chickadee

I was reading in the Handbook on Fish Diseases by Dieter Untergasser about some of the things that can be used to treat fish problems and disinfecting materials and tanks. What I read made me stop and think about Fish Vitamins.

It states that healthy fish should only be given fish vitamins (like Vita Chem) twice a week and never more often as fish that are healthy and given vitamins more often than this will exhibit signs and symptoms of fish disease. They did not specify what the signs and symptoms were just that they would be present. It went on to say that unhealthy fish could receive the vitamins up to 4 times per week preferably by soaking their food in them. This book is a very complex and kind of hard to understand book for me as it is done in a type of graph form where you look up a symptom and then it breaks down into pathways to follow if the symptom reacts in different ways, but from what I have understood the gentleman seems to know what he is talking about and a lot of it.

I thought I would open this thread up for some discussion on the subject and see what you all thought about the use of Vitamins. I know that I have been using VitaChem on my fish but not every day as I do forget sometimes. It has been my intent to use them every day though. I am wondering if perhaps I should cut back on my shedule for the tanks with no problems. I still believe that the hospital tank will get them every other day at least.

So how about it. Let me hear what you think.

susitna-flower

I have only gotten vita chem once, and used that bottle up by dosing each tank once a week. The only other kind of vitamin I use are frozen blood worms which are vitamin enriched. These I feed a couple of times a week to each tank.

Personally I feel the blood worms are probably just as effective. I know fish do take in nutrients through their gills, and skin, but truly when you think about it. Would it be better to bathe in vitamins in or eat them....

Many of the preparations we buy for our tanks are for OUR edification, not because they really are necessary for our fish.

I was just following a thread today and got off on a side track about filters and medias, and all those that absorb nitrates, ammonia, phosphates, the carbons all that and how expensive they are, when just water changes can do the trick and not cost an arm and leg, and no worries about a sudden release of chemicals back into the tank.... Sorry I'll get off the soap box.

mlinden84

A very interesting subject... I want to get the book and read up on this.
Personally I only use vitachem if a fish has damage to their fins... but it would be interesting to find out if it is helping or not, or if we just think it is (like a placebo).

0morrokh

I've never used Vitachem myself but I was curious so I did a bit of googling.
Apparently the vitamins that can be overdosed are the fat-soluble ones which are A, D, E, and K. If levels of these build up too high it can cause helth problems. The symptoms are the same as those for deficiency of these vitamins, which are things like poor growth, poor sight, and a bunch of conditions with really long names... However in fish it's rare for this to occur if the vitamins just exist in the water-ususally it happens if the fish is consuming too many vitamins.

Vitachem ingredients: Ascorbic acid, ulva and kelp algaes, plankton extract, biotin soluble brewers yeast, cobalamine concentrate, l-lysine, HCL, d-alpha tocophe-rol, insitol, folic acid, hydrochloride monohydrate
(posting them so I don't lose them --I'll try to figure out what can be overdosed)

chickadee

Well one thing I want to make sure that everyone understands is that the Vitamins are a general thing not Vita Chem specifically. I will still use them and consider them to be a good thing. The book even says that they are helpful to the immune system but not in excess. I believe the point made there was to only dose 2 times a week max for healthy fish.

I think the use of vitamins and supplements is good for them as they cannot get some of the natural supplements to their diet that fish in the wild would get but they need to have the things they would not normally eat given to them in moderation. I am so glad the discussion is starting to form.

I would support anyone getting the book and it is available on amazon.com if you cannot find it anywhere else. But if you are unsure, try checking it out in the library if you can find it as it is a very different style of reading.

Have fun!

Rose

sirdarksol

Humans can overdose on vitamins (don't forget C. As it's water-soluble, it's harder to overdose, but if taken in serious excess, it can be extremely harmful to either the liver or kidneys, I can't remember which), so it makes sense that fish can, too. I add vitamins once a week, if that. My fish also get a wide range of high-quality foods. I almost never feed them the Tetra stuff anymore.
With sick fish, it makes sense to give them food soaked in Vita-Chem more often, since bodies burn through vitamins and minerals faster when they're sick.

chickadee

Yes it is always beneficial to give things internally and when my little ones are sick I try to soak their food (daphnia generally when they are being medicated) in a mixture of garlic juice, medication and VitaChem. Sometimes one of them will get ornery and not eat but a couple of missed meals and they take it okay. Until then the meds and vitamins go in the water. But they get at least 4 times the benefit if you can get them to take it internally. That is a very good point.

Rose

COBettaCouple

We've been giving our fish 1 drop per gallon daily of Vitachem.