3 fish food Questions (soaking food, ethoxyquin, meal quality)

[thewarning]

1. Is it necessary to pre-soak food? I've heard arguments for and against. And if for does that apply only to freeze dried food or pellets and flake as well. I went on the New Life website and they said this.

"Another common mistake by some hobbyists is to pre-soak their pellets, in the misguided belief that this will aid in digestion and prevent swelling of the pellets inside the fishes gut. This is nothing more than an urban myth created by those that simply do not understand the amount of enzymes and gastric acids that are released by most fish when they consume food. Those hard pellets turn into soft mush in a very short period of time! If a pellet food causes gastrointestinal issues in a fish, it will usually be due to the use of poorly digestible ingredients, such as excessive amounts of grains and grain by-products, not from the food swelling up inside the fish's stomach. Most importantly, when you pre-soak pellet food, you are allowing nutrients and water-soluble vitamins and minerals to leach out into the water"

2. I was reading reviews on omega one betta pellets on amazon and a couple of reviews said it contains ethoxyquin which is a poison and is lethal to fish. An article at New Life basically calls that a myth and all fish food contains ethoxyquin. http://nlsfishfood.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=29&Itemid=63&limit=1&limitstart=5 Thoughts?

3. I always thought when the ingredients say "meal" after the type of protein (e.g. whole antarctic krill meal, whole herring meal) instead of saying whole antarctic krill, whole herring; it was a sign of low quality. Like using the left over parts. New Life says meal after their proteins and I've heard they were pretty much the best manufacturer of pellet food. Is there a difference?

 

[authmal]

Well, the only thing *I* might pre-soak is frozen bloodworms, and that's more to get them to tank temperature (I scoop out a bit of tank water to pre-soak/thaw in) and to ensure a better dispersal in the water column.

I can't address your other questions at all.

 

[rufioman]

I pre soak veggies and frozen foods.

 

[Narwhal72]

There is no reason to presoak processed foods. You don't gain anything and only serve to break down the pellets into mush. It is a good idea to presoak freeze dried foods as it adds vitamins to the food and helps them sink faster (FD foods float on top due to their low density otherwise).

Ethoxyquin is added to the holds on fishing vessels to prevent the fish from decomposing and causing dangerous gasses to build up which can result in an explosion. The amount is very small and is usually totally degraded by the time the ship is offloaded at the port. Ethoxyquin can also be added to a processed food at the time it is manufactured to act as a preservative. A food that does not have Ethoxyquin on the label does not have it added during processing. A food with ethoxyquin added during processing as a preservative is legally required to list it on the label. There are some studies that show that ethoxyquin can harm dogs and cats but nothing has been shown to date that it harms fish in any way. It has been a standard preservative for many years in many brands. If you want to avoid ethoxyquin you can use some of the all natural brands like Aqueon foods.

Fish meals, etc.. are a collective term for ground up and dried feed ingredients. These can be made from whole fish, whole krill, whole shrimp, etc... or from parts of fish (heads, tails, and guts). A "whole" animal meal will be a better quality than a partial animal meal but the "meal" term alone does not signify that. "Meal" is just the term for the processed ingredient.

Andy

 

[rufioman]

^nice, bro. And good to meet you!

:crazy:

 

[thewarning]

Thanks, Andy.

 

[thewarning]

I just found this bit of information.
Fish Meal – “Fish meal is the clean, dried, ground tissue of undecomposed whole fish or fish cuttings, either or both, with or without the extraction of part of the oil.”
Basically meal is ground up, dried out parts of the animal that are not considered human grade. They are higher in salt but lower in protein and nutrients then whole meats would be.
Foods that contain just “fish meal” are not good, foods that contain more specific items like “Antarctic Krill Meal” or “Herring Meal” while still not as good as whole fish, are a much better option then those that contain just “fish meal”
Foods that contain whole meats and not too many fillers are going to be much better for your fish then foods that contain meal and lots of fillers.