Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

I research things in my spare time (when no ones posting on BYA )

Why am i not surprised with the following?

I looked up the preservative used in the ridley pellets.............

ETHOXYQUIN





But yet.............................................

This was taken from a Q&A forum:



Answer:


It has been suggested that it has the same radical damage process as paraquat (a herbicide).

http://www.gulfwarvets.com/gulflink/95071985.txt


If you've not heard of paraquat, here is a link. It is trully horrific. Anything that states treatment as "pallative care" scares the shit outta me!
http://www.bt.cdc.gov/agent/paraquat/basics/facts.asp
http://www.pan-uk.org/pestnews/actives/paraquat.htm

Truly amazing what they mix in with 'food'.

Why don't you send an e-mail to Ridley Steve. This is disgraceful. To use such a thing in dog food is one thing, but to put it in food that is in the human food chain (Ridley pellets are afterall sold for feeding fish in dams etc that will be eaten by humans) is not on. I wonder if this shit is in chook pellets as well. Makes me want to take my pellets back to Ridley for a refund, but what else am I going to feed my fish. I think it is time we got more serious on the subject of making your own food. I know EB had some good links here somewhere, but we need to start doing and testing the foods ourselves.

BTW Steve - where did you get your full list of ingredients from. My bag didn't have the tag on it.

Okay - now I have had some time to calm down:

This is what Ridley says about it's stock foods (not that this means much):



The key issue here is whether this preservative is going to remain in the fish, the plants or the water. It might not be PC, but I am not particularly concerned about the affects this stuff might have on the fish, provided it does not damage their health so as to prevent them from ending up in the frypan. Question is how long it takes the preservative to break down or whether it can build up to higher concentrations within the system.

Of course one thing about an aqua system is that we are not changing the water out, so anything you put in that does not break down will build up its concentration. Further research required I feel. I wonder if Ridley would answer som questions regarding this.

Regardless of anything - I still think that moving towards self production of food may be wise - I just don't want to be rushed into this when I do not have the time at present and also realise that it may take a bit of experimentation to get the food right (which will also take time).

VB - Steve, I have gone off the Ridley stuff and am now feeding my fish on Total Tropical Flakes ....I really don't know if they are much better, but at least the look cleaner and they don't dirty up the water.
I would be keen to find some sort of feed that is organic, if there is such a thing,.... and I would not really care about the cost to be honest. One of my main reasons in getting into Aquaponics is to be able to get a little distance away from all the chemical rubbish we are fed every day from the supermarket food. To give that kind of stuff to my fish spoils the whole project.
Sorry, I don't want to sound like some sort of environmental wacko, but what is the point if we are feeding our fish ethoxyquin ...... or whatever is remotely like that.
Muzza

That is some scary stuff. Makes it difficult all around to trust what one buys to eat. For instance I love Orange Roughy(sp?), I checked recently on some site I wandered into and it is on the dont eat list because of mecury content.
My question. How can the food store sell it if its going to cause harm.
The U.S. government has an acceptable level of rat crap in Hot Dogs (for example), so many parts per million. Well folks I have a zero acceptance for rat crap in my food.
Rant done!
Thanks for the research steve.

Most commercial feed manufacturers formulate livestock diets using a mix of animal protein, plant protein and grain. Then they'll add any missing vitamins, minerals and amino acids.......and then all of the scary stuff (the antibiotics and preservatives).

Some time back I proposed a dietary regime for fish which featured fly larvae or worms (animal protein), sprouted grains and duckweed (plant protein).....in that order. The fish would get much of what they need in the fly larvae/worms and the grain......leaving them to nibble on the duckweed when they have the time or the inclination.

The first two ingredients are those that will pollute the water if they remain uneaten so they should be fed at a rate that ensures that the fish eat them all straight away. The duckweed floats (unless you really stir the water up) so that will not pollute the tank water so it doesn't matter if it hangs around until the fish are ready to eat it.

Some species of fish (eg Tilapia) will almost all what they need from duckweed.......see http://www.fishfarming.com/recirc.html. I wonder if Silver Perch and Jade Perch would be the same.

