![]() Although bacterial diseases and parasitic infections claim many more fish than nutritional deficiencies(Francis-Floyd and Klinger 2003), fatty liver disease is probably one of the most common of fatal nutritional problems. My buddy said that he also sees the same fatty liver disorder in a variety of marine fishes (most commonly groupers and lionfishes) from pet shops and hobbyists who fed these predators on a diet of primarily live goldfish. ![]() This condition seems most commonly to be the result of poor diet, and the consensus of several well-known fish pathologists is that the single most common cause of fatty liver disease is a diet high in saturated fats, although biotin and/or choline deficiencies, toxemia and "unknown nonspecific causes" are also possible factors. He was telling me that the single most common cause of death he's seen among marine fishes at public aquaria is "fatty liver disease." Although not really a disease, fatty liver is a serious condition in which the liver becomes enlarged, often to the point that it interferes with, or even crushes, the other internal organs and is apparently the cause of death. So, now let's get into the discussion of why you should not use feeder goldfish for your lionfish (or any other marine predatory fish) - I'll explain it in more detail below, but the short-and-sweet answer is that freshwater fish make a lousy food for marine predators.Ī buddy of mine is a fish parasitologist who used to volunteer with a couple of veterinarians at public aquaria to do autopsies on dead fish. However, the nutritional value of feeder goldfish for a marine predator is a much more serious concern. It seems that the thrill of the hunt extends to our pets as well, and without the challenge of hunting live prey (or some similar puzzle-solving challenge or enrichment) many zoos have found that their animals develop behavioral and/or health problems. In fact, many zoos and public aquariums now realize that providing live prey to active and intelligent predators makes for a much healthier and happier animal. I am not saying that there is anything wrong with the thrill of seeing a lionfish hunt. In fact, I suspect that is a large part of the reason that many people decide to purchase a lionfish in the first place. You have to admit, there are few feeding responses among marine aquarium fishes quite so dramatic as watching a lionfish hunt and then engulf a goldfish whole! Whether we are willing to admit it or not, deep down, most people get a thrill from watching a predator hunt down and devour live prey. So, adding a feeder goldfish to a tank of lionfish is one of the best sales techniques available to a retailer. Because a good feeding response is one of the criteria that most of us use to decide whether or not a fish is healthy and worthy of purchase, this is an important thing for any pet shop to be able to demonstrate to us as potential buyers. ![]() I think that all of these factors come into play with the decision of most pet shops to feed goldfish to their lionfish. Third, the use of goldfish is a simpler and more cost effective way to feed these guys than to use a marine "feeder" fish. Second, because goldfish are so slow relative to most marine fishes, it is easy for the lionfish to catch. That means that the owner doesn't have to invest any time in training the lionfish to accept other foods. First, virtually all of these predatory fishes are still wild-caught, and when first brought into captivity, they do not receive the proper cue to initiate feeding from flake or frozen foods, and the addition of a struggling live fish (such as a freshwater goldfish tossed into a marine tank) is a powerful feeding cue to get these fish to immediately attack the prey. There are many reasons that people usually give feeders to their marine fishes. One of the most common mistakes that people make with feeding large predatory fishes (such as groupers, snappers or lion fishes), is to give them feeder goldfish. It is much more intuitive to realize that nutritional value is a major concern for feeding our animals.
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