possible tilapia problem

[ssssnakeluvr]

I have been feeding tilapia filets to my garters for a bit, along with worms and rodents. the snakes that are eating just the tilapia are showing some odd signs....bodies twisting, kinda like the red siders I had a few years ago that wouldn't take rodents....I was feeding catfish filets as they were cheap...found out the contain thiaminase....lost the poor snakes too. some of these are doing a little of the twisting now...not as much as the red sideds did. I can't find tilapia on the list of thiaminase/non-thiaminase list.....I am wondering if they do have a small amount in them.... I am not taking any chances now....as soon as the little bit of it left is gone..I am switching to salmon, trout, and cod....are on the good list! anyone else have this problem????

[GartersRock]

Not with Tilapia... Thats strange... I will die if tilapia is unsafe. Thats the only f/t fillet fish my diamonback water WCs will eat right now...

I actually witnessed symptoms with a baby who was on some river minnows. Found out that some of the minnows in our river are bad, some are good. I PANICKED!!! He was doing this weird thing where when I would walk by he would slither around really fast and spastic. I thought he was just being a freaky chicken... Then i started getting suspicious... When I would walk by and I could HEAR him thrashing around in there. Then he started head turning and twisting. I freaked. Managed to get him to eat some cod. Since at the time he would only eat live fish it was a miracle. After two feedings of the cod the symptoms completely dissapeared. Thank GOODNESS. But I found it interesting how quickly it went away by just switching fish species? And how I had dozens of other snakes of the same size on the same diet that showed no symptoms.

I was also wondering. If fed on a varied diet of various fish species, worms, mice AND a reptile supplement with B1 (thiamine) in it? Would it be safe to feed say, Rosy Reds on occasion? I mean. It's not a poison right? It's robbing the B1 vitamin. Si technically if they are getting it from other sources shouldn't it be fine?? Just a curious thought...

[ssssnakeluvr]

I think part of it depends on the snakes age.....I used to catch and keep adult wandering garters...fed goldfish for years and never had a problem....but with growing babies.....definite problems. occasional ones shouldn't hurt.... I like to dust my feeder fish once a month, and keep a varied diet....worms, fish, and rodents.
I haven't been able to find anything on thiaminase in tilapia.....nothing in the articles page on the website that they have tested fish....my adults have no problems..will switch just for my own peace of mind.

[adamanteus]

I was intending to try tilapia, to add a little variety to the fish side of my snake's diet..... I think I won't bother now! Thanks for the 'heads-up', Don.

[Stefan-A]

You're not going to find tilapia on any list, the name covers dozens of species of cichlids.

[drache]

you know that I had the same symptoms, followed be death, with a one-year-old who had been living on supplemented salmon
he had never taken anything other than fish, and in spring he decided that salmon was the only fish worth eating, and I wasn't worried because salmon is a "safe" fish - now I question that
he did have trout for all of his early months and i'm sure that that's fine

[Stefan-A]

You could also attribute that to "incorrect dosage", or some completely unrelated cause, Rhea.

[drache]

yes, it could
at the same time I wished I had listened more closely to the vet when he explained to me why he thought the salmon caused it
I remember him saying something about salt water fish in general and also something about the freezing
all of this was in a very crowded and noisy environment and I figured I could research it more later
the snake was already dead, after all, and all of my others eat rodents nearly all the time, so it's not been an issue
I do know that freezing destroys some of the nutrients, and probably where I went wrong was that I didn't supplement with anything other than calcium
still - I wonder about the salmon

[snakeman]

You should not even feed your kids fish from the ocean very often.Some fish contain a ton of mercury.That definitely screws up brain development.I always fed rosy reds until they get switched to rodents.I only had problems one time with the florida blue I sold don.The snake recovered fine though.

[aSnakeLovinBabe]

I usually use rosy reds to get my babies off the ground if they will not take worm scented pinky parts right off the bat. I have not to date had any problems using them... but I am still watching very, very closely.

My eastern blacknecks will still pretty much only eat them... alive. I got them to eat salmon once... then nver again... and I have gotten them to eat rosy scented pinks a few times... but not consistently.

My 5 butleri are funny... some of them will eat fish but never all of them... some will eat worms but never all of them... but show any of them a bloody pinky piece and they go balistic!! Especially Chunky Butt... the biggest fatest one that will eat anything I show him!

I have not really used tilapia so I really don't know about all that. I have used the majoriy of trout and salmon and that seems to be working out.

The main diet for my garters is pinkies though... fish and worms are a treat.