Fish Food to use during snorkeling

[DandyDon]

:lol: I bet he won't ask any more questions here, but the answers are right - don't!

Don't feed the fish, the squirrels, the deer, etc.

Nope, just bears & lions so they won't attack other animals.

Dry dog food in a bottle of water. crush it and put it in.

Actually back in my know-it-all diver days, I took a zip lock of dry cat food down once. The angels, damsels and butterflies all vanished because of the triggers and barracudas. One cuda followed me for the rest of the dive. Won't do that again...!

I guess if you must feed the fish - frozen green peas - at least I have heard it won't harm the fish.

Frozen Spinach, at least you only attract herbivores.

Find some natural fish food in the area you are snorkeling, usually shellfish will do, you can crack them open with a rock or other hard object and then watch the feeding begin. I do this on a rare occasion with mussels and the butt end of a dive knife.

I had an instabuddy in California once who liked to cut up urchins for the Garibaldis. I guess he thot the urchins were unnecessary in the environment.

If you're going to feed the Lionfish, they like live bait.

 

[Rescue Diver68]

I agree with not feeding the fish, but if you must... I have seen cooked pasta and cheeze whiz make the fish go wild. Not me but a DM in Belize (the pasta).

 

[diversteve]

And did someone here say that stingrays bite?

It's more of a hard suck that leads to a hickey. We dove SRC when it was still legal for divers to feed them. I was holding my palm closed with the squid inside when one "bit" the inside of my wrist to make me let it go. I got the feeling that's not the first time he'd done that...

After the swelling went down I had a white circular mark the size of a quarter that lasted about a year.

They don't really have teeth but just two plates they use for crushing small shelled animals they suck up. I wouldn't want to get my finger in between them though.

 

[Marek K]

And did someone here say that stingrays bite?

I mentioned it in another thread, but I did get "bitten" by a stingray at Stingray City on 1 August.

My own damn' fault... had a tidbit of frozen squid in my hand, issued me by the DM (I can only assume that's authorized by DOE). Forgot about keeping my hand perfectly flat, like feeding a horse. The stingray sucked my little finger up into its mouth and "bit" it, I guess between the two plates that diversteve mentioned above -- and it did feel like plates, rather than individual teeth. Didn't break the skin or bruise it, but I definitely felt it -- and was still feeling it a couple days later. It's fine now.

Nothing like a mini-Darwin moment like that to teach me to keep my hand flat if I ever go there again.

 

[Rescue Diver68]

I once saw a diver on a boat throw some bread at a group of snorkelers going by. It looked like a scene from a movie with all of the panic.

 

[DandyDon]

It's more of a hard suck that leads to a hickey. We dove SRC when it was still legal for divers to feed them. I was holding my palm closed with the squid inside when one "bit" the inside of my wrist to make me let it go. I got the feeling that's not the first time he'd done that...

After the swelling went down I had a white circular mark the size of a quarter that lasted about a year.

They don't really have teeth but just two plates they use for crushing small shelled animals they suck up. I wouldn't want to get my finger in between them though.

I'd call that a bite! :shocked2:

I once saw a diver on a boat throw some bread at a group of snorkelers going by. It looked like a scene from a movie with all of the panic.

:lol:​

I may start carrying cat food again.

 

[Deac in the Wake]

My question in re: stingrays was purely rhetorical. I've been around them from the northern extremes of the Gulf all the way down to South America. I was lampooning what I believed to be a mislabeling of a "sting" with a "bite." I often hear people talk about their wasp bite or fire-ant bites. While they may use their mandibles for body control, the "bite" is actually a sting. Just a little hair-splitting.

Don't feed the fish.

 

[Marek K]

I was lampooning what I believed to be a mislabeling of a "sting" with a "bite."

Opposite ends of the animal in this case. In my case with the stingray, it was definitely a "bite" with its mouth.

So how do you define the difference? To me, a bite is with the mouth. A sting is with something other than the mouth, usually on the south end of the animal, and is usually venomous.

Generally. In the case of fire ants, I'd call that either a bite (with the mandibles ~mouth), or a sting (venomous).

i do wonder why there aren't more stingray barb stings at Stingray City. The barbs are supposed to be semi-exposed at all times, though I didn't get a close look. Supposedly they only actively sting when they feel threatened, but it seems like accidental (on both sides) stings would be more common...