Feeding aquarium culls to chickens?

[DelBlueHen]

Sorry if this has already been answered somewhere, but I searched and didn't find anything.

Anyway, the title pretty much says it all. I would like to start breeding tropical fish and wonder whether I could feed the fresh culls to my girls.

 

[theoldchick]

Because of possible parasites, I would turn the culls into fertilizer. However, it you are sure your fish stock is parasite free an occasional snack would not harm your chickens. If you can freeze your culls before feeding that may help with the possible parasite transmission.

 

[enola]

I wonder what parasites fish would carry could harm chickens?

 

[Ol Grey Mare]

Because of possible parasites, I would turn the culls into fertilizer. However, it you are sure your fish stock is parasite free an occasional snack would not harm your chickens. If you can freeze your culls before feeding that may help with the possible parasite transmission.

I use freezing for our aquarium culls as I have issues with flushing a living one.....had not thought of using them for a treat/food source, but it's a good idea.

OP- what species are you considering pursuing?j

IIRC there was a recent thread (w/in the last month?) where someone was considering using feeder guppies as quail food -- you might want to take a gander at that.

 

[theoldchick]

Raw fish carry certain nematode and cestode parasites that affect human. Occasionally in other species the fish parasite will cause problems by migrating to the brain or eyes or encyst in muscle tissue and are unable to finish their life cycle. In this case my concern would be humans eating infected chicken meat and possible infection by that route. A distant possibility for sure, but I wouldn't want to risk it. Cooking the fish would eliminate that problem.

 

[enola]

So would thorough cooking of the chicken.

I wonder if regular worming of the chickens would also help with these parasites?

 

[theoldchick]

Safeguard would work on the nematode (roundworm). However, the cestode (tapeworm) has been known to be difficult to get rid of in all species of animals. There has been off label use of praziquantel but I am unsure of the dose.

 

[DelBlueHen]

Because of possible parasites, I would turn the culls into fertilizer. However, it you are sure your fish stock is parasite free an occasional snack would not harm your chickens. If you can freeze your culls before feeding that may help with the possible parasite transmission.

Hmmm...that's something I hadn't thought of. Good idea of freezing them first; in addition to protecting the chickens (or humans) from parasites, it would also euthanize the fish in a way that wouldn't affect the chickens. (I have read about how freezing as a means of euthanasia is not necessarily the best way to euthanize the fish.) I'm pretty tender-hearted and worry about hurting anything.

 

[DelBlueHen]

I wonder what parasites fish would carry could harm chickens?

That's an interesting question!

 

[DelBlueHen]

I use freezing for our aquarium culls as I have issues with flushing a living one.....had not thought of using them for a treat/food source, but it's a good idea.

OP- what species are you considering pursuing?j

IIRC there was a recent thread (w/in the last month?) where someone was considering using feeder guppies as quail food -- you might want to take a gander at that.

I'd like to breed platies. What do you breed? Thanks for the tip about the feeder guppies. I'll check it out.