Fish for a "carnivorous tank"

jpappy789 said:
All carnivorous fish are predatory by nature...whether they include your other fish in their diet is a different story. Size/feeding habits/temperament all come into play.
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That is the first time I have ever heard that. Also, I have never known it to be true. A carnivore is one that has a primarily meat-based diet as opposed to an herbivore who's diet is mainly plant-based. Meat can from many things that are NOT fish-based. If I am wrong, please show me supporting evidence.

If you put it the other way around - Predators are carnivores, I would be more inclined to agree.
 
excuzzzeme said:
That is the first time I have ever heard that. Also, I have never known it to be true. A carnivore is one that has a primarily meat-based diet as opposed to an herbivore who's diet is mainly plant-based. Meat can from many things that are NOT fish-based. If I am wrong, please show me supporting evidence.

If you put it the other way around - Predators are carnivores, I would be more inclined to agree.
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Carnivore simply means meat eater. Consider all of the small aquarium fish that eat insects. So keeping with the Carnivore theme, you could have tetras, rasboras, killies, hatchetfish, etc. You may dismiss this idea because these fish will accept flakes, but aside from veggie flakes aren't these formulations meat based? I know . . . omnivores eat plant and animal matter but insectivores are carnivores and are typically small species. Just another option.


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excuzzzeme said:
That is the first time I have ever heard that. Also, I have never known it to be true. A carnivore is one that has a primarily meat-based diet as opposed to an herbivore who's diet is mainly plant-based. Meat can from many things that are NOT fish-based. If I am wrong, please show me supporting evidence.

If you put it the other way around - Predators are carnivores, I would be more inclined to agree.
Click to expand...

Yes, I understand the terminology.

Of course I didn't mean to imply that all carnivores are piscivores...just that in order to be a carnivore you have to predate something, generally. Hence why I also said "whether they include your other fish in their diet is a different story. Size/feeding habits/temperament all come into play". You could debate terms all day if you really felt like it. Nature likes to provide exceptions to the rules and definitions we create. So many get used interchangeably that unless this is a biology or ecology exam, I don't think it means much anyways...

Within the context of the original question, it's a fairly safe assumption to make though. Very rarely would I think of someone saying they are going to have a "carnivore tank" and stock it with a bunch of insectivores, for example. To me, that suggests they are looking for larger fish that are going to probably make meals of smaller fish.
 
JPappy - Thanks, your explanation makes more sense to me now. I wasn't trying to sharp-shoot you although that's exactly what I did. As far as tanks go, I have had predator tanks and herbivore tanks and usually used live plants for the one and meat-based feed for the other.

Yes, the interchangeability often left me confused that my brain just couldn't accept. Someday I hope we can chat again and maybe I can explain why.
 
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