64 replies to this topic

[DandyDon]

Try using cheeze wiz...the fish love it.

People do that at San Soloman Springs State Park, Balmorhea TX and the Mexican Tetras - small Characins, same family as Piranhas - go bonkers.

When I did my OW there, the Ist had us lined up on our knees for a drill, and one started biting my ear lobes. Damn, that hurt - same jaws & teeth as a Piranha, only tiny. I've got both ears covered with my hands, the DM is asking if I have a problem - like equalizing, and I'm trying to explain in sign language: "The &#$@!%* fish are biting my ears!" I hope the site censor blocks that word ok.

Oh, and for my wildlife sighting....a friggin' big lizard sitting on the wall looking at me. Sorry, no fish.

I was petting a 2 ft iguana laying on a wall at Galveston's Moody Gardens Rain Forest last week when my grandson pointed out the sign said to not touch the animals. I stopped, and the lizard gave me a mad looks: "Hey, why did you stop?" It's probly why he lays there...

[Racer184]

I do not get it. What's wrong with feeding fish?

[Walter]

I do not get it. What's wrong with feeding fish?

Well, off the top of my head, it changes their behavior, making them easier for us to catch. It makes them dependent on us for food, lessening their chances for survival if we don't come through. It allows the things they would normally eat to increase beyond healthy levels. It teaches them to associate people with food. It can cause divers to get bitten, especially when they don't have food for the fish. Not a big deal with a goldfish, but with larger fish, it can be quite serious. If you are feeding them foods not normally found in their environment, you are introducing nutrients that are not likely good for the environment in general and really bad for the fish you are feeding. Fish don't get the nutrients they need when you feed them cheese, bread or hot dogs. Some things we think are cool to feed fish can cause liver damage. I notice we both live in Florida. In our state, it's also illegal.

Edited by Walter, 08 July 2007 - 01:12 PM.

[DandyDon]

Or in the case of post #1, how would you like to be the crawdad.

[MissOcean]

I def see your POV, but the crawdad's are in their natural environment and I would never think to feed them bread or cheese or anything else that isn't found in their natural environment. Dutch Springs is a huge quary and the fish are already conditioned to being fed by us. They follow you and wait for you to feed them crawdad's. I would never do this in water where fish aren't conditioned. Even if they were following me! And DandyDon I wouldn't want to be the crawdad!

When I said thank you about the puking in the reg..I was being sarcastic. I knew about it but didn't really want to think about it! haha. But thank you for reminding me...again!

BubbleBoy...It was great seeing you up there! We are def going to have to dive together next time! I missed the 2ft trout! I enjoyed going through the cabin crusier and van! haha

[annasea]

I saw something today I had never seen...

A catfish, essentially, standing on it's tail. Swimming through the P1 cavern at Peacock Springs State Park, I swam past a catfish I thought was dead. It was just there, next to a rock. Tail in the dirt, head to the sky, not moving, whiskers spread out. As I passed it and my buddy neared it, you could see the gills moving.

I don't know if it was playing "dead" or what it was doing, but it was some of the most odd behavior I'd seen.<snip>

Too bad you didn't have a camera...

[Hipshot]

Well, off the top of my head, it changes their behavior, making them easier for us to catch. It makes them dependent on us for food, lessening their chances for survival if we don't come through. It allows the things they would normally eat to increase beyond healthy levels. It teaches them to associate people with food. It can cause divers to get bitten, especially when they don't have food for the fish. Not a big deal with a goldfish, but with larger fish, it can be quite serious. If you are feeding them foods not normally found in their environment, you are introducing nutrients that are not likely good for the environment in general and really bad for the fish you are feeding. Fish don't get the nutrients they need when you feed them cheese, bread or hot dogs. Some things we think are cool to feed fish can cause liver damage. I notice we both live in Florida. In our state, it's also illegal.

Walter, I've heard that point of view before, but I'm not sure that I buy into it. I suspect that with the exception of a few places like Stingray City, most human-fish interactions aren't frequent enough to become learning experiences for fish. It's an interesting hypothesis that feeding fish would increase the occurrences of fish biting divers, but I suspect it's more the divers' fingers' resemblance to food (like worms or small eels) that would prompt a fish to bite.

Predatory fish are hard-wired to hunt for food, and just because they opportunistically encounter a diver feeding them, it shouldn't diminish their hunting skill. However, even if this were the case, then sport fishing would be artificially supplying them with far more food than divers would. The divers' contribution would be relatively minimal.

As for feeding fish things other than what they would encounter where they live, I agree with you 200%.

