Feeding Fish

[GarterGeek]

Are minnows and silversides from baitshops good for feeding snakes? I'm primarily concerned about thiaminase and parasites.

Thank you!

[DrKate]

True silversides are generally considered by hobbyists to be "safe" from thiaminase but I've never seen scientific documentation of that. BUT... see if the bait shop can tell you the Latin name of what they're selling as silversides. You want to make sure they're really silversides and not something like smelt or anchovies. This is a taxonomic list of silverside species, you can look for the name they give you to make sure it's really a silverside: ML : Browse Atheriniformes (You'll have to browse down into each of the links in that list to get lists of species. Kind of a pain but the best thing I've found so far.) If they can't tell you the species (or at least genus) of silversides, probably best to avoid.

As for parasites, I'd figure the conditions bait fish are raised under would be similar to feeder fish, which we do know carry a lot of parasites that are dangerous to other FISH. But as for parasites that are dangerous to snakes... Dunno.