then they can also push chemicals and extra filters and such. New and improved corporate thinking would be to stock that space with a decent quality canned food and expect people to overfeed. i would suspect only 50% or so ever make it to being sold and it takes alot of room to 'inventory' them. how many actually get sold? i have seen HUGE turnover rates in deaths in the feeder tanks. Hopefully this helps or someone else has better references than i could find by skimming.Ĭlick to expand.i'm not sure i would agree with that. There might be a few other points i'm missing atm, sort of tired. The general attitude amongst most aquarists writing these things is that live feeders are bad or at least not worth doing and this is without touching on moral or ethical issues. #6 there are possible thiamase/thiamine problems linked to feeder fish or specifically goldfish. #5 feeder golds can lead to possible fat problems with fresh or saltwater carnivores. #4 feeding live fish is somewhat accepted as raising the aggression levels of the fish being fed it, and furthermore can cause that fish to consider any other fish in the tank with it as a possible food source. #3 the risk involved in ANY feeder fish (disease/parasite/etc) *not* bred by you (the person that owns the fish) outweighs any chance of a dubious benefit. not feeding a varied diet can lead to disease or death. #2 all fish require a varied diet to stay healthy, and feeder fish alone won't provide that. #1 feeder fish in general contain nowhere near the 'right' nutritional values as compared to a good quality food, especially one designed for the fish.

The general concensus and bulk of the information out there agrees on several issues that can be basically taken as fact tho. maybe one of the older folks will have a link handy. I've had enuf digging for the night, unfortunately i was unable to find anything specifically scientific saying 'don't do this'. It is important to resist the urge to watch your fish chase their food, it is for their own good. They are also in high risk of contracting other diseases, such as ich, numerous other parasites, or fungal infections. Fish fed exclusively or largely a diet of feeder fish are extremely likely to develop HITH. Thiamine is an important vitamin and if you use feeders as a large portion of your fishes diet it WILL develope a thiamine deficiency. In addition feeders contain the enzyme thaimase which breaks down thiamine. As a side note for carnivorous and semi-carnivorous fish such as oscars, red devils, and Jaguars, feeder fish should never be chosen as a primary food source because they have virtually no nutritional value. Know the diet of your fish and be consistent, and varied.

Many of the common fish foods sold in the hobby today are enriched with vitamins to make them more balanced, though supplemental vitamins can be added to them as well. A link has been found between the development of HITH and a lack of calcium, phosphorous, and vitamins C & D. Simply eating food is not good enough, it has to be the right food. Can anyone please help me by providing some sort of a goldfish's breakdown of nutritional value? Or some sort of a link to a website giving the facts? What is everyone's opinion on this issue? Thank you so much! ~Bryson My manager is extremely nice, and is willing to remove this from my file and leave me a better review if I can provide evidence that goldfish don't have nutritional value. I got a note put into my file saying I keep telling customers wrong information. I know this isn't true, but I need evidence to show my manager. He told my manager that feeder goldfish are imperative to a fish's diet because they are a great source of protein and calcium. The problem is, my manager over heard me telling this to a customer, and wrote our district manager, who in turn replied saying that I am totally wrong.

I've also heard that feeders are almost completely fat, and contain no protein or vitamins/minerals that our fish need in their diet. I turn people away from feeders because so many contain diseases and it's not worth the chance of passing diseases onto our fish. I work at PetsMart and have totally turned the aquatics department around because of all the information I have learned from this board over the past years. I've learned that feeder goldfish contain no nutritional value what-so-ever.

Feeder goldfish