A note concerning pre-packaged frozen fish

[ConcinusMan]

Okay regarding Sally's San Francisco Bay Brand....their website looks legit. I am sure a phone call tomorrow can settle the speculation regarding where they buy their product and if chemicals are used. I will report back. The founders/current president is a German, named Schmidt, so that makes me suspect they are legit, but not at all sure as well...just not sure...will report back tomorrow. My gut says China but we shall see.

Tropical fish food, Sand Eels, Bloodworms, Beef heart and Natural Formulated Diets San Francisco.

Been through this already, long ago. I thought this had been put to rest, or I would have saved their emails to me. There's no dang chemicals in the fish. It wouldn't do them much good to sell these as fish food, if the food killed your fish, now would it?

It's safe to use as aquarium fish food. It isn't going to hurt your snakes. It's fish, and water. That's it.

[kibakiba]

Finally some other people chime in. Thank you Richard.

[ConcinusMan]

Uhhh...what? They freeze them in water without chemicals? What in the heck is that supposed to mean?

Why is that such a struggle for you? It's simple. It means they freeze them in water without chemicals.

But to elaborate, they rinse the fish in fresh clean water, pack them in water, and flash freeze. Being encased in water protects them from freezer burn/drying. Other brands vacuum seal them dry so they don't keep as well.

some sort of euthanasia thing after they net them out of the ocean?.

They are kept alive until the moment they are flash frozen. Flash freezing is your euthanasia. They go from swimming around, to frozen solid, in an instant. I'm sure they don't feel a thing.

And BTW, They don't live in the ocean. They live in shallow salt water pools on shore, in the Arctic/subarctic regions of the world.

STPP or any type of phosphates would render the fish useless for use as aquarium fish food. They don't use these chemicals or anything else that would pollute your aquarium. Chemicals are used to keep food visually appealing and fresh for human consumption. Aquarium fish couldn't care less if the food is fresh, or visually appealing.

[mb90078]

The hysteria here is staggering. It would make complete sense if there were a lot of mysterious deaths of animals fed primarily or only silversides...but it's quite the opposite in fact. Those who feed silversides predominately or only seem to have extremely good results. When you consider how many people use this item as a primary food source, and how many people have raised babies, etc., it is ridiculous to become hysterical about the fact that this brand (Sally's) is harmful. Then add in the people who use them as an occasional food source as well...

To be clear, I'm fine with a healthy investigation of facts, but to suggest that everyone stop using them, and make a note suggesting such in the caresheet is absurd. We could raise such hysteria over just about any food source, I'm quite confident.

Let me bring it a step further, and even suggest that the packaged frozen fish intended for human consumption are probably more often than not going to cause death. Let me be painfully clear, I AM NOT ENDORSING THE USE OF THEM, but again, if they were as toxic as the hysteria suggests, deaths would be much more common. From what I gather, it seems like there were a couple bad batches on a couple instances. Reason enough to find a better food source? Absolutely. But to think that your snake is automatically going to die because it ate packaged frozen fish intended for human consumption? To me, absurd.

[ConcinusMan]

If it's for human consumption especially, then simply read the ingredients. I've never had an issue with packages such as tilapia for example, that list as the ingredients "tilapia fillet, water"

I think that deaths due to preservatives mainly occur when one does not bother to check the ingredients, or when the fish is purchased thawed at the "fresh" seafood counter and contains or was processed with additives. Even the fresh stuff can be checked. They keep a list in the back and you can see it upon request. If there's any preservatives or color added, if it's farmed or WC, mercury and PCB content, the source, you name it, all that information is available. You just have to ask for it.

[Sonya610]

STPP or any type of phosphates would render the fish useless for use as aquarium fish food. They don't use these chemicals or anything else that would pollute your aquarium. Chemicals are used to keep food visually appealing and fresh for human consumption. Aquarium fish couldn't care less if the food is fresh, or visually appealing.

Yeah I thought so too but if you research the chemical and aquariums you will discover it is NOT uncommon to read about aquarium owners feeding shrimp they buy at the grocery store (and shrimp is one of the most heavily treated items), frozen or otherwise. Sometimes people ask what STPP is, but from the threads I saw most didn't seem to know what it is and plenty of them appear to be throwing it in their tanks. If it was immediately wiping out whole tankfuls of expensive fish the aquarium keepers probably would have figured that out and it would now be common knowledge in their world.

I came across one site that specializes in selling fish as feeders and they claimed they were careful to wash off the grocery store fish so it could be fed to aquarium fish! "Providing your saltwater aquariums with the finest foods! All ingredients go through an extensive rinsing process to rid our food of the STTP (sodium tripolyphosphate) that many of the freshest seafoods are initially preserved with." ROD'S FOOD -Providing your salt water aquarium with the finest food.

And if you read my previous comment you would realize it is NOT just a preservative, it is often used by unscrupulous foreign fish processors to significantly increase the weight of the fish which increase profit. I would not trust any food item coming out of many Asian countries, especially China.

[mb90078]

Let me bring it a step further, and even suggest that the packaged frozen fish intended for human consumption are probably more often than not going to cause death.

I should have had another "not" in there. Actually, I should've phrased it a lot better than I did. (In most situations, feeding frozen packaged fish intended for human consumption will probably not result in a garter's death if ingested.)

[ConcinusMan]

Finally some other people chime in. Thank you Richard.

Let me make something perfectly clear. I don't know what was going on between you two and I don't care. I wasn't here to "take sides".

It has been well established that SF bay brand "Sally's" silversides are safe for snakes, lizards, turtles, carnivorous aquarium fish, trolls living in your crawlspace, the neighbors cat... well, you get the idea. They've been around for quite some time.

Now, if someone is using these fish as a staple, and everyone using them is experiencing some common bad reactions or deaths, there's no reason to suspect they're not good pet food, for garters or otherwise.

I could tell you that hot dogs cause butt cancer but I highly doubt that everyone will quit eating hot dogs. I also highly doubt that everyone who eats hot dogs will get butt cancer.

'nuff's enough. Sally's are good food for garters.

[kibakiba]

I wasn't saying you were taking sides. What even made you think that? She obviously needed someone who has used sally's to tell her, because I sure haven't. Assuming I thought you were taking 'my side' is just stupid.

[ConcinusMan]

Now, if someone is using these fish as a staple, and everyone using them is experiencing some common bad reactions or deaths, there's probably reason to suspect they're not good pet food, for garters or otherwise.

Now, I'm getting a bit too tired to care. Time for bed. If I told you how much sleep I got in the past 9 days you wouldn't believe me. It amazes me that I'm still functioning and reasoning at all. Two nights totaling 20 hours just isn't cutting it.