Are fat fish, happy fish?

rmorris_14 · Feb 9, 2022

All of my fish appear to be on the chunky, but healthy, side. Even my royal gamma has a robust belly

. I'm pretty heavy handed with their feeding. Is it possible for a fish to be too chunky and have it negatively affect their health? Let's seem some photos of others chunky fish if they are out there. I'm a work and took a break to post this. I'll share some photos of mine later. TYIA

Food Reaction GIF by SpongeBob SquarePants

KrisReef · Feb 9, 2022

So tempted to post a picture of my ex right here.

I remember going to Las Vegas and seeing the big aquarium that had huge bubbling fish that I stared at for 15 minutes before I recognized them as purple tangs. That experience cured me of wanting a purple for the next decade. I have one now, I feed lightly so my fish don’t look even remotely like Becky (the ex).

rmorris_14 · Feb 9, 2022

KrisReef said:
So tempted to post a picture of my ex right here.

I remember going to Las Vegas and seeing the big aquarium that had huge bubbling fish that I stared at for 15 minutes before I recognized them as purple tangs. That experience cured me of wanting a purple for the next decade. I have one now, I feed lightly so my fish don’t look even remotely like Becky (the ex).

Becky is my first name..... Its always a "Becky" lol

rmorris_14 · Feb 9, 2022

Me and my fish are going to get a complex if there are no other chunky fish reefers out there.
In effort to avoid my responsibilities, I decided to go through some photos on my phone and found a few that show my fish’s physique.
Don’t mind the fin on my watchman. It’s healed now and I have been giving my lawnmower blenny the mom death stare if he tries anything else

Fishfreak2009 · Feb 9, 2022

So for most reef fish, a healthy fish should look rotund. Exceptions being larger predators that will gorge themselves and have food rot in their gut before it can be digested or end up with fatty liver disease (frogfish, scorpionfish, etc).

Healthy planktivores and herbivores on the reef are fat active fish, eating constantly throughout the day. When you see fish snorkeling on the reef, the skinny fish are also the fish with visible external parasites (callanoid copepods seem pretty common here in St Kitts) or have wounds. Every healthy tang, wrasse, parrotfish, blenny, chromis, damsel, angel, butterfly, and snapper has a potbelly.

I have a theory that a lot of aquarium aggression comes from a lack of food. When I fed my 380 gallon heavily 5-6x daily and always had nori available, nobody fought, all the fish had bellies, and I never saw better colors or activity in the fish. Some of the fish regularly spawned as well.

rmorris_14 · Feb 9, 2022

Fishfreak2009 said:
So for most reef fish, a healthy fish should look rotund. Exceptions being larger predators that will gorge themselves and have food rot in their gut before it can be digested or end up with fatty liver disease (frogfish, scorpionfish, etc).

Healthy planktivores and herbivores on the reef are fat active fish, eating constantly throughout the day. When you see fish snorkeling on the reef, the skinny fish are also the fish with visible external parasites (callanoid copepods seem pretty common here in St Kitts) or have wounds. Every healthy tang, wrasse, parrotfish, blenny, chromis, damsel, angel, butterfly, and snapper has a potbelly.

I have a theory that a lot of aquarium aggression comes from a lack of food. When I fed my 380 gallon heavily 5-6x daily and always had nori available, nobody fought, all the fish had bellies, and I never saw better colors or activity in the fish. Some of the fish regularly spawned as well.

Thanks so much for the info. This makes me and my chunky fish feel better about ourselves. Hahaha in all seriousness though, thank you. I assumed it was a good thing but I’ve also learned a lot of times, my assumptions aren’t really what’s best and I would never want to be doing something that would hurt them.

Fishfreak2009 · Feb 9, 2022

rmorris_14 said:
Thanks so much for the info. This makes me and my chunky fish feel better about ourselves. Hahaha in all seriousness though, thank you. I assumed it was a good thing but I’ve also learned a lot of times, my assumptions aren’t really what’s best and I would never want to be doing something that would hurt them.

Just make sure you keep up on water quality. No need to kill thriving fish from off the charts nitrate levels, or an ammonia spike. High nutrient input means high nutrient output. Lots of corals, lots of macroalgae in a refugium (preferably on reverse light schedule), lots of liverock, oversized skimmer, and plenty of water changes.

Doing this has consistently let me keep very heavily stocked tanks with little to no nitrate and phosphate, even basically powerfeeding the fish, and the corals seem to be growing much faster as well.

Sean Clark · Feb 9, 2022

I have a few fish that look like little torpedoes but they are happy. I doubt that they ever worry about their next meal.

Jeffcb · Feb 9, 2022

I don't think it is good to overfeed fish especially for the habitats water quality. Old school rule of thumb was whatever they can eat in 3 minutes once a day. Most feed their fish small amounts several times a day. Especially Anthias ect... Variety is important.