We'd need to fiddle with the proportions (according to the breed of fish that you are raising) and we might need to ensure that the three ingredients I'm proposing have all of the correct amino acids but there's no doubt about it being a natural diet. In the wild, fish eat insects (or insect larvae), seeds and plant material.

This is all a bit more trouble than chucking a handful of pellets into the tank but I agree with Murray.......I'm only in this thing for the clean fresh food.

Ongoing convenience is going to be a major issue - this is why I think production of my own pellets for storage in freezer to preserve is the best option. I can see myself asking my wife to chuck a couple of handfulls of pelelts to the fish each day when I go away for work for a week, but can't see me asking her to chuck in a handful of maggots .

I totally agree with Gary. I'm planning on feeding my fish solely on worms and duckweed. There is also an invention I saw on the New Inventors that might help those members who have thier tanks in an outside setting. It would be very easy to replicate.

New Inventors: Floating Fish Feeder

Dear god, you have no idea what canof worms a simple question like that will open

VB, the reason i don't bother contacting ridley is because we are all nut cases.

The first step to being "unplugged" is getting the outta your head. Don't expect other people making lots of money to care about your heath.

As for your question on wether it gos up the food chain? YES. but the FDA et al. have set "safe" limits for our foods. every cigarette is doing you damage................. two sets of rules? anyway.

I'm having a quick check of the posts ATM i'll expand and contribute again later this evening

GF PM me if you're sick of the matrix

So, i'm back again.

Garry, can you post a link here to the topic where you proposed your feed regime? I agree that we need to do it ourselves, but it will require dedication, trial and error, and a repeatable proceedure.

VB, i'm sure that one of those links states the FDA's permissable content (which is not that low). The response you'll get from contacting a manufacturer is "its been approved". I learnt this the hard way with this sort of info. Fight the fights you can win, be content to have the "full story" on the ones you can't, and modify your own habits accordingly. Ther eis no point trying to save a world that doesn't want to be saved.

Muzza, check your flakes, it will have it. and they MUST list it.

Funnily enough the US port authority mandates that all shipments of fish meal must have ethoxyquin added during manufacture, and also be sprayed with it again on loading at 1000PPM

I guess Vit. A is just too expensive.

Very good point that our systems are closed so we must be much more dilligent about what goes in, becasue not only does it go in, but it STAYS in and is taken up by our plants and concentrated in our fish.

Good too see some of you shocked about it. Its the first step. Nothing surprises me anymore. i just go "uh-huh, doesn't surprise me"

Sorry guys, i've gotta get this last line out.....................And yet people still say in conversation "i wonder when they'll figure out what causes cancer and when they'll find a cure" Are they FOR REAL? Its like saying i wonder when they'll find a cure for electrocution.........we do it to ourselves! If you don't belive it thats cool, be content towing the company line, realising that you will be one in two people that will get it in your life time....................

Sorry, all done now........... back to making our own synthetic pestside preservative free fish food

VB, got the spec sheet for the trout pellets emailed to me from ridley aquafeed in QLD

Steve

*goes into hiding in Steve's food bunker* You're even more of a cynic than I am about this stuff...

It's refreshing though, coming to a place/forum where people are already thinking about this sort of thing. Usually, I get labelled the treehugger, cos I'm all like "think about this & talk with your feet", "oh, and don't forget that this hormone is made by making mares pregnant, keeping them in stalls for their entire lives wearing gear that chafes blisters & ulcers into them & then kill their foals as soon as their born, so the horses can get pregnant immediately, so buy from another place" and "you can make a difference! they're not going to change 'just because'!"

*cough*

(Hrmm... ok, that was a bit of a too-specific example.. but you get what i mean. I hope. )

I like that I can find all this information out with all of your help, everyone.

gah! you're kidding, what the hell hormone is that?

H O R R I F I E D ! ! ! ! ! ! !

~has two horses already~

You know those hormones that women going through menopause have to take? It's that. 'Premarin', basically.

If you want more info on this & some really good solutions (ie. a 'humane' producer of 'premarin' hormone.. it's a nice story actually ) PM me!!! I'm more than willing to share details & information!