I ate fish from the Detroit River in the 1960’s and 70’s, and my share of farmed fish over the years. Trust me, I know what a **** sandwich tastes like. I am indeed prejudiced towards eating crap. Guilty as charged.
Cooking a fish from your aquarium
- Thread starter HumanBean
- Start date
.....not that I would want to try it but I can imagine someone's dearly departed lung fish looking like a big piece of calf's liver,after its been prepared and cooked....sautéed onions and brown gravy!
This is the probably the reason more than anything else why I would never eat my aquarium fish.Hmm, let's see. Wild caught fish versus aquarium fish marinated in their own sh*t!...........
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Living on an island I get alot a fresh caught (wild) fish to eat. I've also lived other places and I can say what I'm sure many of you already know, which is that there's a world of difference between fresh fish caught the same day and store-bought frozen fish. Fresh caught fish is one of my favorite foods to eat.
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I'm gonna qualify my earlier comment on this idea, i.e. that it seems like it would be okay.
If I were in a position where I needed it, I could see eating an aquarium fish. BUT...it would have to come from a clean, well-maintained aquarium, the fish would need to be healthy in appearance, and most importantly of all...it would have to be alive right up to point where it goes under the knife.
Some of you guys are talking about coming home, finding a dead fish floating in your tank and firing up the hot oil! Seriously? That's like eating roadkill.
I've eaten grouse, goose, pheasant, rabbit and deer that were killed by a vehicular impact...but only if I were in the vehicle at the time, or at least saw it happen right in front of my eyes. No way I'm driving along the highway, finding a dead critter and throwing it in the truck for butchering.
There's an old hunter's expression: you kill it, you eat it. I agree with that for the most part, but I also feel that it you want to eat it...you kill it yourself. I don't want to scavenge.
Oh, and I will edit this to add: wild game...birds, rabbits, whatever...are always far superior IMHO to domestic store-bought versions. I would not expect even the healthiest aquarium fish to taste as good as a freshly-caught specimen right off the hook.
If I were in a position where I needed it, I could see eating an aquarium fish. BUT...it would have to come from a clean, well-maintained aquarium, the fish would need to be healthy in appearance, and most importantly of all...it would have to be alive right up to point where it goes under the knife.
Some of you guys are talking about coming home, finding a dead fish floating in your tank and firing up the hot oil! Seriously? That's like eating roadkill.
I've eaten grouse, goose, pheasant, rabbit and deer that were killed by a vehicular impact...but only if I were in the vehicle at the time, or at least saw it happen right in front of my eyes. No way I'm driving along the highway, finding a dead critter and throwing it in the truck for butchering.
There's an old hunter's expression: you kill it, you eat it. I agree with that for the most part, but I also feel that it you want to eat it...you kill it yourself. I don't want to scavenge.
Oh, and I will edit this to add: wild game...birds, rabbits, whatever...are always far superior IMHO to domestic store-bought versions. I would not expect even the healthiest aquarium fish to taste as good as a freshly-caught specimen right off the hook.
That jibes with what I've heard about wild pig....that it blows supermarket pork clean out of the water.I must try it some day.
It takes a lot of time and skill in this hobby to get to the stage where our fish are relatively safe from our past ineptness and inexperience.
Eventually we are able to keep them alive longer because, over time, we've developed the skills to overcome potential problems. This is a feat indeed imo, and I suppose, to some, the holy grail of fishkeeping.
So, once we get to that stage I find it absurd that anyone would then want to deliberately kill a healthy fish in their care to eat it! To me it goes against everything we've learnt.
Ok, take healthy fish out of the equation for a minute, let's just focus on fish that you suddenly find dead one morning. Who the hell in their right mind would eat any animal that had died, but didn't know why they'd suddenly died?
I will never eat a fish from an aquarium, healthy or dead. Call me over the top but all my dead fish are buried in the garden, hell, my RTGG even has a headstone!!!
Eventually we are able to keep them alive longer because, over time, we've developed the skills to overcome potential problems. This is a feat indeed imo, and I suppose, to some, the holy grail of fishkeeping.
So, once we get to that stage I find it absurd that anyone would then want to deliberately kill a healthy fish in their care to eat it! To me it goes against everything we've learnt.
Ok, take healthy fish out of the equation for a minute, let's just focus on fish that you suddenly find dead one morning. Who the hell in their right mind would eat any animal that had died, but didn't know why they'd suddenly died?
I will never eat a fish from an aquarium, healthy or dead. Call me over the top but all my dead fish are buried in the garden, hell, my RTGG even has a headstone!!!
Hmmm...back in the day I would go once a year to North Carolina to a buddy's farm, which was home to large numbers of true European Wild Boar which regularly escaped from a nearby hunting preserve. These were impressive-looking animals; muscular and lean, long-legged, with impressive tusks and that "razor-back" appearance. Except for the biggest/oldest specimens, the meat was amazing; even the big guys were good when used for sausage.
But the wild pigs found in most places, including up here in Manitoba, are just domestic pigs that have escaped and returned to a feral state. They look like plain barnyard pigs...and unless you find an extremely small youngster, like in the 30-pound range, I've never been able to get them to taste good. If you shoot even a smallish adult, even the gravy is tough.
Maybe I should clarify also:
I never eat sick fish, only dead ones. (That’s a joke, but my point is only sudden death, not lingering death or caused by disease).
One of the reasons aquarium fish might be better is because it is fresh! Not frozen, not caught yesterday or even 5 hours ago. (I feel the same way about deer meat—if I killed it, it will be field-dressed within half an hour, then skinned and hanging cooling within another half hour. So it’s fresh!)
Plus, I know where that fish has been and what it’s been eating! (Healthy food). And the water is clean, not questionable lead or mercury levels like that bay….
And I don’t believe any of you keep your fish swimming in ****. The water is not sterile, but no river or lake is sterile either. And the aquarium doesn’t have giardia or various other parasites…
So, are you being rational, or paranoid about some unknown issue? Perhaps you should instead be paranoid about the unknowns of commercial food?
I never eat sick fish, only dead ones. (That’s a joke, but my point is only sudden death, not lingering death or caused by disease).
One of the reasons aquarium fish might be better is because it is fresh! Not frozen, not caught yesterday or even 5 hours ago. (I feel the same way about deer meat—if I killed it, it will be field-dressed within half an hour, then skinned and hanging cooling within another half hour. So it’s fresh!)
Plus, I know where that fish has been and what it’s been eating! (Healthy food). And the water is clean, not questionable lead or mercury levels like that bay….
And I don’t believe any of you keep your fish swimming in ****. The water is not sterile, but no river or lake is sterile either. And the aquarium doesn’t have giardia or various other parasites…
So, are you being rational, or paranoid about some unknown issue? Perhaps you should instead be paranoid about the unknowns of commercial food?
When our dog eventually dies, and the cat, and the rabbit, and the corn snake, hopefully not all at the same time, lol, they will all be buried in the back garden.
Why? Because they are all the families pets, and imo, after being with us for several years, deserve a little respect in death.
I don't look on my fish any differently. They are not exactly family pets, just mine, but many have been with me for years. Eating them, to me, seems so wrong.
But by all means, you carry on eating yours.
Why? Because they are all the families pets, and imo, after being with us for several years, deserve a little respect in death.
I don't look on my fish any differently. They are not exactly family pets, just mine, but many have been with me for years. Eating them, to me, seems so wrong.
But by all means, you carry on eating yours.
