dino Bichir

[FreddytheFish]

Riskier? Yes, it is slightly riskier. But still, the risk is very small.

IMO, the benefits can greatly outweigh the risks.

BTW, reptileguy, thanks for keeping our debate civil. It seems the number of people mature enough to carry on a debate without resorting to namecalling and flaming is getting smaller and smaller on forums like this.

 

[ghost_shrimp]

Back when I first started fishkeeping, I read that it was always better to feed live foods than dry. This was before the I knew about specially formulated foods or the common opinion that more variety is better. So I got into the habit of feeding my fish exlusively live backworms. My fish never seemed to get sick or have parasites, in fact they looked a lot heathier than they were at the fish store. Now I suspect a fish's long-term health might be affected by feeding just one kind of food, so I try to balance it out.

While there is a chance live foods may carry some disease or a parasite, I think fish are heathier eating live foods than dried, and so they have a better immune system to deal with those factors. I feel that there are proteins and nutrients in live foods that cannot be kept in a prepared food, and conversely, good prepared foods have nutrients added to them that might be missed by feeding only a few types of live food.