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Are there any problems with precooking fish filets, smelt etc prior to feeding them to a predatory catfish to avoid potential bacterial or parasitic contaminents.I have not found a specific comment on this.It doesnt appear that this is commonly done.

thats an interesting question Mickey3. At first you would assume that raw fish sold for human consumption bought fresh or fresh frozen, would be perfectly safe for catfish. Personally I would go with that and feed raw fish to predatory catfish. But I do recall one or two news items where people had contracted parasites from certain marine food-fish such as tuna. What effect would marine fish-parasites have on freshwater catfish? I dunno!

There should be no problem feeding un-cooked sea caught fish. There are enough differences in the make up of marine diseases etc, which doesn't allow for cross infection between marine and freshwater fishes.
Pre cooked fish can be fed, but the flesh loses a lot of goodness from it when cooked, so un-cooked fish is a healthier option.
I have also found that white fish such as white bait, cod, haddock etc, does not have as much of an effect on water quality deterioration as when feeding oily type fishes like mackerel. I always used to see a greater increase in ammonia levels when feeding oily fish; compared to when feeding white fish, to predatory catfish.

Medaka, Thank you for the reply. I was also concerned about bacterial growth caused by improper storage techniques from the time the seafood is caught and the time it is for sale.For example,fish that are used for sushi are handled differently than those that are going to be cooked because of bacterial concerns.

Just one point: You should avoid freshwater fish that is raw, as they can carry various baddies, particularly parasites. Freezing kills most if not all of the parasites, so that's a good way to reduce risk of parasites with a minimal loss of nutrition.

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Mats

You can quickly cook the fish by steaming it in a plastic bag held over the kettle.

Hello, I thought freezing did not kill viral diseases so thorough cooking is essential.

No, I doubt that freezing will kill viral pathogenes. But parasites are killed this way, which is a good starting point.

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Mats