Can fish be TOO healthy?

[Zionas]

Nice tank! How big are your larger fish and how long have you had them?

 

[OrionN]

We think of being overweight as being unhealthy in humans and other animals.

However fish are not the same as a human or a dog so I am not really sure we can say it’s unhealthy. Their fat distribution is likely different and they certainly evolved differently and are not even warm blooded animals.

I see fisherman catch “huge pigs” of fish and fat fish in the wild. I would say as long as you are feeeing them the right kinds of foods, they are probably healthy.

Besides I don’t see fat fish suffering from exhaustion or being physically tired. They still jet stream and swim all over the tank and handle strong power heads with ease.

Seals look fat but their meat is actually lean. It’s just not the same IMO.

I agree with @Tamberav completly

Ask any Dr too healthy and too fat are complete opposites...there is nothing healthy about being way too fat.

I am a doctor, Internal Medicine, I do treat a lot of my patients for problems related to obesity.
However, we cannot equate terrestrial warm blooded biped humans to fishes in the sea. Even with warm blooded marine mammals , being fat is healthy. Healthy whales have tons of blubber, thin whales are dying whales. We can't equate fat whales to fat fish either but fat fish does not automatically equate unhealthy fish. It is much more likely the other way around is true.

 

[Tired]

There's also a lot of newer research that shows that being overweight (not obese) isn't necessarily unhealthy. Rather, things that cause people to be overweight, like a poor diet and lack of exercise, cause weight gain and also cause poor health. And there's this: https://qz.com/550527/obesity-parad...-overweight-is-sometimes-good-for-your-health

There's no single body type that's healthy for every human, because we're a species with a lot of variation. A healthy weight for one person could be overweight for another, and underweight for a third. A good approach to health is to try to eat a varied diet and exercise a reasonable amount, and to keep an eye on things like blood sugar and cholesterol, i.e. objective measures of health. BMI isn't a particularly good measure because it doesn't account for different body types in the slightest, nor for different distributions of muscle that people can have, not to mention that IIRC it was invented by a eugenicist.

A lot of newer research is showing more and more that stable weight is often not a concern, unless it's at an extreme. Sudden or continued changes in weight are often a bad sign, and swinging weight (like many diets produce) is particularly unhealthy. To top it all off, there's no diet that's been proven to cause long-term weight loss in a majority of participants, barring starvation diets and other extremely unhealthy things. Not to mention the physical changes that happen during a diet, thanks to the body thinking you're in a famine and trying to get you to eat more. There's not much point in telling someone to lose weight, if nobody knows how.

But none of that is relevant, because these are fish, not humans. As long as they're eating a healthy diet and exercising, they're probably fine. Chubby fish have more stored energy in case of a disease or loss of appetite, so that's a point in their favor. Unless your fish are showing signs of ill health, I wouldn't worry about it.

 

[Paul B]

Fat fish are not unhealthy like Humans. People store fat. Fish store oil and don't have fat in their arteries like warm blooded creatures because a fishes tempeture is to low to allow solid fat to circulate.

 

[DarthChaos]

What's your food recipe?

This is what I put together.....about a year ago.

I goto an Asian grocery store - and it costs, about $50? I can easily get 6 months to a YEARS worth of food.

I bought some extra stuff (good blender, vacuum sealer) - but the fish, all of them...absolutely love them mix!

Theres lots of different recipes out there - I'm in Canada, so....some stuff is definitely harder for me to find. All in all though....my fish do appear "thick" and healthy.

 

[OrionN]

I don't think I have ever seen chunkier fish than mine. The behavior change from lethargic emaciated fish to a vigorous healthy one is remarkable to say the least.

 

[Reef-N-Stein]

I’ve heard that if you feel like your fish are getting to chunky you can turn up the flow a bit. It will give them a little more work out swimming into the flow, etc

 

[reef4now]

I think sticking to a sensible feeding regimen is the key to maintaining reef chemistry as it won’t throw the balance of your overall system.

 

[Tired]

The most important thing is to feed enough to keep fish healthy, and to adjust maintenance accordingly. None of this "I only feed my fish every other day because it keeps nutrients low" nonsense. If feeding fish a good amount of food, frequently, means you need more water changes? Then do more water changes!