What about vitamins for fish?

[sowhatifiamlazy]

Hi,

What does anyone think about additional vitamins for fish and thus strengthening their resistance to the diseases?

There's a product from Tetra, called TetraVital. It is said that promotes general well being and increases the fishes' resistance to health problems. Also with vitamin B - good for the fish, plants and microorganisms.

Did anyone try this and any good?

Thank you.

[ChilDawg]

What sort of fish?

Gut-loading the live food with quality food (if that's what you're feeding) is for the best. Also, the vitamins found in a mix of foods would be for the best...I'm not sure that I see the need for more vitamins!

[sowhatifiamlazy]

Any fish. Doesn't matter. I don't feed them with live food, so I thought that additional vitamins would be great.

[wetmanNY]

The question is simple: can fish take up vitamins across their gills? because fresdhwater fish don't drink.

Which vitamins are missing in your fishes' diet?

[sowhatifiamlazy]

Of course not, but they use a minerals found in the water itself.
Vitamin C is what I would like to "add".

[Cloud-9]

You will probably just waste money if you add vitamins to the water. I used to add vitamins to the the flakes prior to feeding. I didn't see any difference in the fish. However, I don't think it hurt them.

The companies who make dog foods like Science Diet, Iams, and Purina, just to name a few, really discourage people from adding any kind of supplement (vitamins, calcium, etc.) to the dog food. They say the food is perfectly balanced and proportioned. Any addition will upset the balance.

I don't think fish foods are as sophisticated or as well-researched as Dog Foods. You won't probably won't upset the balance by soaking the flakes in vitamins prior to feeding. However, I don't think you'll see any difference in the fish.

[ChilDawg]

Why do you think that Vitamin C is necessary for your fish?

[sowhatifiamlazy]

Because vitamin C strengthens the immune system. I don't want to soak in any vitamin myself. I read on TetraMin that it has a Vitamin C added. That's good.

Also the usefulness of vitamins can only be seen on *long-er* usage.

[OrionGirl]

Chocolate boosts the immune system too, but I won't give it to my fish.

Vitamin C has a pretty short shelf life, and isn't absorbed readily--it must be eaten. Soaking your foods would be a better method, but feeding veggies high in Vitamin C is even better than that. Give them some spinach, and save your money for better products.

[Slappy*McFish]

Most quality fish foods already have all the important vitamins and nutrients your fish need...suppliments aren't really neccessary.

[wetmanNY]

Another reason to give par-boiled vegetables is that vitamin C is a complex, not merely the easily-testable, easily-manufactured ascorbic acid that the U.S.D.A. rates as the equivalent of vitamin C: http://natural_vitamin_c.myhealthstore.com/

The "vitamin C" you might be giving your fish is unlikely to be any more than ascorbic acid.

[Tim Bo]

I've never actively worried about the nutrition of my fish cause they get a wide variety of dead and live foods. Withoug giving it too much thought, Vitamin C has always seemed like a good 'supplemental' vitamin for the little wigglers to me. The Tetra brand that uses it appealed to me sometwhat though I wouldn't say that I've witnessed any remarkable changes in their health or extracurricular activities :)


WetmanNY, my knowledge is definitely limited on this matter, but I have always thought that ascorbic acid was one of the better ways to ingest Vitamin C...atleast for fish? And I guess it is, though the article you posted changes my fomer opinion since I've never considered the other components of the vitamin C complex. so we basically can't synthesize the entire complex.If we could do this I guess we could provide fish with the complex's full potency and could say that it was true Vitamin C...for now, I'll be a little more observant when reading the contents of my Vitamin C!

For interests sake there is an interesting bit on vitamins for fish
by Don S. Johnson at http://www.fishgeeks.com/faqs/nutrit.htm
that has helped me out a little when I first got curious about fish nutrition. Scroll down about half way to A Few Words About Vitamins.

[wetmanNY]

Tim Bo, my own knowledge is limited to what I've been reading. It seems that vitamin C is one of the first vitamins to oxidize away, if flakes are damp or exposed to oxygen. It's water-soluble, but it's useless to dissolve it in the water. And teleost fishes can't make their own.

I keep wondering how much vitamin C remains, when frozen spinach is blanched in boiling water half a minute and then gets dropped into the tank. The fish go for the greens though.