Don't believe in it. Anyone who's been in the hobby long enough and who has had a variety of tank and fish types can tell you that an aquarium fish absolutely does not have to be fed live food. Any fish can thrive on food marketed for aquarium fish. People whose argument is that it's "natural" tend to not realize that the natural aspect of these fish left the moment they were plucked out of nature and thrown into a tank. They don't need it, and yes, there is plenty of disease that comes with those fish. Plus, the fish in the wild that are eaten are fish that are under the same living conditions as the fish that are eating them, giving them the same natural shot at survival. In the hobby, these fish are bred and kept in terrible conditions, because they're only "feeder" fish...there's just a sort of moral difference there.
i know it is possible for them to thrive on other types of food. but it is also possible to give them the added opportunity to be predators in the tank. all of us on this forum who are supporting the fact that there's no problem feeding them live feeder goldfish can tell u that they know it from experience. i do too. we've fed them to our fish without a single problem.
don't talk about moral difference... we're talking animals... you're saying humans breed these fish just to kill them again. u wanna talk bout moral difference?... all humans should be vegetarian then! if we all stop eating beef, we don't have to breed cows in terrible conditions just to kill them again... what about breeding chicken just to kill them again when they're large enough and supply us with KFC fried chicken or to be sandwhiched in our McChickens. i think there's some sort of 'moral difference' there if u do that... haha... c'mon dude...
natural aspect of the fish in the tank? hey, if we didn't want to keep it natural, we would not bother to put in nice live plants, gravel, heaters... etc. we do all these, even though it makes it more difficult to clean... because we want to keep it natural as much as we can. if we did not bother about keeping it natural, we would keep iridescent sharks in 10 gallon tanks for a few years and love them looking cute n active n all at that size (growth stunting or life-shortening is not a problem, we could just buy another small one when this one dies), but we choose to give our pet fish plenty of swimming space that it wouldn't feel to 'trapped in a tank'... even though we have no choice but to put it in a tank, we try to make fish feel as comfortable, or as natural as they can be in our homes.
all of us who are for including live feeder goldfish in carnivorous fish's diets have known from experience that it can't hurt them if u get them from the right source. some of u who have fish which died from disease possibly caused by feeder goldfish are just unfortunate i guess... many of u out there would rather not try feeding them live feeder goldfish just because you're afraid something might happen to your fish. but i say, it would not be a risk once u try it, and have no problems with it.
pls don ever bring up the term 'moral difference' anymore on this topic... that's totally irrelevant. let's just tell each other from experience ok.
i'd like to tell all those who are new to the hobby, never stick to one rule... in this hobby, u'll nvr know till u try. sometimes, somethings might be good for u when it isn't for others. sometimes it goes the other way.
