Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Bad news (omega-3 is good, omega-6 is bad):

http://www.upi.com/Health_News/2008/07/ ... 215625396/


Wonder if it depends on their diet?

It would sure seem their diet would have something to do with it. I've read you can increase the Omega 3's in chicken diets by what you feed them so why wouldn't we be "able" to increase Omega 6 in fish diets with corn based feed.

Based on that theory, it's back to pulling up the old archives on making one's own food and formulating some home based feed for me.

Some clips from this article would say to me its about diet: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/20 ... 092228.htm

"They say their research revealed that farm-raised tilapia, as well as farmed catfish, "have several fatty acid characteristics that would generally be considered by the scientific community as detrimental." "

"For their study, the authors obtained a variety of fish from several sources, including seafood distributors that supply restaurants and supermarkets, two South American companies, fish farms in several countries, and supermarkets in four states. All samples were snap-frozen for preservation pending analysis, which was performed with gas chromatography."

"Chilton said tilapia is easily farmed using inexpensive corn-based feeds, which contain short chain omega-6s that the fish very efficiently convert to AA and place in their tissues. This ability to feed the fish inexpensive foods, together with their capacity to grow under almost any condition, keeps the market price for the fish so low that it is rapidly becoming a staple in low-income diets."

Yeah when I read corn-based feed I wondered if they use that in Thailand (and other countries besides the US). I bet not.

There has been much written lately about this study. The general consensus is that not only was the study flawed but the Winston Salen Journal that PUSHED the story did so by flagrantly leaving out a lot of the information, includind a reference to an article written only pages away disputing the claim. Even the Associated Press refused to run the story because of it's origin.

I think the bottom line is as long as there are academic researchers and news(?) reporters we are getting to get one skewed opinion after another.

As for me, I'm not going to eat Tilapia 3 times a day 7 days a week anymore.....

If you avoid the corn based feed, the omega-3 should increase. Recommendations for good eating is to avoid corn...corn oil and corn syrup. There have been studies on beef raised on grass rather than feed lot grains that produce healthier beef. (University of Wisconsin) http://healthygrassfed.2ya.com/

The overall fat of tilapia is lower than meat and healthier. Fish higher in fat such as salmon and sardines are usually the fish of choice for omega 3. There is drug out called Lovaza that is refined fish oil to lower very high triglycerides. US$49.99 for 30 day supply. I'd rather eat fish!

Dave,,,Thailand mainly uses algal bloom feeding,,sometimes supplemented with rice bran and vegetable off-cuts.Higher output per acre farms ,feed with fish-oil based pellets.

Cityfish,,,you left out the NUMBER 1 omega 3 fish,.....,,Aussie JADEPERCH.

Sorry about that... I never heard of JADEPERCH. Fresh water or ocean? can you AP it?

Fresh water Aussie native,,,yep looking good for AP.
Several hundred thousand fingerlings recently sent to Malaysia. OtherAsian countries interested because of the health aspects.
Have a look here,,,http://www.ausyfish.com/omega-3.htm
Lots of good info there.

It would be interesting to get a farm-raised-by-us-awesome-AP-folks-using-a-much-better-diet tilapia tested. For those who are, or are thinking about going commercial, that could be a real selling point. That is, if this flawed study gets any traction in the public consciousness.

(having said that, I have catfish, I suppose I could get one of those tested, since they're also mentioned in the study...)

CF, here is some info on the jade perch, otherwise known as the Barcoo Grunter (prolly why it had a name change )

http://www2.dpi.qld.gov.au/fishweb/14076.html

Sounds like a winner! How does it taste?

So who gives the hormone injection to the mature brood stock?

Ahhh oily
its like what we call silver perch, but more oily, its great for steaming on the bbq, but i wouldn't recommend microwaving it.
i buy it from china town here, they sell both silver and jade perch as silver perch. put it on bbq with garlic, ginger, chilli, shallot, coriander, salt etc, once top of fish is hot, turn once, take off a minute later and volla, yum

it competes with silver perch as the standard live fish to eat at restaurants, with barramundi being the premium live fish.

oh this is the situation in brisbane, don't know about down south, suspect trout is a more common down there.

I'd love trying your perch species. Unfortunately, I don't think we have access to silver or jade perch or baramundi here in the states. Probably some concern about invasive species. *sigh*

My understanding of the article is that farmed trout and salmon are high in O-3, so I assume their feed is better. (The other option is that they create O-3, but I don't imagine that is as likely). Since I have some trout/fry feed here (Aquamax) as well as catfish feed and some alfalfa pellets I've been feeding a mix of all three; the average protein will still be about 30% and, if the study has any validity, this should help with O-3. Still, I'm not going to get my fish analyzed, so I guess I won't know.