Fat fish

my2rotties · #1 03-22-2009, 09:50 PM

Every where I read it says a fish should be fat to ensure they are healthy. I also read tangs will get aggressive if they are hungry... To keep the peace, I drop a couple of pellets for my sohal here and there during the day... If I kept dropping pellets or giving nori on the clip he would keep eating, I can bet on it.

He is FAT, really fat, and I don't know quite how to deal with it now. It is not healthy for any animal to be over weight, but exactly how do I put a fish on a diet. I have to say all my fish are very robust and healthy but my sohal looks like a porker. He is very thick compared to the others which are just nice.

With dogs if you can feel their ribs to a certain extent, you know they are in target range. How do you know if a fish is at a healthy weight and not over weight? If a fish is indeed obese (if that is possible), how can you really tell? Is this an issue with anyone else?

marie · #2 03-22-2009, 11:24 PM

I had the same problem with my achilles, everybody I asked didn't seem to be too concerned but I cut down on the amount of food I was feeding the tank without affecting the other fish too much
This is him...I haven't noticed that he's slimmed down much but at least he hasn't gained

fishoholic · #3 03-22-2009, 11:30 PM

90% of my fish are fat. I like to think of it as they are just very healthy. Not sure if a fish would become overweight, or if it did I guess you'd just cut back on the feeding.

my2rotties · #4 03-22-2009, 11:40 PM

What a nice achilles tang. Guess yours is proof that they do not all starve to death. Was he hard to get eating or did he get ich when he came home? I don't want one, don't worry, but success stories are always so encouraging to see. How big is he now? Do they get to the size sohals get?

My sohal is fat, and I think he is too fat, but you tell him that. I have had him over three months and he has grown about 50% since he came home. All my fish grow and eat more then I care to feed. I just read that tangs get mean if they are hungry... so I throw pellets in here and there on top of their feedings. Not a single pellet ever touches the sand and the sohal can pack them in in a second. The nori clip is stripped bare in no time.

I read that the biggest concerns are if the fish are not eating and such. Mine seem to hit the buffet line too much but I don't want any fish hungry and stressed either. I will try to snap a shot of my sohal, he is a whale, much like the achilles. Big fat cheeks, and puffy face.

GreenSpottedPuffer · #5 03-22-2009, 11:46 PM

I used to think my fish were nice and "thick" until I went to a friends place the other day to see his fish...now mine look kind of skinny to me!

He has the thickest Foxface, Copperband, Moorish Idol, Powder Blue Tang, Sailfin, Clowns and I was most impressed with his Mandarin (whos belly dragged on the ground) that doesn't eat frozen but was so thick and big.

I bet some people know who I am talking about now. LOL. I have heard a rumor he goes through more food in a week than most people feed in a month

He has the nicest colored fish I have seen in a long time.

GreenSpottedPuffer · #6 03-22-2009, 11:50 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by my2rotties

What a nice achilles tang. Guess yours is proof that they do not all starve to death. Was he hard to get eating or did he get ich when he came home? I don't want one, don't worry, but success stories are always so encouraging to see. How big is he now? Do they get to the size sohals get?

My sohal is fat, and I think he is too fat, but you tell him that. I have had him over three months and he has grown about 50% since he came home. All my fish grow and eat more then I care to feed. I just read that tangs get mean if they are hungry... so I throw pellets in here and there on top of their feedings. Not a single pellet ever touches the sand and the sohal can pack them in in a second. The nori clip is stripped bare in no time.

I read that the biggest concerns are if the fish are not eating and such. Mine seem to hit the buffet line too much but I don't want any fish hungry and stressed either. I will try to snap a shot of my sohal, he is a whale, much like the achilles. Big fat cheeks, and puffy face.

I wouldn't worry about it. When I was diving in Australia a few years back, so many of the large tangs were much thicker than the average tang you would see in an aquarium. It was kind of two extremes. Some looked on the brink or starvation and the obviously dominant and "fittest" were ridiculously thick. Like the Achilles Tang above (which does not at all look fat to me just nice and thick, healthy). Being in Australia, we didn't see as many tangs as you would in Hawaii but this kind of went for all fish except I noticed a lot of the larger predators like puffers were quite thin.

Delphinus · #7 03-22-2009, 11:50 PM

Going to play devil's advocate here. How can we emphatically believe that a wide fish is unhealthily obese? AFAIK I haven't seen a BMI chart posted for fish.

All I can say is that when I've seen the same fish that we keep in aquaria in the wild, they were fatter and wider than the fattest fish I ever saw in captivity. As in no comparison whatsoever. So I tend to believe that in general even if we think we're overfeeding, we're not, not really anyhow. Yes it is true that as long as they see food they will eat food, so we can't use a "they'll stop eating when they're full" sort of thing to figure out how to throttle back the amounts, but the flip side is although they'll never really be "less" hungry, they can be "more" hungry and that can sometimes lead to aggression. So it's a fine line or a balancing act, maybe with some experimentation and observation you'll find the balance that works for you..

marie · #8 03-22-2009, 11:51 PM

I've had the achilles for 3 yrs now but when I got him he came down with marine velvet and had to be treated with copper and kept in quarantine for 8 weeks

*edit* oh and he's grown from approx 3" when I got him to 8-9" now. The max size is 10" so hopefully he won't get a lot bigger

GreenSpottedPuffer · #9 03-22-2009, 11:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Delphinus

Going to play devil's advocate here. How can we emphatically believe that a wide fish is unhealthily obese? AFAIK I haven't seen a BMI chart posted for fish.

All I can say is that when I've seen the same fish that we keep in aquaria in the wide, they were fatter and wider than the fattest fish I ever saw in captivity. As in no comparison whatsoever. So I tend to believe that in general even if we think we're overfeeding, we're not, not really anyhow. Yes it is true that as long as they see food they will eat food, so we can't use a "they'll stop eating when they're full" sort of thing to figure out how to throttle back the amounts, but the flip side is although they'll never really be "less" hungry, they can be "more" hungry and that can sometimes lead to aggression. So it's a fine line or a balancing act, maybe with some experimentation and observation you'll find the balance that works for you..

I think we were typing at the same time and essentially saying the same thing.

If you see these fish in the ocean, you realize a majority of fish we keep are underweight and on the slim side for fish with no competition for food or predators.

Many feeding all throughout the day is best for tangs. All they do is graze all day in the wild.

Delphinus · #10 03-22-2009, 11:56 PM

Yeah you were a little quicker on the submit than I was.

Even just going to Hawaii and snorkeling is an eye opening experience to see what these fish are supposed to look like. I never saw a yellow tang that was >6" in captivity before, but I never saw any that were less than 8" or less than 2"-3" WIDE. It's unreal. It tells me we are seriously throttling back their food intake and probably shortening their lifespans as a result.