the diseases introduced by feeder goldfish compared to these guys! By the way, how big is the lake?


----------



## BASSFISHERMAN (Feb 22, 2004)

fishypoo2 said:


> What about feeding the ps live natives? You could quarantine them first for a while. Though, I suppose that might not remove everything that freezing would, but it might be more exciting. Heck, think of all the diseases introduced by feeder goldfish compared to these guys! By the way, how big is the lake?


 I may try feeding some live ones, though I will definitely be certain they are 100% healthy first by observing them in a quarantine tank.









The lake is about 20 miles long, and 1 mile wide - so it's actually more like a river, but nevertheless it is called Pigeon lake. It is one of several lakes which are similar in shape and size located in this area. The water flowing through the series of lakes eventually goes through a system of rivers and drains into Lake Ontario (one of the Great Lakes). Since it drains into lake ontario, it does not contain nearly as high a level of pollution as the great lakes, and it is considered to be one of the cleanest lakes in the country.

The one aspect of the lake that I truly enjoy is the excellent fishing it provides. this is due to the average depth being about 6 feet. There are an extremely large amount of panfish, as well as larger fish like muskies and largemouth/smallmouth bass. The large amount of panfish is what initially made me consider using panfish as the staple diet for my P's (the topic of this thread). Using only a worm and a spinner and a small hook I can catch about one panfish every 30 seconds just drifting in any open part of the lake on my boat. It's truly incredible!


----------

