Fish psychology

[Anirban]

I was reading few posts in this forum regarding fishes and their food habits. I was wandering why it is so hard to feed some fishes anything other than live food? I read in most of the cases the mandarins, queen anthias and some others usually don't eat frozen or any other kind of food other than live ones. So, why they are so hard to feed? Is it due to their natural environment or something else? What is their psychology about food?

I would like to get comments from people who think they can really help us understanding this issue.

Lets discuss....

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

Tagging along. Its been on my mind too, but Ive decided its just best to buy books. I went to a talk with Bob Fenner and its a very well researched and well published subject.
then i felt dumb.

 

[clownfish chris]

I would imagine it has to do with there individual digestive systems and/or their natural diet. Mandarins, pipe fish, and seahorses all have very short digestive tracts and therefore need to eat constantly. Psychologically, I have no idea why they don't readily eat prepared foods.

 

[glb]

I'm a people therapist, but know absolutely nothing about fishie psyches.

 

[eatbreakfast]

Think of what triggers our own feeding response. The smell of your favorite food as it is finishing cooking, how it looks as it's about to be served. Even if you aren't hungry, these cues get you hungry and ready to eat. We also know people that are seemingly unaffected by these cues and are either pickier or more diligent for their diet.

For most fish, the cue of the aquarist and the smell of the food is enough to get them greedily gobbling up anything supplied to the tank.

Fish that are insistent on live food aren't swayed by those cues, instead they are simply looking for evidence that it is alive. Sometimes the food being taken by the currents of the water is enough to elicit a response, in other cases, with larger more predatory fish, gently waving food in the water with tweezers will do the trick, sometimes the fish won't give in regardless your attempts. In cases such as this I would liken it to someone being convinced that they are being offered a nasty food disguised as something delicious. If you don't trust the source you aren't going to try the dish.