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DEL.ICIO.USWell-fed fish don’t munch on tank mates
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Nobody likes seafood better than, well, seafood — a fact of life in the aquatic food chain that has not been lost on the folks who oversee the soon-to-open Georgia Aquarium.
John Spink/AJC
Is that a look of satisfaction on this grouper’s face? It’s not telling, but chances are it’s not eyeing its neighbors for its next meal.So, gulp, how does the world’s largest aquarium — with 100,000 aquatic creatures representing 500 species — keep its small fry from becoming fast food for the bigger ones?
“We feed ‘em ” says Georgia Aquarium spokesman Dave Santucci.
For decades, in fact, public aquariums throughout the country have been serving up more fish — to their fish — than a sushi bar.
These days the menu for a typical five-star aquarium includes salmon steaks, frozen mackerel, chopped squid, brine shrimp and plankton. And, of course, tons of commercial fish chow — pelletized, gelatinized, flaked, ground and pureed and laced with essential vitamins and minerals.
Unlike gluttonous landlubbers, fish tend to stop eating once they’re full — a trait that aquarium operators have learned to use to their advantage. Good for the smaller fish. And good for the customers.
If the fish are fat and happy, visitors get to see an uncharacteristically peaceable kingdom where the eating of one’s tank mates is the furthest thing from a fish’s mind.
“It takes a tremendous amount of energy for a predator to hunt down its prey and kill it,” says Ken Ramirez, vice president of collections at the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago.
“By keeping everyone well fed, we reduce the incentive for them to chase down and eat other fish in the tank,” he says. “The only time we tend to have problems is when we introduce new fish into the tank that haven’t learned they don’t need to hunt anymore.”
Three squares a day, of course, isn’t the only strategy. Big tanks enable small, fast fish to do what they do best in the wild — flee. And the carefully constructed hidey holes of rock and coral allow small, slow ones to hide.
Occasionally, of course, fish will just be fish. Instinctive behavior that worked in the open ocean is sometimes more compelling than fish chow.
Only last year, for instance, the Monterey Bay Aquarium in California proudly put a rare great white shark — accidentally caught by a halibut fisherman off the coast — on display in its three-story Outer Bay tank. Attendance at the aquarium shot up 30 percent and for a while, things went swimmingly.
Then, in February, the 6-foot great white — despite steady feedings of vitamin-enriched salmon and albacore tuna — attacked and killed a smaller soup fin shark in the tank.
In ensuing weeks, it attacked another and began chasing other sharks — a pattern that prompted aquarium officials to decide that the shark — and its instincts — were better suited for the open sea. They released it back into the Pacific Ocean.
“At some level, you have to accept that most fish are predatory creatures,” says aquarium curator Mark Faulkner. “And most aquariums don’t want to lose the fish in their exhibits.”
“It’s not common, but it happens,” says Jackson Andrews, director of operations for the Tennessee Aquarium in Chattanooga. “Sometimes, after introducing a school of fish into a tank, we’ll see that after awhile there are fewer of them.”
But Andrews says sharks, despite their malevolent popular image, are often the model residents of community tanks.
“We had to pull some angelfish out of a tank once because they were just pecking the dickens out of the sting rays,” he says. “And people who work in our tanks have taken to wearing hoods because the triggerfish have a tendency to swim up and nibble on an earlobe.”
But aquarium managers also recognize that fish sometimes need to dine the old-fashioned way. “We sometimes feed live fish to our dolphins and some other species,” says the Shedd’s Ramirez.
“But we would never do that out in front of the public. We think our guests would just have too much difficulty with it.”
Comments
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By howard716
November 17, 2005 09:03 AM | Link to this
Why not show the feeding of live fish to the other species? Do you think we are a bunch wimps? As a matter of fact I would enjoy it.
By Pap
November 17, 2005 09:29 AM | Link to this
The aquarium at the Mall of America in Minnesota had an incident a few years back in which their largest sand tiger shark ate a smaller shark. Alas, I learned that the smaller shark was injured and bleeding and swam too close to the big sand tiger. Darwinism in action.
