Is omega one dangerous??

Hello! I recently got omega one pellets for my betta after he started refusing the new life spectrum brand. He loves these ones but I am afraid they are dangerous! I’ve seen betta owners who feed omega one have had Bettas with dropsy before, this was a bit suspicious to me, but I got the pellets anyway. I was doing some research today and found that omega one pellets contain Ethoxyquin which can cause organ damage. Could this food cause dropsy..?

 

I feed a majority omega one. It's my favorite brand.

 

Most foods are going to contain chemicals that in large amounts would definitely cause issues. However, in the micro amounts that they're used in, they're good preservatives/dyes/fillers/etc.

IME, it doesn't matter too much what commercial food you feed - most of them are good enough at this point that even a crappy food will still keep fish relatively healthy. Where people run into issues (especially with bettas) is overfeeding. I've talked to people who feed 5-6 pellets 2-3 times a day - generally when people are buying a betta at the store I work at, I tell them to feed 2-3 pellets every day or every other day. They really don't need more than that, and seem to get swim bladder issues pretty often when overfeeding.

As a side note, while I haven't used the Omega One Betta Pellets (or flakes) extensively, I've had no issue with 15 or 20 of their other foods. I highly doubt that something in the food is giving fish dropsy, or any other disease, when fed properly.

 

I agree, with the small amounts it contains, it really isn't enough to cause a death. There are many worse foods with way more chemicals and fillers, Omega One is way better than most brands when it comes to ingredients IMO.
What do cause issues are overfeeding and bad water quality. Remember, the first thing to look at in a fishes death is water quality, then care.

 

Ok, thanks so much for the fast and helpful replies! I worry too much lol.

 

I think it's the Omega 13 that's dangerous (Galaxy Quest).

 

Hmm, I don’t know. Omega one food gave my guppies and bettas dropsy. I switched and it never happened again. That’s just my experience though

 

Hmm, I don’t know. Omega one food gave my guppies and bettas dropsy. I switched and it never happened again. That’s just my experience though

That’s interesting... what packaging was it? I read on the older short cup red cap version it had the Ethoxyquin, but I got the newer one with the blue cap and taller, and I saw no Ethoxyquin in the ingredients after looking.

Here are the two foods. I feed the blue one

 

Here are the two foods. I feed the blue one

I don't feed my betta omega one, I use Hikari betta bio gold and Zoo med dial a treat, but I feed my White Clouds omega one freshwater flakes and they love it.

 

That’s interesting... what packaging was it? I read on the older short cup red cap version it had the Ethoxyquin, but I got the newer one with the blue cap and taller, and I saw no Ethoxyquin in the ingredients after looking.

I was using red cap

 

Hmm, I don’t know. Omega one food gave my guppies and bettas dropsy. I switched and it never happened again. That’s just my experience though

Not to trounce on your experience (because it IS vaild information, and I'm not trying to dispute it) but are you SURE that it was specifically the brand of food that gave your fish dropsy? There are several factors that can contribute to dropsy (and any other disease).

Just to make sure we're on the same page - dropsy isn't really a specific disease. It's usually more of a symptom of other diseases - dropsy is a build-up of fluid. This can be caused by bacterial infections, fungal infections, organ failure, severe obesity (AKA organ failure), and a few other illnesses. But, again, dropsy isn't a disease itself. So, for a food to cause dropsy, it'd have to be causing one of these other illnesses, and dropsy would present as a symptom.

To my knowledge, the only known illness with dropsy as a symptom that ingesting a food can cause is organ failure. Like I said in my previous post, almost all fish foods (especially big brands) are going to be more than good enough to keep a fish healthy, and I'd bet a big brand like Omega One wouldn't put a food on the market if it's known to cause organ failure.

But, let's ignore that, and focus on erinw347 's fish specifically - lots of things can cause organ failure. Genetics, bad water quality, internal damage, incorrect diet, incorrect water parameters (temperature and PH), etc... It's a very long list. How did you single out Omega One as the issue? Both guppies and bettas are prone to diseases that present with dropsy. Bettas are incredibly easy to overfeed, and sometimes get intestinal blockages from even small amounts of food. A common symptom of overfeeding (not saying you were overfeeding, though) or an intestinal blockage would be dropsy. With guppies, most of them are pretty insanely inbred, again, something that can present with dropsy. Females can also have issues giving birth, giving them the appearance of having dropsy.

All of that's not to say that Omega One isn't an issue - but there are so many other factors and so few reported cases of issues with Omega One giving fish disease that I find it unlikely to be an issue.