Rick

[Racer184]

I do not fish, I do not eat fish, so I did not understand this. (I know so little about fish that I am sure I could not pass the test for a fishing license.) I was thinking of bird feeders and salt-licks. And when I go to state parks and museums that sell stuff that looks like cocoa-puffs to feed to the fish. And there is a place in Marathon Key (maybe farther south) that sells buckets of little dead fish to feed to the marlons that hang around the dock.

Well, off the top of my head, it changes their behavior, making them easier for us to catch.

Isn't that the whole idea of chum?

It didn't occur to me that people would feed unnatural stuff to fish. I know why it is illegal to feed alligators because they lose their fear of humans. But never occurred to me that people would feed fish big enough to hurt us.

It makes them dependent on us for food, lessening their chances for survival if we don't come through. It allows the things they would normally eat to increase beyond healthy levels.

Have you seen the video of the "partially treated sewage" that Delray Beach pumps onto the reef and the thousands of fish eating it? And the boats fighting for position there because it is such a great fishing location?
(Then the humans eat those fish )

Edited by Racer184, 08 July 2007 - 06:59 PM.

[Racer184]

Dandydon said

The &#$@!%* fish are biting my ears!"

This is funny to me. About 2 weeks ago on TV I saw a thing about a "spa" in Japan where you go to put your feet in the pool. They imported some fish that eat dead skin (and only dead skin) and people go there to get the callouses eaten off.

So... with my sick sense of humour..... wouldn't be great if they find a species of fish that will only eat ear-hair !

[DandyDon]

Dutch Springs is a huge quary and the fish are already conditioned to being fed by us. They follow you and wait for you to feed them crawdad's.

I understand that it's done there, and no biggie - but I just don't support it.

Overall, it's just a bad practice - no exceptions in the wild. Even feeding birds or putting out salt licks is bad in natural areas, but then we've altered the above water world so much, there is no natural anymore in much of it. I think I'll hang a feeder outside my window, but wouldn't dream of it in a park..

The Mexican Tetras are a problem at San Soloman, but can't do anything about them. They were introduced by careless fishermen probly, have overtaken the place, and compete for space with two species of Pupfish found nowhere else in the world. Can't clean them out without hurting the Pups. Feeding them anything is surely bad for the system, even tho it doesn't matter if it hurts the Tetras.

[BubbleBoy]

Have you seen the video of the "partially treated sewage" that Delray Beach pumps onto the reef and the thousands of fish eating it? And the boats fighting for position there because it is such a great fishing location?
(Then the humans eat those fish )

Hey, in one sense the whole ocean is just a giant toilet for everything iliving in it. (potty humor). Ths thread is going downhill fast.

[DandyDon]

Have you seen the video of the "partially treated sewage" that Delray Beach pumps onto the reef and the thousands of fish eating it?

I thot that was in Finding Nemo

[diverdeb]

We used to have a big turtle here that lived on one of the wrecks. Divers fed it so much that it started expecting it, eventually it started biting divers. I saw this myself - and it was a BIG turtle. It left a huge bruise and scrape on my dive buddy's leg once (bit him from behind). He didn't know what had him and was beating it with his pole spear. Then eventually she was gone. I'm afraid someone killed her (which is illegal, of course) because she had become a menace. Very sad.

[JohnEric]

I will not eat green eggs and ham I would not could not in a plane I would not could on a train I do not like green eggs and ham

[drbill]

Walter has already done an excellent job of explaining the issues relating to humans feeding fish, so I don't need to weigh in further... but I will.

Feeding by wild critters is an essential part of "natural" selection. In natural feeding situations, it is often the weak (sick, wounded, etc.) that are caught by a predator and weeded out of the prey population leaving healthier and smarter (?) individuals to reproduce. When humans interfere by capturing prey using our often more effective (and less selective) methods, we may subject the healthier and wiser (?) prey to higher predation levels. This negatively affects the population genetics of the prey population.

Consider this... how would you like it if the little green men and women from the planet Xanadu landed here on Earth, rounded up our best and brightest, and fed them to tiger sharks, tigers and crocodiles? I'll try to convince them they should use cheeze whiz instead, but they're pretty head strong (all eight of their heads).

As for processed foods like cheese whiz, why people think this is good for the fish I can't imagine!!! Heck, it isn't even good for us. For example, our endemic island foxes here on Catalina are often fed stupid things like Doritos and chocolate by "well-meaning" folks. Both can kill the foxes.

Edited by drbill, 09 July 2007 - 12:00 PM.