Does fat equal health in fish?

[OrionN]

I pride myself in taken good care of my fishes. All my fishes are fat, they all have a beer belly. Many have so much muscle and fat on the dorsal tissue that they have a double forehead, kinda like a double chin in human. Attached are some picture of my fat fishes.

However as we well know, fat human are not healthy and have shorter life, on average, than slim and fit human. Same goes for lab rats. In experiments, the rats that get overfed died sooner than the one that is slightly underfed. The underfed ones even out last the optimally fed ones.

I wonder if this goes the same for our pet fishes. What do you guys and gals think?

Edited in red at a latter time.

 

[Cherub]

well if the tank is large enough for them I wouldn't worry about their lifespans being shortened. It's a leaner type of fat than mammal fat too. My fish are the same, chubby. My tang looks like yours after I refill the nori. My dogs are chubby too xD

 

[SPR1968]

What a very good question, I had never thought of this.

They all look healthy to me and I’m sure their Happy! Lol

 

[Hemmdog]

Gorgeous fish!

 

[Hermie]

well, just for thought, they are cold-blooded, so perhaps fat and lifespan is not quite the same as with mammals

 

[JumboShrimp]

You seem to have happy, "beer belly" fish... let them enjoy life... It's Miller Time! (lol)

 

[ZoWhat]

Do fish even have the ability to carry obese fat cell like mammals ????

the term "fat fish" in my eyes is just a fish who has built extra MEAT on their bodies to give a wide girth appearance.

my dad and I use to go fishing all the time and we would filet the fish to cook them. I DONT ever remember seeing a "FAT" fish with lots of fat cells...but a bulky fish with MORE MEAT on them.



.

 

[Sailfinguy21]

F8sh can get fat.

Look at salmon that are fed pellets to fatten them up in fish farms.. those salmon are also unhealthy to eat due to this.

A good salmon is a lean wild caught salmon. Hell farmed salmon are given color dyes to make them look orange... they have so much fat in them and their diet from pellets is so bad the fish meat is white without food coloring added

 

[Wrangy]

F8sh can get fat.

Look at salmon that are fed pellets to fatten them up in fish farms.. those salmon are also unhealthy to eat due to this.

A good salmon is a lean wild caught salmont

Farmed fish are not unhealthy and I totally disagree with what you're saying about eating wild vs farmed. Yes wild can be more enjoyable to catch and cook but they also have far less access to food than those at fish farms, hence why they have a lower fat content, not because the diet is bad or they're unhealthy.

 

[Wrangy]

I always aim for chubby fish! Chubby fish are healthy fish and have more vitality in case they do ever get sick or go off their food for a bit. Thin fish worry me in an aquarium environment lol

 

[Cherub]

Farmed fish are not unhealthy and I totally disagree with what you're saying about eating wild vs farmed. Yes wild can be more enjoyable to catch and cook but they also have far less access to food than those at fish farms, hence why they have a lower fat content, not because the diet is bad or they're unhealthy.

well now that we have GMO salmon in the wild I wont be eating any at all. And I will miss my lox!

 

[Wrangy]

well now that we have GMO salmon in the wild I wont be eating any at all. And I will miss my lox!

What? You know just about everything has been genetically modified that we eat...? There's absolutely nothing wrong with GMO's and they save so many lives it's not funny.

 

[Sailfinguy21]

I always aim for chubby fish! Chubby fish are healthy fish and have more vitality in case they do ever get sick or go off their food for a bit. Thin fish worry me in an aquarium environment lol

I agree salmon asside in an aquarium id get the fwt one.. but im just ssying.. scientificaly fat stores heavy metals and retains toxins in the body. Take malachite green for example... when used in fish it stays in the fishes body mainky the fatty tissue for extremely long periods of time

well now that we have GMO salmon in the wild I wont be eating any at all. And I will miss my lox!

Uhg gmo salmon.. lol.

Thr other day i saw lemons in my grocery store the size of grapefruits.... yeaaaa.... i dont mind eating gmo veggies though... meat i dunno

 

[Abhishek]

@Sailfinguy21 and @Wrangy - both of you have excellent points. Healthy debate and disagreement is always the way to enhance knowledge .

However , kindly request you to keep it under control and a friendly debate without encroaching into hostile territories and stick to the topic at hand .

Now let’s get on with the topic at hand .

 

[Mark Novack]

I'm fairly certain that the subject is aquarium fish and not farmed fish. 7.2 billion people to feed so let them eat what can be sustained.

 

[Sailfinguy21]

Fish are fish.. i was using the fat and what fat does as an example..

 

[maroun.c]

I cleaned up the offending posts in this thread, lets keep it friendly please.

 

[maroun.c]

Excellent topic. I used to underfeed my fish years back when I didn't have better ways to manage nutrients. I always struggled with fish not looking pretty healthy nor colorful. in current tank I feed at least 3-4 times and most of my fish are obese. I always worry about the fat content in fish and in the absence of supporting research in aquarium fish its a bit tricky to have any scientific data to support or oppose to heavy feeding.
We're not able to know the fat content in the liver or in tissues.
My theory is that fish exercise all day long by actively swimming, so as our fish are not genetically modified to build up more fat or grow faster and as we're not adding any hormones in their food and if we make sure to feed a variety of quality foods soaked in vitamins there shouldn't be any harm from them building up some weight and I think of that as healthy instead of fat. in the end fish in the wild eat all day as opposed to few feedings we give in our tanks.
Couple things I saw after I started feeding better is my flasher wrasses which always looked weak and didn't show optimal coloration and faded away and died within months did much better on all terms and I have a few with me since 2-3 years now. One other benefit I noticed is with fighting off disease when velvet skipped my Qt and I got an outbreak in my system with around 70 fish where fish were able to fight off for 2-3 weeks Vs dying in 48 hours which is more typical with velvet and I was able to save around 50% pf my fish which is a higher percentage ( as sad as losing fish is) when facing velvet.

As for the salmon comment while this is not the topic here I doubt enough wild salmon can be caught to supply the demand and it is the fat that makes the salmon taste better.

 

[mefisto]

I do not know about health issues related to the fattiness of the fish.

But I do know that fish which are fed multiple times daily, be it (very) small portions, do tend to be less to not aggressive towards their tank mates.

As generally known, aggression supports stress and vulnerability to infections and diseases.

The challenge is to make a balanced combination between ‘how much’ and ‘how many times’.

 

[maroun.c]

I do not know about health issues related to the fattiness of the fish.

But I do know that fish which are fed multiple times daily, be it (very) small portions, do tend to be less to not aggressive towards their tank mates.

As generally known, aggression supports stress and vulnerability to infections and diseases.

The challenge is to make a balanced combination between ‘how much’ and ‘how many times’.

I tend to alternate between more feedings of smaller amounts and less feedings of bigger amounts with following thought:
- bigger feedings are better for slower fish as they get to grab a few pellets before more aggressive fish wipe them out.
-smaller multiple feedings are better in keeping the fish well fed throughout the day and is more natural