As far as Ethoxyquin, it's a pretty common pet food preservative. It's also used in some pesticides and industrial applications, so it's not exactly awesome stuff to be putting in pet food, I agree. But, after reading a study put out by the FDA (and another put out by Monsanto Corporation (Ew, I know...)), they seem to be positive that effects are completely dependent on dosage. Small amounts like what you might put into dog or fish food should have no negative effects on the animal - it'll just keep fats from rotting. Higher dosages can cause liver failure - which could present as dropsy. But, again, with so few cases of Omega One having issues, I'm going to have to doubt this one.

 

Not to trounce on your experience (because it IS vaild information, and I'm not trying to dispute it) but are you SURE that it was specifically the brand of food that gave your fish dropsy? There are several factors that can contribute to dropsy (and any other disease).

Just to make sure we're on the same page - dropsy isn't really a specific disease. It's usually more of a symptom of other diseases - dropsy is a build-up of fluid. This can be caused by bacterial infections, fungal infections, organ failure, severe obesity (AKA organ failure), and a few other illnesses. But, again, dropsy isn't a disease itself. So, for a food to cause dropsy, it'd have to be causing one of these other illnesses, and dropsy would present as a symptom.

To my knowledge, the only known illness with dropsy as a symptom that ingesting a food can cause is organ failure. Like I said in my previous post, almost all fish foods (especially big brands) are going to be more than good enough to keep a fish healthy, and I'd bet a big brand like Omega One wouldn't put a food on the market if it's known to cause organ failure.

But, let's ignore that, and focus on erinw347 's fish specifically - lots of things can cause organ failure. Genetics, bad water quality, internal damage, incorrect diet, incorrect water parameters (temperature and PH), etc... It's a very long list. How did you single out Omega One as the issue? Both guppies and bettas are prone to diseases that present with dropsy. Bettas are incredibly easy to overfeed, and sometimes get intestinal blockages from even small amounts of food. A common symptom of overfeeding (not saying you were overfeeding, though) or an intestinal blockage would be dropsy. With guppies, most of them are pretty insanely inbred, again, something that can present with dropsy. Females can also have issues giving birth, giving them the appearance of having dropsy.

All of that's not to say that Omega One isn't an issue - but there are so many other factors and so few reported cases of issues with Omega One giving fish disease that I find it unlikely to be an issue.

As far as Ethoxyquin, it's a pretty common pet food preservative. It's also used in some pesticides and industrial applications, so it's not exactly awesome stuff to be putting in pet food, I agree. But, after reading a study put out by the FDA (and another put out by Monsanto Corporation (Ew, I know...)), they seem to be positive that effects are completely dependent on dosage. Small amounts like what you might put into dog or fish food should have no negative effects on the animal - it'll just keep fats from rotting. Higher dosages can cause liver failure - which could present as dropsy. But, again, with so few cases of Omega One having issues, I'm going to have to doubt this one.

Solid post right here.

 

Thanks so much for this information! It really cleared a lot of things up!

 

Not to trounce on your experience (because it IS vaild information, and I'm not trying to dispute it) but are you SURE that it was specifically the brand of food that gave your fish dropsy? There are several factors that can contribute to dropsy (and any other disease).

Just to make sure we're on the same page - dropsy isn't really a specific disease. It's usually more of a symptom of other diseases - dropsy is a build-up of fluid. This can be caused by bacterial infections, fungal infections, organ failure, severe obesity (AKA organ failure), and a few other illnesses. But, again, dropsy isn't a disease itself. So, for a food to cause dropsy, it'd have to be causing one of these other illnesses, and dropsy would present as a symptom.

To my knowledge, the only known illness with dropsy as a symptom that ingesting a food can cause is organ failure. Like I said in my previous post, almost all fish foods (especially big brands) are going to be more than good enough to keep a fish healthy, and I'd bet a big brand like Omega One wouldn't put a food on the market if it's known to cause organ failure.

But, let's ignore that, and focus on erinw347 's fish specifically - lots of things can cause organ failure. Genetics, bad water quality, internal damage, incorrect diet, incorrect water parameters (temperature and PH), etc... It's a very long list. How did you single out Omega One as the issue? Both guppies and bettas are prone to diseases that present with dropsy. Bettas are incredibly easy to overfeed, and sometimes get intestinal blockages from even small amounts of food. A common symptom of overfeeding (not saying you were overfeeding, though) or an intestinal blockage would be dropsy. With guppies, most of them are pretty insanely inbred, again, something that can present with dropsy. Females can also have issues giving birth, giving them the appearance of having dropsy.

All of that's not to say that Omega One isn't an issue - but there are so many other factors and so few reported cases of issues with Omega One giving fish disease that I find it unlikely to be an issue.

