Page 7 - TBAS-January-2021

TBAS January 2021 .................... -7-

As I have discussed in earlier columns, water quality is the most
important factor in keeping tropical fish.
The second most important factor is nutrition. All fish require
energy for growth, repairing damaged tissue due to aggression, bacteria
and/ or parasitic attack, for muscle activity, and for reproduction. For
freshwater fish, most of the energy is spent osmoregulating. The biological
process of utilizing energy is defined as metabolism. The rate at which
energy occurs is called the metabolic rate. The metabolic rate in fish is
influenced by water temperature, species, age and body size, activity,
physical condition and body functions, as well as water chemistry pa-
rameters such as oxygen or carbon dioxide saturation, pH and salinity
(conductivity).
There are many sources of food available for tropical fish
(ornamentals) in the pet industry today. They can be grouped into the
following categories:
• Dry foods, which include pellets
and flakes;
• Frozen foods, which could be anything
from frozen beef hearts to frozen
brine shrimp, fish, mussels and frozen
insects;
• Live foods, which can be purchased
(live brine or tubifex worms) or cultured
on the premises (white worms or daphnia,
and feeder fish).

VITAMINS & MINERALS

Fish get some minerals from the water. Freshwater fish can absorb
essentially all of their calcium requirements from surrounding water
since most surface water is high enough incalcium so that a dietary
supplement is not necessary.
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