Silver slides Fish Safe at Grocery Store

[YellowThunder]

So for my predator fish keeping people I hear that you can buy like smelt at your local stores. For example Ranch 99 is a good one I hear and I’m not sure if I should trust using these smelt as alternatives for silver slides. Is there any that you recommend because these other options are like 10 bucks cheaper but I’m not sure if they are fish safe to feed to my fish. I already give them frozen grocery store shrimp and have seen the smelt that looks just like silver slides but idk if it is exactly healthy or a good option. Let me know what you guys think or if you have already done this before.

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

So for my predator fish keeping people I hear that you can buy like smelt at your local stores. For example Ranch 99 is a good one I hear and I’m not sure if I should trust using these smelt as alternatives for silver slides. Is there any that you recommend because these other options are like 10 bucks cheaper but I’m not sure if they are fish safe to feed to my fish. I already give them frozen grocery store shrimp and have seen the smelt that looks just like silver slides but idk if it is exactly healthy or a good option. Let me know what you guys think or if you have already done this before.

The problem is that some frozen fish are high in thiaminase. This causes thiamin deficiency in fish that are fed those items. The typical frozen smelt sold is one of those foods. You need to supplement smelt with thiamin.

Fish Nutrition – Short Bites

Fish Nutrition – Short Bites Proper nutrition of captive fish is a very complicated subject. Virtually everything known about this topic is derived from fisheries science and therefore is related to growing fish for human food – where the fastest growth rate is most important. Long-term captive...

www.reef2reef.com

 

[YellowThunder]

The problem is that some frozen fish are high in thiaminase. This causes thiamin deficiency in fish that are fed those items. The typical frozen smelt sold is one of those foods. You need to supplement smelt with thiamin.

Fish Nutrition – Short Bites

Fish Nutrition – Short Bites Proper nutrition of captive fish is a very complicated subject. Virtually everything known about this topic is derived from fisheries science and therefore is related to growing fish for human food – where the fastest growth rate is most important. Long-term captive...

www.reef2reef.com

I read your post but I didn’t see anything that mentioned how to add the thiamine to the foods. What foods are good in thiamine?

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

I read your post but I didn’t see anything that mentioned how to add the thiamine to the foods. What foods are good in thiamine?

I supplement frozen foods with Mazuri vitamin E/thiamin paste, but that isn’t really available in smaller quantities. Can you find an aquarium vitamin that has thiamin in it? Otherwise, just avoid fish that are high in thiaminase.