Fat fish may not be happy. I am fat and not happy I am. If Belly looks pinched, they need more food.

rmorris_14 · Feb 9, 2022

I have been trying to dial my feeding back. I feed once a day. My lights don’t come on until after I’m already at work and then I feed them as soon as I get home. I have been keeping a close eye on my water quality. Doing weekly 10 gallon water changes on a biocube 32. One of the reasons I overfeed, is my lawnmower blenny, who I won’t rant about eating more meat than algae, :mad: stuffs his face before my watchman goby can get his fair share. I’ve been trying to target feed close to the watchmans hideout, but that just attracts the blenny and they have a turf standoff. I hate the idea that it might be stressing out the watchman. If I could easily catch the blenny, he would have a one way ticket back to the fish store.It will happen eventually, I just haven’t had the chance to pull the rocks out and then drive him the hour trip to be rehomed.

atoll · Feb 12, 2022

Are fat people happy people? Are fish meant to be fat? Has fat got anything to do with happiness? Is this question even serious?

Dbichler · Feb 12, 2022

All of my fish are fat and seem happy. Just two examples. You should see my lawnmower blenny lol.

watdachuck · Feb 14, 2022

He is on the chunky side for sure.

rmorris_14 · Feb 14, 2022

watdachuck said:
He is on the chunky side for sure.

He is gorgeous!!!!! Wow

ReeferSamster · Feb 14, 2022

I've always tried to under-feed my fishie friends. Not up to the point of concave belly, but I tried to feed minimally. I've never had a skimmer so I was also wary of nutrient import. I let them graze along the liverock for their food more than I fed them. The only times I did heavy feedings was when I brought home a new fish.

Willie the copperband always found stuff to eat in the rocks and kept my aiptasia in check, Wilbert the yellow tang always grazed on rocks for algae. Even Marty the clownfish (May he rest in reef heaven) used to suck up pods from the glass. The only one that actually needed feeding was Shakazulu the Bangaii Cardinal. I never actually saw him eat from the rocks.

I only fed them for fun, but I figure stuff they find on the liverock is good for exhibiting natural bahaviour as well as pruning algae or aitpasia. My fish never had round bellies. Marty lived for 17 years! Willie and Wilbert are still with me for about 10 years now. Shaka died after 5 years. But I've heard that bangaii cardinals have shortlife spans.

I've never fed them flakes or processed food. (I tried as an experiment to see if i can condition Willie the Copperband to eat flakes. FAIL) They had frozen mysis, frozen bloodworms, live tubifex worms and live blackworms. My fish eat healthier than I do LoL

Does anyone know where I can source live bloodworms? I have never seen a bloodworm vendor.

damsels are not mean · Feb 14, 2022

I suspect fish that are overfed and truly fat don't live as long and may suffer complications, just like people or dogs or anything else. I don't think the fish in your pics look "fat" and I also think it really matters what you are feeding to your fish.

rmorris_14 · Feb 14, 2022

damsels are not mean said:
I suspect fish that are overfed and truly fat don't live as long and may suffer complications, just like people or dogs or anything else. I don't think the fish in your pics look "fat" and I also think it really matters what you are feeding to your fish.

Thanks! I think fat was just a playful (but probably wrong) choice of words. It was a light hearted post trying encourage people to share photos of their beautiful and well fed fishes. Since some have decided to make a comparison to a “fat” human, if I had to imagine my fish in human form, they would be more like thick, but fit rugby player that probably had some beers after each match.

rmorris_14 · Feb 14, 2022

ReeferSamster said:
I've always tried to under-feed my fishie friends. Not up to the point of concave belly, but I tried to feed minimally. I've never had a skimmer so I was also wary of nutrient import. I let them graze along the liverock for their food more than I fed them. The only times I did heavy feedings was when I brought home a new fish.

Willie the copperband always found stuff to eat in the rocks and kept my aiptasia in check, Wilbert the yellow tang always grazed on rocks for algae. Even Marty the clownfish (May he rest in reef heaven) used to suck up pods from the glass. The only one that actually needed feeding was Shakazulu the Bangaii Cardinal. I never actually saw him eat from the rocks.

I only fed them for fun, but I figure stuff they find on the liverock is good for exhibiting natural bahaviour as well as pruning algae or aitpasia. My fish never had round bellies. Marty lived for 17 years! Willie and Wilbert are still with me for about 10 years now. Shaka died after 5 years. But I've heard that bangaii cardinals have shortlife spans.

I've never fed them flakes or processed food. (I tried as an experiment to see if i can condition Willie the Copperband to eat flakes. FAIL) They had frozen mysis, frozen bloodworms, live tubifex worms and live blackworms. My fish eat healthier than I do LoL

Does anyone know where I can source live bloodworms? I have never seen a bloodworm vendor.

Thanks for sharing!! It’s inspiring that you have had some of your fish so long. I love hearing stories like that. I hope to be in the same boat one day

watdachuck · Feb 14, 2022

rmorris_14 said:
Thanks! I think fat was just a playful (but probably wrong) choice of words. It was a light hearted post trying encourage people to share photos of their beautiful and well fed fishes. Since some have decided to make a comparison to a “fat” human, if I had to imagine my fish in human form, they would be more like thick, but fit rugby player that probably had some beers after each match.

Agreed BoTom is large and in charge!!