feeding fish and marine life

[MXGratefulDiver]

What I really wonder is just what kind of capacity for learning do these animals have? If fish operate almost purely on instinct can you really alter their behavior long term? I know the beta in my fish tank has come to associate me coming to his tank in the morning with food. This is a fish that has been in captivity it's whole life, yet I suspect that it would revert back to it's wild state almost instantly if I were to release it.

Used to be a wolf eel at a popular site down in Hood Canal that got so used to being fed hot dogs that it would accept ... then spit out ... an offered urchin.

Urchins are its natural food. This one had obviously developed a preference for Oscar Meyer.

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[H2O 70]

Used to be a wolf eel at a popular site down in Hood Canal that got so used to being fed hot dogs that it would accept ... then spit out ... an offered urchin.

Urchins are its natural food. This one had obviously developed a preference for Oscar Meyer.

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

Well sure! It is no dummy. Urchins are all spiny and gritty, but the wiener is all soft, yummy, left over parts goodness! If it only knew how good they were at the Ball Park, it would figure out how to breath air.

 

[dolesorchard]

For a long time we were told that if you feed birds in winter, you should do it continuously because the birds become dependent upon it. Quite some time ago, a biologist did a study and found that feeder birds at most get 25% of their diet from the feeder, and stopping didn't have any real affect. Someone should do the same with fish.

 

[widget]

What I really wonder is just what kind of capacity for learning do these animals have? If fish operate almost purely on instinct can you really alter their behavior long term? I know the beta in my fish tank has come to associate me coming to his tank in the morning with food. This is a fish that has been in captivity it's whole life, yet I suspect that it would revert back to it's wild state almost instantly if I were to release it.

Yeah, its interesting, but I suspect not too much. I have attached a rather old photo (I just scanned it in quickly, so excuse the quality - this was long before digital) of a honeycomb Moray we used to visit on the reef.

Over a period of about 6 months he became a sort of short term celebrity amongst divers due to his, we assumed "friendly nature" - divers would take down small fish and hand feed him, he was never aggressive and I never heard of anyone getting bit, sometimes he would swim around you and take a lookie-see inside your BC and everyone thought he was getting tame and dependant on divers for food, but then one day he was there in the morning and then never seen again, he just moved off, and I assume lived and fed in a normal way again, away from divers.

I guess the point I am just making is that unlike land mammals who certainly can become tame and dependant on feedings,I think marine predators are simply opportunistic feeders, and like the moray, will partake of the freebie for as long as it suits them and then just move off and revert to their normal feeding cycles with no long term harm done to the animal.

 

[franny]

What I really wonder is just what kind of capacity for learning do these animals have? If fish operate almost purely on instinct can you really alter their behavior long term? I know the beta in my fish tank has come to associate me coming to his tank in the morning with food. This is a fish that has been in captivity it's whole life, yet I suspect that it would revert back to it's wild state almost instantly if I were to release it.

Ivan Petrovich Pavlov's research tends to indicate that species do have the ability to learn behaviour. Of course the level of learning may differ.

The problem isn't only the behaviours they are learning, but the behaviours they are either not using or ignoring. Their native abilities to avoid predators and gather food may be affected, if they do not need to practice them.

 

[huzenhagen]

I'm very against the feeding of underwater animals. Even the quiet sites still get a fair bit of traffic over the course of a year and you feeding may not make a difference but you and the 30 divers that month might. Anyone who's kept a fish tank should know that the best way to feed them is very small amounts often, most fish spend their day grazing so how is giving them a big whack of calories in one go not going to make a difference? In the end i think one of the most important points is that even if you don't think it will make a difference you won't know for sure if it has until it's too late. With the state of the oceans as bad as they are i feel diving should be strictly as an observer.

 

[Diver0001]

For the amount of fish feeding people do for amusement on scuba, I'm sure the impact in most places is negligible. There are sure to be some places where the impact of many divers is clear but I haven't heard about it being a big problem in upstate CT.

One thing I do know for sure, however; don't feed hotdogs to eels.

 

[Meggie66]

Near where I live, there are a lot of eastern blue gropers - large, friendly fish which will often follow divers, perhaps in part because some divers cut up urchins to feed them. Much of this goes on in an aquatic reserve, in which urchins are supposed to be protected along with everything else. A representative of the local environment centre told me one side effect was that it made the gropers less wary of humans than they should be, which in turn left them vulnerable to illegal spear fishers (not that spear fishing is illegal generally, but it is in this particular marine reserve). I got flamed on a local Australian forum for bringing this up without evidence of illegal spear fishing, but my view is, why take the risk of feeding these creatures if there's even a chance it could have an adverse effect?

 

[phunk]

For the amount of fish feeding people do for amusement on scuba, I'm sure the impact in most places is negligible. There are sure to be some places where the impact of many divers is clear but I haven't heard about it being a big problem in upstate CT.

One thing I do know for sure, however; don't feed hotdogs to eels.

Hand feeding something that looks like one of your fingers to any wild animal is generally a bad idea.

 

[TMHeimer]

For the amount of fish feeding people do for amusement on scuba, I'm sure the impact in most places is negligible. There are sure to be some places where the impact of many divers is clear but I haven't heard about it being a big problem in upstate CT.

One thing I do know for sure, however; don't feed hotdogs to eels.

Agreed. Think it's like a lot of issues in places (tropical, Florida, etc.) where many divers frequent the same spots over & over. Like my favourite issue of shell collecting. Can't blame those divers and operators.