Flower horn inactive and hiding

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Rabin Singh

Aquarium Advice Apprentice
Joined
Jul 13, 2017
Messages
22
Location
India
I fed my my flower horn boiled chicken liver for the first time. I fed her a larger piece than I should have. She did eat more than half and spit out the rest. And then I removed the half not eaten piece. After that she kind of became dull and just went to the bottom of the tank and into hiding. It's been almost half an hour and I'm kind of worried. Any help please.?
 
Never heard of feeding any aquarium fish chicken liver. A lot of hobbiest feed beef heart to certain new world cichlids. I suppose no harm in using chicken liver. It's a popular catfish bait in my area.
Always use restraint when feeding your fish and if using meaty food, extra effort is a must regarding tank maintenance and water quality. It seems that any animal, after consuming a big meal, tends to become lethargic while digesting.
Probably okay.
 
The most important fact is that fish digestive systems are designed to handle certain proteins. Freshwater/Marine proteins and fats are very different than their mammal counterparts. Their digestive systems are well designed so that if the food is of a protein that can not be digested properly it will simply be expell this excess immediately. The primarily function of breaking down food is a provide energy, that which can't be processed generates a lot of waste since they're expelling what can't be used to benefit the fishes body. Proteins are made of amino acids which contain nitrogen, carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen, so as the fish is breaking these non-native foods down they in turn make a lot more nitrogenous waste which as everyone knows will effect water quality. The last issue I have is the fish's kidneys and liver work harder than they would have trying to process foods they are not designed to digest, where as long term feeding can lead to liver or kidney failure. So not to ramble on any longer I can't see any benefits to feeding beefheart/chicken liver when there so many healthier choices such as salmon, nightcrawlers, shrimp(prawns), and prepared pellets.
 
I had the same problem with mine.. it was tank size... they need room to move. And I feed mine brine shrimp, blood worms, meat and veggie pellets and a couple times a week chicken hearts diced up with power pink plus.. I break up his meals throughout the week.. people will say they're highly aggressive and they are but mine gets along pretty good with my other fish. He will chase them periodically just to be an a** but he never hurts them. Most of the time they swim together.
 
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