Food Enrichments and Shark Liver Oil!

[Samala]

Now, I am all for enriching foods for larvae, fry, juveniles, finicky fish, sick fish.. you name it and I've probably enriched some food for it. But, after looking at the label of one of my enrichments, I am not so sure I want to be using this particular product anymore.

Kent Marine's Zoecon, which is 'nitrate and phosphate free, yeast and sugar free' is not exactly the most ecologicaly sound choice in the world of enrichments. For its omega 3/6/9 source it lists shark liver oil.

Last I checked shark populations world wide were not in such a grand state (after finning for soup, targeted by tournaments or being caught for fish n chips after codfishes demise) that we should be using their livers to round out our reef fishes' dietary needs.

Now, I can hear the argument that, if we're going to kill sharks for their meat/fins we could at least use all the organs - ie. shark liver oil for reefers, shark cartilage for the holistic medicine bunch, teeth for the tourist trinket trade, etc.

But, what a sad and lifeless argument that makes. Any demand for any shark product increases a caught sharks' 'value' to watermen who would otherwise choose another fishery, right?

I just feel that there has got to be another way for Kent Marine to turn out an enrichment product that does not do such a disservice to the oceans. Agree or disagree?

Now, what about the other enrichment sources.. what is Selco/Selcon made out of? Anyone know? Are there any 'green' enrichment sources other than garlic, spirulina, astaxanthin, flax seed oil and using live phyto strains through gut loaded live food?

I'm hoping to spark some intelligent discussion and see what is the best enrichment for me to be using to beef up omega 3/6/9's in my fishes food without using the dreaded shark liver oil. (I would also like to avoid using fish products from fishery's that are unstable or poorly managed, like cod, or cod liver oil.)

>Sarah

 

[Steven Pro]

I checked my bottles of Selcon as well as American Marine's website and neither says specifically what Selcon is made of.

 

[Samala]

Thanks Steven for checking for me.. sounds like I will have to go to the source and ask some questions. Selco/Selcon is used soo prolifically by hobbyists and professionals, I would hope its made from something fairly ecologically sound, but I wonder. I have volunteered in more than one public aquarium that practically drowned their krill/mysis in this stuff before feeding out to captive fish.

>Sarah

 

[SerranidTerror]

:waves to fellow delawarean:. I agree 100% that harvesting sharks for finning is totally uncool. Fact of the matter is a lot of current fishing methods have quite a lot of by-catch, including sharks which I think a lot of times are completely discarded by fishermen anyway. This by-catch often times is discarded b/c the stuff they catch is worthless and takes up precious space in the boat. So why keep it...just throw it back and keep fishing until you fill up on whats worth your fuel bill coming back in. I wouldnt consider throwing so many dead sea critters back in the ocean a sound ecological procedure either. If we can find a way to make this by-catch more valuble we could at least not waste those animals (and avoid centralized areas of nutrients) and take pressure off other sources maybe (although really depends on the fisherman) until our methods become a lot less indiscriminant. Is this where this liver oil is coming from I don't know...but if they are using it from by-catch it may not be that horrible. Just some thoughts, however before I get you angry I probably share some common grounds with you

Current commercial fishing practices: Not acceptable, some advances being made but the science behind it is still young.

Importance of sharks everywhere: Of course!

That there are a number of poor harvesting practices with sharks worldwide: Yes, definitely, and those people should be fileted and fed to the fishes

Wheres this shark liver oil coming from? An applaudable and interesting question. I'm sure the manufacturer would definitely answer that question...or raise suspicions otherwise

If there's one thing this hobby does it makes us more concerned about our ocean resources. Thank goodness for that.

Hope my post was valuable