Celeste84 Posted November 3, 2006 Report Share Posted November 3, 2006 but if that is true then wouldn't that depend on the molecular structure of the individual protein bases (i.e. which have nitrogen and how much of it) and their percentage of total protein in any particular type of food as opposed to saying that any high protein food causes kidney damage? besides, doesn't the liver remove things like nitrogen from the blood? i mean it may be true, but you'd have to be able to narrow it down to a particular protein(s) and the percentage they play in the foods you're feeding your fish, plus the threshold the fish can safely ingest before you can say it'll harm them right? i feed my fish nothing but bloodworm and brineshrimp basically and they've never had any problems with the diet (fasting on sundays and only feeding mushy peas on saturday may help, but still) so i find this "they damage the kidneys" hard to believe. ok i did a bit of research cause i was getting confused: The liver removes harmful substances (such as ammonia and toxins) from the blood and then breaks them down or transforms them into less harmful compounds. In addition, the liver metabolizes most hormones and ingested drugs to either more or less active products. The liver is generally responsible for detoxifying chemical agents and poisons, whether ingested or inhaled. Nearly all drugs are modified or degraded in the liver. In particular, oral drugs are absorbed by the gut and transported via the portal circulation to the liver. In the liver, drugs may undergo first-pass metabolism, a process in which they are modified, activated, or inactivated before they enter the systemic circulation, or they may be left unchanged. The liver converts ammonia to urea, which is excreted into the urine by the kidneys. In the presence of severe liver disease, ammonia accumulates in the blood because of both decreased blood clearance and decreased ability to form urea. apparently after this the kidney re-filters the blood, reabsorbs the stuff it needs to maintain homeostasis and body function, and secrets anything it doesn't want/need/is harmful to the body. so one would imagine the liver would go kaputs before the kidneys if harmful nitrogen compounds were in the blood IMO. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chuckie Posted November 3, 2006 Report Share Posted November 3, 2006 hang on - don't these fish eat bugs in the wild? how can feeding them frozen "bugs" be harmful? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Halszka Posted November 3, 2006 Report Share Posted November 3, 2006 All my bettas are exclusively on hikari pellets with occasional feeds of live adult brine shrimp. Their diet changes only when I want to condition them to a spawn, then they get frozen bloodworms, live blackworms and live adult brine (for about a week or two, depending how diligent I am). I'll also continue feeding them the live and frozen food for about a week after spawning. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
splendidbetta Posted November 3, 2006 Report Share Posted November 3, 2006 hang on - don't these fish eat bugs in the wild? how can feeding them frozen "bugs" be harmful? Maybe they don't eat as often or as much as we feed them in captivity? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chuckie Posted November 3, 2006 Report Share Posted November 3, 2006 I'd say that's probable if not definite - but that's an issue with the frequency of feeding, not the protein level of the food. Everyone's always pumping BW and such into their fish, but remember, a betta's stomach is as big as its eye. you can't feed it 15 blackworms in a sitting and expect it to be healthy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
splendidbetta Posted November 3, 2006 Report Share Posted November 3, 2006 Does that mean that when you're feeding a betta its belly shouldn't even bulge slightly? And RE gut-loading: Some 'Top' breeders stuff their show fish full of food, as much as they can handle, in order to get them to show-size in time. And they do lose a number of fish becauase of this intensive feeding.... 'but the results are worth it'. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Celeste84 Posted November 4, 2006 Report Share Posted November 4, 2006 huh o.o i find that with my regular feeds (twice a day) my fish rarely overeat. i'd say the males (the pigs LOL) would eat no more than say 3-4 defrosted BW in one hit and maybe a defrosted BS or two, after that they simply leave the rest for later or the snails. for close to 30 adult fish i only need two frozen BW cubes and a BS cube to feed them all once (in the mornings they get FD food), and that'll also feed the loaches, BNs and snails! i really don't agree with gutloading - the fish should have regular feeds yes, but not to the point the water fouls so quickly, and the fish die from overeating. if you want your fish to grow quickly and healthy simply feed them good food in reasonable quantities and keep the water clean <_< Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chuckie Posted November 5, 2006 Report Share Posted November 5, 2006 everyone's always in such a hurry. I have 2 words for people who gutload their fish: Morgan Spurlock. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bren MacFish Posted January 19, 2007 Report Share Posted January 19, 2007 SUPER SIZE ME! Nothing beats the fun of dropping live mozzie wrigglers into the tank and watching the bettas go berserk hunting them all down, particularly in planted tanks, where they get lost under leaves and logs and need hunting out. Improves finnage... not weight. Maybe we all need to hunt down live food... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
splendidbetta Posted January 19, 2007 Report Share Posted January 19, 2007 Yes :yes: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeterJ Posted January 19, 2007 Report Share Posted January 19, 2007 I've been using chopped earthworms for some of the feeds for the last 6 months or so - the bettas love them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marc Posted January 19, 2007 Report Share Posted January 19, 2007 Hi Guys , I use to use frozen bloodworms in the Am and maybe betta pellets of an evening . For the last 3 weeks while i was away ,these fish were fed twice a week with only frozen bloodworms. I was suprised to see them in such good condition when i got back.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
splendidbetta Posted January 19, 2007 Report Share Posted January 19, 2007 Where do you get your earthworms Peter? :yes: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bren MacFish Posted January 20, 2007 Report Share Posted January 20, 2007 I think they may be cultivated for reptiles. Or I suppose you could buy those worm farm ones from Bunnings, expensive tho. It's not like you're likely to find any roaming about in the ground down here! Even my compost is turned over by a fleet of slaters because I can never find a worm in the alluvial sand of Melbourne's sand belt. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeterJ Posted January 20, 2007 Report Share Posted January 20, 2007 Where do you get your earthworms Peter? I stacked up some styro boxes for composting and put our food scraps in there. Produces enough to harvest some worms every week or so. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.