As far as Ethoxyquin, it's a pretty common pet food preservative. It's also used in some pesticides and industrial applications, so it's not exactly awesome stuff to be putting in pet food, I agree. But, after reading a study put out by the FDA (and another put out by Monsanto Corporation (Ew, I know...)), they seem to be positive that effects are completely dependent on dosage. Small amounts like what you might put into dog or fish food should have no negative effects on the animal - it'll just keep fats from rotting. Higher dosages can cause liver failure - which could present as dropsy. But, again, with so few cases of Omega One having issues, I'm going to have to doubt this one.

Well, it first started with my guppies developing dropsy. I treated with multiple different medicines that didn’t do anything, and I kept up with water changes. I was feeding them Omega One tropical flakes. Then my betta got very constipated and developed dropsy, my other betta did the same quickly after. I was feeding both of them Omega One betta buffet flakes. In total I lost 7 guppies and two bettas from this, it was an ongoing problem that lasted multiple months. But I switched foods, and it never happened again.
Edit: I believe what the food did was it blocked their digestive systems and caused them to be constipated. I know this is a common problem in bettas, but it just seems too connected to not be the problem. I have a couple guppies now and a betta, and since I got new food there haven’t been issues.

 

I wonder if you got a batch that was contaminated in some way? That's pretty odd. But who knows, stranger things have happened!

 

Well, it first started with my guppies developing dropsy. I treated with multiple different medicines that didn’t do anything, and I kept up with water changes. I was feeding them Omega One tropical flakes. Then my betta got very constipated and developed dropsy, my other betta did the same quickly after. I was feeding both of them Omega One betta buffet flakes. In total I lost 7 guppies and two bettas from this, it was an ongoing problem that lasted multiple months. But I switched foods, and it never happened again.

Thanks for clearing that up a little bit, however I am using omega one betta Pellets which are a little bit different from the flakes.

 

Well, it first started with my guppies developing dropsy. I treated with multiple different medicines that didn’t do anything, and I kept up with water changes. I was feeding them Omega One tropical flakes. Then my betta got very constipated and developed dropsy, my other betta did the same quickly after. I was feeding both of them Omega One betta buffet flakes. In total I lost 7 guppies and two bettas from this, it was an ongoing problem that lasted multiple months. But I switched foods, and it never happened again.
Edit: I believe what the food did was it blocked their digestive systems and caused them to be constipated. I know this is a common problem in bettas, but it just seems too connected to not be the problem. I have a couple guppies now and a betta, and since I got new food there haven’t been issues.

I personally use the Omega One Freshwater Flakes and don't have any issues - but, who knows. It wouldn't be the first time a batch of food was contaminated, or that maybe it had gone bad on the shelf. With it being a total of 9 fish, there had to be some common factor.

But, just to prove my point (and not in a rude way), consider this: bettas are, as discussed earlier, very prone to issues with constipation, even when feeding small amounts. When feeding flakes, it's pretty hard to measure exact amounts, right? 2 flakes can be different every time, in both thickness and diameter. Pellets are always going to be relatively uniform - a 1 mm pellet is always going to be 1 mm, give or take a bit. When people are buying bettas at the store I work at, I always recommend a pellet food for that reason. 2-3 pellets every other day is my recommendation for 99% of people - it avoids intestinal issues (usually), and keeps people from having excess waste in the tank. The guppies could have had a genetic issue (assuming they were all from the same store), although I admit that's kinda far-fetched for all of the fish to have the same exact genetic anomaly.

At the end of the day, we'll probably never know. But, my personal take-away would be that no matter how good a product is, there's always the possibility of a bad egg. I've never had an issue with Omega One - but maybe you got a bad batch. Whatever the case, as long as your fish are doing well now, that's what's important. And hopefully we've given OP the answers they were looking for.

 

I now feed a variety of pellets/flakes including Omega One. I used to only feed Omega but when researching fish tumors I came across someone claiming some ingredient causes it and that ingredient is in Omega One...that’s kinda hard to prove. I will say I Have had two fish with tumors but that could be caused by genetics . My first betta ate solely bettamin in the beginning which is looked at as being unhealthy. He’s still going strong. There are so many factors and no way of really knowing for sure.

 

When I researched fish food a couple years ago, I discovered Omega One used ethoxyquin, a known carcinogen, across the entire line so I’ve personally never used their food. The finned ones at my house get Xtreme, Repashy, bug bites and brine shrimp.

 

I'll point to several papers (like I mentioned in one of my earlier posts) that say that Ethoxyquin is safe in the correct dosage. Most Xtreme foods use Ethoxyquin, by the way.

Not that there's anything wrong with trying to avoid it - I just think that there's probably an absolutely massive amount of things to worry about with this hobby before we get to the preservatives in popular fish foods (unless there's been huge problems with it - and from what I've seen, that isn't the case.)