I was wondering if this Tetra Vital and other vitamin supplement can actually improve fish immune system? Is it just a scam?
-
You are viewing the forum as a Guest, please login (you can use your Facebook, Twitter, Google or Microsoft account to login) or register using this link: Log in or Sign Up
Vitamin supplement for fish?
- Thread starter Nont
- Start date
I won't say it's a scam (although not far from it). Reality is that if you are feeding your fish with a variety of food (dried and live) which contains all the vitamins you can imagine there shouldn't be any need for vitamin supplements.
mort
Member
- Joined
- 15 Nov 2015
- Messages
- 2,384
Some food supplements can be very useful but generally aren't needed for non finicky fish. We used to add supplements to various fish like dragonets, pipefish and seahorses because they were hard to get feeding and it was impossible to vary their diets enough but normal greedy feeders should get what they need from a varied diet.
MichaelJ
Member
Hi @Nont I would recommend adding botanicals. Botanicals such as Indian Almond leaves leach all sort of good compounds with anti-fungal- anti-inflammatory- and anti-pathogen properties, flavonoids and a whole bunch of other compounds we otherwise won’t be getting into our tanks. Yes, it will tint your water a bit, but if it gets out of hand you can always dial it back or filter over a bit of Seachem Purigen. That combined with a good varied diet should cover your livestock's needs. The vitamin supplement quoted is not necessary - I wouldn't say its a scam - Tetra is generally a pretty reputable company - but I agree with @Hanuman - it's borderlining... I feed flakes, fluval bug bites (pellets and granules and recommend) and frozen food most of the year (only live food during the summer). I get the frozen food from a reputable source and never had problems in my current tanks - feed small amounts repeatedly to make sure only the tiniest amounts goes to waste and rot.
Cheers,
Michael
Perhaps you should stop feeding frozen bloodworms if that is causing them to have some parasitic disease. Could be that the quality of those frozen worms is dodgy.
There are other live culture options like artemia, worms etc. You can google it. Or buy quality frozen worms. I buy the following frozen worms and never had a problem.
I also culture Grindal worms, which in my opinion, are the easiest to culture. I am not sure where you live in Thailand but live food for fish is usually easily accessible in Bangkok. In JJ for instance there is an abundance of live food for fish which is very cheap. Only problem is artemia and all those worms can't be kept for long so it's better to do a culture yourself.
As to actually answer your question, I would guess that if you provide a wide variety of different dried food it might be enough in regards to vitamin uptake, but your fish will always do better if you provide at least frozen food and even more so live food. Imagine if you only eat chips, sausages and popcorn everyday.... not so fun.
Last edited:
MichaelJ
Member
Very much agree!
You forgot Burgers... and stop picking on the cornerstones of the American diet!
Cheers,
Michael
I am American myself since America is a big continent and the USA is only a part of the continent so I have no shame in the picking!! 😝You forgot Burgers... and stop picking on the cornerstones of the American diet!
Not surprisingly as with many herbs what's good for fish and other animals is also good for humans:
Wikipedia:
The leaves contain several flavonoids (such as kaempferol or quercetin), several tannins (such as punicalin, punicalagin or tercatin), saponines and phytosterols. Due to this chemical richness, the leaves (and the bark) are used in different herbal medicines for various purposes. For instance in Taiwan, fallen leaves are used as an herb to treat liver diseases. In Suriname, an herbal tea made from the leaves has been prescribed against dysentery and diarrhea. The leaves may contain agents for prevention of cancers (although they have no demonstrated anticarcinogenic properties) and antioxidants, as well as anticlastogenic characteristics. Extracts of T. catappa have shown activity against Plasmodium falciparum chloroquine (CQ)-resistant (FcB1) and CQ-sensitive (HB3) strains.
Its actually this one that had caused so many problem in the past. I might as well culture mosquito larvae then
Yet, there are still many people who sold it for expensive price in jj market 😅
mort
Member
- Joined
- 15 Nov 2015
- Messages
- 2,384
I think how you feed is also important. The less time the food takes for the fish to eat it the better. This is more important with flake foods but little and more often is the key. It's a long time since I checked but I think vitamin c was leached out pretty quickly, 20 seconds or so.
When we were conditioning fish we used to pretty much feed everytime we walked by. It was normally only a couple of flakes or a couple of pellets at a time, varied throughout the day.
When we were conditioning fish we used to pretty much feed everytime we walked by. It was normally only a couple of flakes or a couple of pellets at a time, varied throughout the day.
I've never had any issue with this brand and I have used it for years. It's possible that the fish were already infected with something.
Mosquite larvea is easy but then you get the mosquitos 😅. If you are not too far I could send you by mail a pad of Grindal worms that you could culture. They are very easy to take care of contrary to other worms like the micro worms or white worms which require more attention.
Just let me know and I'll send it to you.
FISHnLAB
Member
I can't answer your question specifically but, I use Boyd's Vitachem. I dose in the water column and soak my fishes food in it occasionally and noticed an immediate difference in general health and especially colouring. I personally think it is a worth while addition to my fishes nutrition even with feeding top quality foods.
