A note concerning pre-packaged frozen fish

[ConcinusMan]

I also buy fresh fish and freeze it, Mike.

That's no guarantee. I can buy farmed Steelhead "fresh" but they add artificial color to make the meat pink so it mimics salmon. Even "fresh" fish can be treated with harmful substances before you buy it. However, according to FDA regulations, they must make that fact public but they don't have to make it obvious and easy to find.

No, I don't but I am going to buy some this week. (Supplements) And I will be expanding his diet/feeding times. Thanks for the advi, plus, I noticed my fish packaging did not contain any info on the preservative content.....Either it has none, or it doesn't say.

They must put it in the ingredients label. That's the law. If it says anything but fish fillet and water in the ingredients, don't buy it.

[Mommy2many]

This is so upsetting. I love my snake, Eden. No pet owner wants to kill their pet, we want what's best, but quite frankly, not all of us all teaming in bait shops where we can easily get worms, or mice. (Mine is too small to eat mice anyhow.) So when the one bait shop near me says they're out of Earth worms( ridiculous, right? I know, wtf? ) I turn to Tilapia. It's in my freezer, I'm going to make it for dinner tonight, and I was planning to give some to Eden. But your revelation describing the horrible death I'd be condemning him to...make's me feel like a bad person for not driving 18 miles to the nearest earthworm breeder. That's scarey. However, Wal-Mart , you say? They're an evil conglomerate who gets their fare from seedy places anyways. So, I'll try my non-Wal-mart Tilapia an cross my fingers until I can get him his real food.

I feed my snakes with worms bought from Walmart. All year until I can go hunt them myself. I'd say worms are safer at Walmart than the fish. I only buy fresh fish from my supermarket and either use it right away or freeze it myself. (Then I usually forget about it, find it months later after already buying more fish)

[kimbosaur]

Another thing to pay attention to when buying "fresh" fish is that it's sometimes "previously frozen," and not actually fresh. The salmon fillets I bought at the seafood counter in the supermarket were exactly that.

[EasternGirl]

Right...but to respond to both Richard and Kimberly...I always check and make sure the seafood I buy does not have color added and has not been previously frozen. Both very good points. At my store, at the seafood counter, they have little signs next to the fish...the signs tell you if it has color added or if it has been previously frozen...it also says it on the label they put on the fish when you buy it. I also ask before selecting any. If the seafood store or the seafood counter where you buy your seafood does not have signs telling you these things...ask before purchasing.

[Stefan-A]

That's no guarantee. I can buy farmed Steelhead "fresh" but they add artificial color to make the meat pink so it mimics salmon.

The substance is generally the same substance wild fish would get through their diet. It's harmless.

[EasternGirl]

Well that's good to know...it gives me more options for buying salmon because a lot of the salmon has coloring added to it to give it a pink/red color.

[chris-uk]

Another thing to pay attention to when buying "fresh" fish is that it's sometimes "previously frozen," and not actually fresh. The salmon fillets I bought at the seafood counter in the supermarket were exactly that.

Whilst re-freezing previously frozen food is generally not advised, if it's fish that was previously frozen and is being sold as "fresh" fish in a shop, the fish will have been defrosted using a well-controlled method which allows it to be safely re-frozen. The thawing method leaves the previously forzen fish in the same condition as fresh fish.

[mike k]

If only I'd read this thread 8 months ago. I've kept a lot of species of snakes the last 20 yrs. The first pet snake my mom let me have was garter snake in the 4th grade. I didn't have much luck with that wild caught, pet store bought red sided, and I haven't had a garter since then.

Until last summer, when I took on the challenge. We raise 2 box turtles and a tree frog, along with 14 other colubrids, and I added three cb baby red sided garters. The babies were a lot smaller than I expected. I thought rosies would be too big, so guess what?? - I pulled some frozen tilapia from Walmart out of the back of the freezer and shaved off a few slices. I was estatic when they chowed the strips down. Woohoo, I've got them started, I thought.

The next morning...2 were dead and one was on the way out, at one point doing slow death twirls. As a first time garter snake owner, I thought it could have been anything - housing, temperature, travel stress, mysterious chemical in the house, what it ate, and any other possibility.

I searched the internet and by lunch I'd dug deep enough to realize it was the tilapia. There were so many husbandry pages out there that never mentioned this danger. I couldn't believe it. A simple, basic thing that should be easy to prevent. Sites all said to feed strips of fish. Now that I've done a lot more research, it seems the best thing to tell a newbie is to not feed any fish unless you've seen it swimming before it got frozen.

Mid afternoon a great thing happened. The red sided looked normal. No more slow twirling, it recognized my finger a few inches away and reacted. He drank. I might have got on my knees and looked up to the sky. A few days later he ate few live rosies out of his peanut butter jar lid/water dish. I have a theory why he survived the poisoning.

Today, 8 months later, he ate his first live pinky! Scented with frozen/thawed rosies. I've been paranoid feeding him rosies exclusively, he's not too interested in worms.

All prospective garter owners need to be aware of this issue with frozen fish.

[ConcinusMan]

The substance is generally the same substance wild fish would get through their diet. It's harmless.

I figured it probably was harmless. However, after feeding snakes heavily on that steelhead, I had two snakes develop tremors. One died, the other eventually recovered. Don't know if it was mercury, coloring, or what, but I quit using just to be safe.

[ConcinusMan]

Whilst re-freezing previously frozen food is generally not advised, if it's fish that was previously frozen and is being sold as "fresh" fish in a shop, the fish will have been defrosted using a well-controlled method which allows it to be safely re-frozen. The thawing method leaves the previously forzen fish in the same condition as fresh fish.

This is true. Most "fresh" fish was frozen during transport. However, I can get locally caught fresh steelhead and salmon in the Northwest. It was merely put on ice before reaching market. It's so loaded with mercury and PCB's (all WC salmon and steelhead is, with Alaskan salmon being the exception) I wouldn't use it anyway. That brings up a point about catching it yourself. Doesn't mean it isn't loaded with contaminants. Most WC fish is these days. Farmed fish is significantly lower in those contaminants. (PCB's, mercury) Tilapia is the cleanest as far as that goes, since tilapia eat only plant matter.