Cat Chow, Fish Food

We've decided to start making our cat's food ourselves, since he doesn't tolerate most canned stuff (even the prescription diets) well anymore. Since I had some reward points to use at Cabelas, I stopped there on the way home today to buy a meat grinder.

I found one quickly, and naturally browsed over some fishing equipment on the way out. I also stopped to look at the fish tanks near the front of the store. The store contains an artificial trout stream and some large aquariums of warmwater fish, the latter of which I'd never looked closely at before. In the tanks were pike, muskies, longnose gar, catfish, bass, walleye, and a variety of panfish. Swimming in schools just under the water's surface there were shiner minnows too, providing food for the larger fish. The minnows weren't always easy pickings.

Most of the fish were paying no attention to the minnows--perhaps they got their fill earlier. Those that were chasing them tried to swim slowly near them unnoticed, taking up a position below the minnow school then rising up quickly to grab one. Probably nine times out of ten, the minnows dashed off before the fish could get in striking position. At least half the strikes caught nothing. Once, a walleye nabbed a minnow who had foolishly swum deeper into tank, only to have it pop out of its mouth, apparently unharmed, a moment later. It chased the escaped minnow briefly, but gave up. Perhaps dull hooks or the wrong fly pattern aren't always to blame for fish slipping off my line after the first nip.

Many of the fish didn't look so good--or rather, their colors and markings were dull. It was hard to tell apart some of the panfish. Distinguishing rock bass from white bass and crappie took careful scrutiny. I know Cabelas has a staff of icthyologists to take care of their fish displays, but an artificial environment like that is bound to affect them in some way. At least they looked well-fed and supple.

It was fun getting a view of feeding fish that I generally don't. Most of the time they're invisible to me, and I can only guess about how they're what they're doing under the water. That guess has become more educated over the years, but mostly from deductions or from explanations offered by others. I sometimes think displays like that are hokey, or even a travesty of sorts, but today one gave me an education it would be hard to get on the stream.

Fishing