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Author Topic: Dwarves prefer fish from the aquarium to prepaired dishes!  (Read 688 times)

ravensword227

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Dwarves prefer fish from the aquarium to prepaired dishes!
« on: July 22, 2008, 11:02:44 pm »

I know I've read about this before, in particular, dwarves eating fluffy wamblers (who would do such a thing), but this is my first time making aquariums and I tried to keep them stocked with fish, but dwarves keep fetching them out and helping themselves to dinner.  I didn't see this in the bug pile either, but then again, maybe it isn't a bug.

I guess it was because they don't respect aquariums and the aquarium was closer than the food pile, as it was in the dining room, but I checked their personalities and the culprits didn't like salmon or mussels (the things being eaten).

I had four aquariums and I couldn't keep them stocked even though I had half a dozen fishermen working to trap fish.  Trapping also seems to be very low on the priority list so I was mostly capturing things from built traps that used meat.  I had to butcher a few horses for the meat and, at 5 meat per trap, it got expensive to have the dwarves eat my expensively-bought fish!
« Last Edit: July 22, 2008, 11:20:18 pm by ravensword227 »
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H. Monkey

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Re: Dwarves prefer fish from the aquarium to prepaired dishes!
« Reply #1 on: July 23, 2008, 07:43:21 am »

Maybe this is a tame vs. wild issue.

If you have caught any wild vermin, dwarves will sometimes eat the vermin. If you tame the vermin first (using "tame a small animal" at the kennel), they won't get eaten. For an animal in an animal trap, forbidding just the animal but not the trap itself will allow your trainer to carry the trap and train the animal while preventing a dwarf from eating the little bugger before the trainer gets to it.

Since fish have some pest-like qualities, maybe this works the same for fish, too. I'm fairly sure it does for turtles, at least.
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Awayfarer

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Re: Dwarves prefer fish from the aquarium to prepaired dishes!
« Reply #2 on: July 23, 2008, 07:52:13 am »

It can be tough to get things tamed before your dwarves eat them though. My dwarves will always go for vermin over other food if it's available. I recently had a marksdwarf eat a large roach while the dungeon mater was taming it. Of the last 30+ capture animal jobs it was the only one to even get that far.
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Elvenshae

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Re: Dwarves prefer fish from the aquarium to prepaired dishes!
« Reply #3 on: July 23, 2008, 12:25:38 pm »

Of the last 30+ capture animal jobs it was the only one to even get that far.

I've found that you can forbid the animal in the cage, which prevents dwarves from eating it, but does not prevent the animal trainer from taming it.
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MMad

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Re: Dwarves prefer fish from the aquarium to prepaired dishes!
« Reply #4 on: July 23, 2008, 02:29:33 pm »

There's two things in this thread I find pretty strange.

One: that dwarves eat vermin and live fish if other foodstuff are available.

Two: that vermin and fish can be tamed. How'd you tame a mussel, anyway?
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Valandor

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Re: Dwarves prefer fish from the aquarium to prepaired dishes!
« Reply #5 on: July 23, 2008, 07:52:14 pm »

Now I'm wondering if there is any use to taming vermin?
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Areyar

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Re: Dwarves prefer fish from the aquarium to prepaired dishes!
« Reply #6 on: July 23, 2008, 08:09:38 pm »

the obvious benefit would be dwarves don't eat it anymore...never had a vermin adopted as pet though, but it stands to reason this would be another benefit.
*wonders about a dwarf cuddling his pet mussel*
*imagines hentai engravings*
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