Okay, I shouldn't feed goldfish. But WHY?
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Posted by MiserMike on February 10, 2003 at 13:35:20:
I've got a common and an ally who have been eating shiner minnows supplemented with trout chow, but the local bait shop is very expensive and stingy on their minnow count, so it's costing a lot as my snappers grow. I can get feeder goldfish much more cheaply, per pound of flesh. I've often heard that goldfish are not nutritous -- like an all-lettuce diet for herbivores -- but what is the reason they're inadequate? They're live whole fish, so what is missing from their body chemistry that's present in other fish and needed by a snapper? Don't wild snappers eat a lot of carp? They seem to be an easily-swallowed, soft-finned prey, abundant in warm, turbid waters, and a bottom-feeder to boot. Wouldn't that make them more available to snappers than most fish species? I'm NOT saying they universal advice to avoid feeder goldfish is wrong, I just want to know why, and if it's possible to supplement to make up the lack. Hope someone will bother helping a newbie on the forum.
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