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View Full Version : gulf-caught fish safe as aquarium food?


The0wn4g3
07/16/2008, 07:23 PM
I'm in gulf Shores, Al and we've caught some nice sized Bluefish. We usually throw them back, but some were hooked so bad they wouldn't have survived. Would the Bluefish fillets be safe to add to a homemade coral/fish food?

thanks

Rhodophyta
07/16/2008, 07:50 PM
To quote from the link below: "Since bluefish has a high oil content, fishermen should gut, bleed, and ice this fish as soon as it it caught. Strong digestive enzymes cause bluefish to spoil easily."

If the fish has possibly spoiled, it would be a bad idea to use it for anything other than growing corn in the ancient method.

http://www.ocean.udel.edu/mas/seafood/bluefish.html

ryan_paskadi
07/16/2008, 08:34 PM
Lots of pollution in the gulf....I would not do it.

The0wn4g3
07/17/2008, 07:11 AM
The fish was cleaned extremely well. I cleaned it like any meat I would eat at the table. Bled, filleted, rinsed, and iced within 5 minutes of being caught.
The pollution part is what I'm not sure about. I know many people go to local Asian markets to collect seafood, so I thought this would be about the same.
Thanks for the advice so far.

ryan_paskadi
07/17/2008, 08:14 AM
you can not clean mercury and other heavy metals out of fish. We can eat that stuff moderately and be fine, but our tanks are more sensitive. If you have inverts, I would not do it. If it is just a fish tank I would not worry.

Rhodophyta
07/17/2008, 08:49 AM
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12965532#post12965532 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by ryan_paskadi
you can not clean mercury and other heavy metals out of fish. We can eat that stuff moderately and be fine, but our tanks are more sensitive. If you have inverts, I would not do it. If it is just a fish tank I would not worry. Those contaminants tend to concentrate in the fat, skin, and organs of affected fish, so "clean" is the wrong word, but you can reduce the contamination by proper preparation. Certainly an ocean fish is less exposed to this than freshwater fish.

Wetline
07/17/2008, 09:19 AM
Typically predators have higher concentrations of mercury then baitfish that eat crustaceans and detritus. Mercury never leaves the system so every time a bigger fish eats a smaller one whatever mercury was in the small fish is "held" by the bigger fish so tuna, marlin, sailfish and those type of fish have higher concentrations of mercury then say a grunt that you catch out on the flats.

Personally I wouldn't use fish in the mackerel family for DIY fish food but other smaller fish like pinfish and things like that from the gulf would most likely cause no problem.

stugray
07/17/2008, 09:37 AM
Sometimes these comments just crack me up.....

Oh NO I wouldnt put something from the OCEAN in our tanks.... it might be BAD for it.

Give me a break!

Stu

hllywd
07/17/2008, 12:36 PM
Personally I'd use it...

Tim

The0wn4g3
07/17/2008, 12:56 PM
I think I'll try it mixed with the brine and mysis cubes. I left no blood, bones, fat, or anything else in the meat, and it has to contain more nutrients than the brine shrimp cubes. There isn't even any "fish juice" left in it. Just pure white meat.
What would be the best way to prepare it? I was thinking just squish it into little piece with my fingers and freeze it until it's time to feed.

Appreciate the opinions guys, it's a great help.

stugray
07/17/2008, 01:23 PM
If you puree it in a blender then put it in a ziplock, squish it really flat & freeze it, it is easy to feed later.

I have done it with sushi grade tuna before.


BTW - Hey! I just caught some shrimp off the coast of Cocoa Beach Florida.... do think it's safe to feed to my tank? I'm worried that it's not reef safe.......

Stu

BrianOKC
07/17/2008, 04:05 PM
Ya it cracks me up as well. How scared people are about this hobby. I mean heaven forbid you feed your fish with fish you caught straight out of the ocean. I know lets let someone spray cyanide on a fish then buy it out of a LFS that makes much more sense. Just because the fish is in an aquarium in the LFS does that magically reduce the amount of pollution it might have seen before it was caught?

CMcNeil
07/17/2008, 04:12 PM
i say if YOU would eat it then why not fed it to your fish.i imagine just about every fish or coral in our tanks came from water that has or has had some form of pollution.

Lutefisk
07/17/2008, 05:44 PM
LOL

What do people think - that the fish in our prepackaged fish food is only from the choice cuts and lived and grew in pristine mountain spring water fed through a lab grade RO/DI system, treated with only food grade additives and artificial seawater?

Rhodophyta
07/17/2008, 07:01 PM
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12969311#post12969311 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Lutefisk
LOL

What do people think - that the fish in our prepackaged fish food is only from the choice cuts and lived and grew in pristine mountain spring water fed through a lab grade RO/DI system, treated with only food grade additives and artificial seawater? :rollface: I doubt that they even think. We are a couple generations into people who were raised by Sesame Street puppets and can't tell Disney animated animals from the real thing.:lol:

hllywd
07/17/2008, 07:22 PM
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12969311#post12969311 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Lutefisk
LOL

What do people think - that the fish in our prepackaged fish food is only from the choice cuts and lived and grew in pristine mountain spring water fed through a lab grade RO/DI system, treated with only food grade additives and artificial seawater?


:lol: :lol: :lol:

IslandCrow
07/17/2008, 10:43 PM
Lots of pollution in the gulf....I would not do it.

Fish from the Gulf are good enough for me to eat. . .I think they're good enough for my $20 fish.

Oh yeah, I also do water changes with water directly from the Gulf. I even got some of that water in my mouth once, and I didn't die or anything.

Wetline
07/18/2008, 08:43 AM
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12971399#post12971399 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by IslandCrow
I even got some of that water in my mouth once, and I didn't die or anything.

:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

fivesmallworlds
07/18/2008, 12:21 PM
I Vote this for funniest thread of the month!!!!

stugray
07/18/2008, 02:15 PM
Just want to be clear.

None of us are makign fun of The0wn4g3's original post, just the nay-sayers ;-)

Seems like The0wn4g3 knows what he is doing when it comes to fishing & preparing.

Stu

IslandCrow
07/18/2008, 05:47 PM
Agreed, the original question was a good one. I just had to be a little bit sarcastic with some of the replies. I started my first saltwater aquarium back when I was about 9, using water from a local inlet (those from the Cocoa Beach area will know it as the Banana "River"). The water was hardly the cleanest, but I kept a sea horse (wild caught by yours truly) and a blue damsel (store bought). The tank actually did quite well, and the sea horse was eating frozen brine on day 1.

My point here is, it's always a good practice to be cautious about what we put into our tanks. Sometimes, though we take it too far, though. There's probably more contaminates on my left hand than in a cubic meter of seawater.

The0wn4g3
07/20/2008, 03:03 PM
I know you guys weren't making fun of me. I just read through the responses and they were pretty hilarious really. Hope nobody took offense.
I got home a few hours ago, so I'll thaw the fish and see if I can't mash it up into a good homemade food.
I figure if it's good enough for me to eat, it's good enough for the fish.

Lutefisk
07/20/2008, 03:11 PM
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12986549#post12986549 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by The0wn4g3
I figure if it's good enough for me to eat, it's good enough for the fish.

Always a good rule-of-thumb. :thumbsup:

widmer
07/20/2008, 04:11 PM
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12966085#post12966085 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by stugray
Sometimes these comments just crack me up.....

Oh NO I wouldnt put something from the OCEAN in our tanks.... it might be BAD for it.

Give me a break!

Stu

Lol. Anyone else remember discussions where it's been a huge ordeal whether or not to use sand from the ocean, simply because it wasn't sold by seachem, aragamax etc...? Where does their sand come from? The moon?