First of all when talking about fish diet it seems that lumping all
fish into the same dietary needs is unrealistic. What may be good food
for a plant loving fish like a molly and a fish that roots around in
the gravel like a botia are probably widely different. So when mention
is made of what "fish" need in their diet and studies of their needs,
I think taking into account which fish the studies have been on may
have some impact on the way keepers of different fish should interpret
the results.
On rainbow diets, Adrian mentioned:
>>I have been told that a "so far" unpublished research report will
show that
rainbowfishes consume greater quanities of terrestrial insects than
any
other food item.<<
Seeing the number of gammarus my rainbows let live in the tanks,
simple observation would suggest they aren't big eaters of aquatic
insects.<g> Seriously though could the lack of insects in their diet
in home aquaria be the reason that people sometimes have trouble with
fin underdevelopment and crooked fish? I know Roy touts using some
kind of block or supplement to overcome this (sorry I can't remember
what they were called). This is probably a stupid question because I
really don't have any idea, just a thought.
On recreating natural environments for our fish I'm all for the
attempt but I truly think that it is impossible to exactly duplicate
the fishes environment. Getting all the correct plants, fish, inverts,
landscape props and water chemistry would only be the start. The
entire environment outside of the water also affect what is happening
in the water. So the bank plants and terrestrial insects and animals
would need to be included also.
Even if you could somehow arrange all of that once you put it all
together it would start to take on a life of it's own. Especially in a
small environment, (which anything we can create would be, compared to
the outside world) the interactivity of the different organisms would
start to change. Some populations would do better, some would do
worse. I think it would be almost impossible to keep from infecting
the artificial environment with local populations also. It wouldn't
take long until it wasn't like the natural site it was to represent.
Just my strange thoughts on it.
I do think it is good to try to make life in an aquarium as nice as
possible for the fish, I do try to create a natural "like" environment
for my fish. So I applaud the effort but think it is overall
unrealistic to think we can actually do it. Once again these are just
my ideas and have no basis in anything except my extremely limited
understanding.
Rhonda