does smelt contain THIAMINASE ?

[arowfan]

Thanks Rich. I'm always cautious as what I feed my fish, and smelt was new to me-I could have swore I heard ppl saying they were ok for stingrays (which I still want to confirm as I have stopped feeding all my fish this food)...but never heard any talk of it being "ok" for bass...which made me start this "investigation" if you will lol...And when doing a little digging on the cichla forum for smelt containing thiaminase results came up dry. Just want everyone to know this now-not sure if this was a "common knowledge" amongst cichla keepers, but just wanted to shed some light on the topic and hopefully more will know this if they didn't already.
John

I have yet to get my hands on silversides...do you get them locally, or online?

 

[Houdini89]

Interesting

 

[Bderick67]

I could be wrong, but I'm not really seeing smelt on those lists...
John

The link I gave you states smelt as containing thiaminase.

Species that contain thiaminase
Family Cyprinidae (Minnows or carps):
Common bream (Abramis brama)
Central stoneroller (Campostoma anomalum)
Goldfish (Carassius auratus)
Common carp (Cyprinus carpio)
Emerald shiner (Notropis atherinoides)
Spottail shiner (Notropis hudsonius)
Rosy red, Fathead minnow (Pimephales promelas)
Olive barb (Puntius sarana)
Family Salmonidae (Salmonids):
Lake whitefish (Coregonus clupeaformis)
Round whitefish (Prosopium cylindraceum)
Family Catostomidae (Suckers):
White sucker (Catostomus commersonii)
Bigmouth buffalo (Ictiobus cyprinellus)
Family Ictaluridae (North American freshwater catfishes):
Brown bullhead catfish (Ameiurus nebulosus)
Channel catfish (Ictalurus punctatus)
Other families:
Bowfin (Amia calva) - family Amiidae (Bowfins)
Burbot (Lota lota) - family Lotidae (Hakes and burbots)
White bass (Morone chrysops) - family Moronidae (Temperate basses)
Rainbow smelt (Osmerus mordax) - family Osmeridae (Smelts)
Loach, Weatherfish (Misgurnus sp.) - family Cobitidae (Loaches)

 

[Chizzle]

I have my 3 azuls, tigrinus, and silver arowana all feeding on shrimp pretty much daily.

All the article said about shrimp is:
Prawn, Tiger shrimp (Penaeus spp.)

I know what tiger shrimp is, but is a prawn the same thing? Might just switch over to tilapia after seeing this.

 

[oscarfishguy]

I buy them at Petco, but they are also available online at Drs Foster & Smith.

 

[Oddball]

Are the smelts that are available to you truely smelts. Also marketed under the name 'smelts' or 'jack smelts' are large silversides. While smelts have high levels of thiaminase, silversides do not contain thiaminase.

 

[arowfan]

bderick67, must have missed that...thank you. At any rate, I believe this post can raise some awareness to the cichla community
oddball, I believe it said on the box that I picked up (which I threw out so the bag could fit in the freezer) Lake Michigan smelt.

 

[vamptrev]

Great thread

Ive been feeding My rays smelt for years w no problems but maybe i should switch. Maybe this is why my armatus kept dying....

 

[krichardson]

Great thread

Ive been feeding My rays smelt for years w no problems but maybe i should switch. Maybe this is why my armatus kept dying....

Might be onto something there.I have fed my past armatus smelts and they all died after about a year,unexpectedly.My current armatus has been with me for just over a year now and has never been given smelts.

 

[arowfan]

Interesting Trev...yeah I stopped feeding smelt to my rays as well just to play it safe