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Post by kagome on Jul 6, 2009 17:07:57 GMT -5
I was buying some frozen bloodworms for my rams this afternoon and I saw a package of beef heart in the freezer case. The label said that it was for quick growth and robust fish, but honestly I am rather skeptical about the claims that labels make. I had never heard of feeding fish beef heart before so I thought I would ask. Is it any good? What kind of fish it is used for? What are it's pros and cons?
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Post by Carl on Jul 6, 2009 20:38:46 GMT -5
I know that some die hard older aquarists still use beef heart, but I emphatically disagree, as the amino acids in beef heart are not easily utilized by fish, making for a poor source of protein, stress on the fish body that is trying to use beef heart for its source of protein. I mention in my Fish Nutrition Article that Whole Fish meal or other aquatic protein sources are a much better source of usable proteins; what I failed to note (partly because the use of beef heart for fish is for the most part a thing of the past) is that Beef Heart is not a good choice for fish protein or even growth of larger carnivorous fish. Part of the problem (as I noted about 25 years ago in feeding tests) is that although the fish' body can find a way to utilize beef heart and that although the fish will grow with beef heart in their diet, the difficulty the fish has in processing these amino acids definitely shortens their life span, and by a considerable amount I might add. Think of it this way, a leather shoe has a lot of protein, but you likely would not consider feeding it to your kids or fish (unless maybe you were starving and then boiled them into a soup) Carl
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Post by kagome on Jul 6, 2009 23:23:25 GMT -5
Thank you Carl. I was immediately skeptical because I remembered you saying in your article that aquatic based food sources were much better than non-aquatic. But since I didn't know for sure I thought I would bring it up. I can see why fish would have a hard time digesting it as it is something that they would almost never come across in nature. When I told my husband about the packages at the store he thought it was a really weird idea to feed it to fish. Once again I am glad that I asked instead of just believing the packaging and wasting my money based on false claims.
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