The Puffer Forum

While working as a companion animal nutirition specialist, one of the ingredients I would tell people to keep an eye out for was ethoxyquin. This is a preservative that been found to cause cancer and other health issues, and it is often used in pet food, and I have found it in several types of fish food. It has been found to cause mortality in fish. For anyone using dried prepared food, for instance algae wafers for snails, etc, please check the ingredients carefully for this. What your snails are eating is what your puffers are eating.

I know that Aqueon proudly labels their bag as natural ingredients, and does not use ethoxyquin, and I know there are a few others, but double check the ingredients.

thanks for the heads up

Good to know! Just looked at the flakes I have and it's definitely there Time to search for a new food, looks like.
Maybe that's what killed my platy it had been his staple even as a fry.

Hikari algae wafers don't seem to have it either, reading ingredients on petsmart...

this should be a sticky.

I just checked and Wardley algae wafers contain it.

Gotta check my stuff when I get home then

J-P wrote:this should be a sticky.

I just checked and Wardley algae wafers contain it.

Stickied.

How long does it take to affect whats eating it? I just put a algae tab in for my RCS tonight and one ate some, they are in my red eye tank. Really hope hes gonna be ok if he eats one of them...

it is not something to panic over.

It's not something that kills instantly, from what I understand it's a small amount that has ill effects over time.

Bit like arsnic in humans then.. can we start to put a list together with which foods we have identified to carry harmful contaminates to puffers.

awesome thread seven. i dont have any animals currently but i would love to revisit this thread when i plan on keeping some again

gotta check my stuff now...

This has been being used in food since the 1950's and there has been harsh debate on both sides. On the against side most of the information is anecdotal repeated information that lean back to a letter that was written to the FDA by a holistic veterinarian. There is however a few studies done that show that at low levels Ethoxyquin is relatively harmless and actually has contributed to the ability of pet food manufacturers to make healthier foods by way of stabilizing rich fats.

When all is said and done, no food really can claim to be Ethoxyquin free because Ethoxyquin is used, in concentrated doses, as a pesticide in grain and fruit production.

Good article, a little dated but good none the less: http://dachshealth.tripod.com/ethoxyquin.htm