sera guide - Healthy aquarium fish

7 Preventing and treating deficiencies and malnutrition Special Nutrition – Beef heart etc. versus profes- sional dried food Many dedicated breeders and hobby aquar- ists undergo considerable efforts to provide their pets with an – according to their opinion – optimal supply with best food. Unfortunate- ly, not all of these efforts are equally reason- able. For example, there are still legends that discus fish will only thrive if they receive scraped beef heart as food. It is now un- known where this misapprehension had its origin, but the facts are definitely against this widespread assumption. The discus fish of course like to eat fresh meat and quickly put on weight with this nutrition that contains plenty of fat and proteins, but at what price … Nature has arranged things in a way that the organism of an animal and the nutrition usu- ally available for it suit each other. The metab- olisms of the specific fish species also have adapted to certain nutrient sources during their evolution, and only these can be digest- ed optimally. No matter how hungry a discus in nature is, it will hardly have the opportunity to kill a cow and eat its heart. But let us be serious: The meat of warm-blooded terrestric animals is completely unsuitable for the nutri- tion of fish. Fish require a high percentage of unsaturated fatty acids in their diet, as they almost exclusively occur in aquatic organ- isms (e.g. marine fish, as in the sera fish meal). Furthermore, the protein composition of warm-blooded animal meat is unsuitable for fish. They do not contain sufficient amounts of certain amino acids. Necessary minerals and trace elements for the balanced nutrition of fish are also missing. Furthermore, it has been proven that the lack of digestion supporting ballast substances may cause an ileus in discus fish. Beef heart or other warm-blooded animal meat (including poultry) can therefore in no way ensure the permanent supply of the fish with all required nutrients. Additionally, even feeding beef heart only occasionally bears certain risks, as the meat is unsuitable for the fish body and supports the growth of bacteria that do not belong to the natural intestinal flo- ra of the fish. They can increasingly outcom- pete the healthy intestinal flora, thus making the intestines susceptible for pathogens (e.g. flagellates). Besides these direct negative consequences for the fish and the danger of an infestation with pathogens that must not be underesti- mated, the enormous water pollution by feed- ing raw meat and some frozen food types must be considered. The large amount of protein that cannot be utilized by the fish gets into the water undigested, where it extremely increases the organic pollution. The food blends for discus fish and other fish self-produced by aquarists, often improvised and following word of mouth without well funded specific knowledge, cannot replace sera food with the decades of nutritional re- search that goes into it. The sera food range provides suitable nutrition for all ornamental fish, for every development stage and for each nutritional type. Protein, fats and carbo- hydrates are balanced to corresponding fish groups, are entirely digested by the fish and do not unnecessarily pollute the water. The fats in sera food contain a large percentage of unsaturated fatty acids and have a very low melting point (easier to utilize by cold- blooded animals). The most modern manu- facturing processes (e.g. low temperature ex- trusion and gentle freeze drying – so-called 39 !!