By Jennifer
November 17, 2005 10:12 AM | Link to this
I agree they shouldn’t show these fish eating live fish. While it may not bother some adults and even some teens, it would scare the heck out of children. We need to make this a place for all ages.
By Ryan
November 17, 2005 10:30 AM | Link to this
I think it’s absurd that they do not show the feeding of live fish to the public. I don’t understand why our society feels the need to shelter our children so much that we distort reality to them. They see more killing and violience on the news and on saturday morning cartoons. This is evidence that American has become way too sensitive.
By Tereza
November 17, 2005 10:48 AM | Link to this
Animals eat other animals in nature. We eat animals too. That burger you ate was a cow once. Allowing kids to see nature in action isn’t scary, it’s real life. Get over it.
By Jenn J
November 17, 2005 10:54 AM | Link to this
Letting fish eat the other fish in the exhibits is cost prohibitive. As fish are eaten, they would have to be restocked, which means more collected from the wild, treated for parasites, and then acclimated to aquarium life. Feeding fish a prepared diet is healthier for them as they can’t be harmed from a food source fighting back, and healthier for our oceans and reefs. The same thing applies to our lakes and rivers. Enough collecting has already been done for this aquarium, lets not have to collect more daily for food.
By Tim
November 17, 2005 11:28 AM | Link to this
What is the big deal? I remember as a child of about years old that my parents took me to the Birmingham zoo where we watched the keepers throw live fish to the seals. I wasn’t traumatized a bit: in fact, feeding time was a big attraction for the public.
And who hasn’t seen TV footage of trainers at SeaWorld feed fish to the dolphins and other animals as they teach them to do tricks?
By Donna Agrinsonis (Worthem)
November 17, 2005 12:30 PM | Link to this
I am really tickled at this article because I have visited the aguarium in Tennessee and it never occurred to me that they would have a delicate balance of keeping some of the fish from eating their aquarium mates! I am still laughing.
Atlantans you are really blessed to have such a wonderful gift as this aquarium. I live in Cleveland, Ohio now but I am originally from Atlanta (42 years ago) and I cannot wait to come down there this summer to see the aquarium for myself. Enjoy!
By Dave
November 17, 2005 12:37 PM | Link to this
I guess Jennifer also thinks that “Animal Planet” is cruel and inhumane. My 9 yr old daughter loves the channel even though she winces when the croc grabs the Wildebeast or the cheetah runs down the gazelle. But guess what…..she gets over it in a few seconds. Now she amazes teachers at her school with her interest, curiosity and ability to process information SO much better than most of her peers, both male and female. Lighten up, people, and let children have full disclosure on educational information. Sometimes people need a little push off the diving board to find out it’s not as bad as they thought.
By Judith G
November 17, 2005 01:31 PM | Link to this
I think that the public should see how fish survive in the wild. If one watches Discovery Channel or PBS nature shows, one sees exactly that. survival of the fittest. Big fish eat littler fish. Sad but true.
By Diane
November 17, 2005 02:48 PM | Link to this
Why couldn’t aquariums post the times they’ll be doing live feedings for each tank? Those who want to see it can be there and those who don’t can visit another tank at that time. Both sides win.
By Juice
November 17, 2005 04:25 PM | Link to this
I don’t think the aquarium can use live fish because they are several orders of magnitude more expensive than frozen dead fish chunks and fish-byproducts. And you’re getting less “bang” for your buck since the predator fish will have to expend energy to hunt the feeder fish, making the food “worth” less. Lastly, most live fish feeding would be pretty dull. Anyone with a fish tank who also fed live fish knows that it’s fun to watch the first time, and then not so much. There’s genenrally no recognized stalking and attacking involved. Just a quick snatch and much smaller feeder fish is inside the bigger predator fish. No extended chewing, growling, swatting at other fish next to it like a pride of lions at a kill.
And as the article said, in order to revive the hunting instinct, you’d have to starve the fish, which means you’ll have to segregate the fish. I don’t think fish would understand that they can only hunt from 1PM to 2:20PM when there’re feeder fish released in the water.