I've been giving my Goldies spirulina about 3 times a week. Now I've been reading it may be bad if given too often. Can anyone tell me why, and how much is too much?
KYSkipjack
Full Version: Spirulina May Be Bad If Consumed Too Much?
How come it would be bad?
When i was reading up on it their apparently happens to be protein being produced by spirulina that isnt easy to break down and a goldfish has a REALLY bad digestive system if i can recall.
I don't know...Rick at the goldfish connection sells it---Sounded all good to me so I bought it. I feed his spirulina flakes to my fish twice a week,along with a fasting day and a dose of peas when I can remember,and when I do this my fish seem to do better.I had two that constantly started floating,and now that hasn't been happening. Well,I'm sort of fibbing--Right now I have 2 fish that are the ones that suffer from it--they are now because I ran out of Spirulina flakes and didn't have any for almost two weeks.. This last 4 days I've gotten back on the schedule and they're allready doing better. 
Here's the nutritional breakout for spirulina algae without any fillers.
Looks like it's high in vitamin A and D which might be worrisone if fed daily.
Looks to be fairly high protein.
Lots of color pigments.
Looks like it's high in vitamin A and D which might be worrisone if fed daily.
Looks to be fairly high protein.
Lots of color pigments.
QUOTE(DataGuru @ Oct 23 2004, 10:54 PM)
Here's the nutritional breakout for spirulina algae without any fillers.
Looks like it's high in vitamin A and D which might be worrisone if fed daily.
Looks to be fairly high protein.
Lots of color pigments.
Looks like it's high in vitamin A and D which might be worrisone if fed daily.
Looks to be fairly high protein.
Lots of color pigments.
Actually most of the people are looking for vitamin A when trying to color enhance... beta carotene is a part of vitamin A
I gotta do some more reading on on that. Vitamin A is fat soluable and can become toxic in humans if overdosed.
Nutrient Requirements of Fish says 4,000 IU per kg of food.
I've been feeding mine the
color gel recipe once a day for a couple of months now so mine are getting quite a bit of vitamin A and beta carotene. There's 63,500 IU per kg of food in the color gel along with 23,530 mcg of Beta Carotene per kg food. Pretty hefty doses.
The spirulina powder has 2,300,000 IU per kg of powder and 2100 mg Beta Carotene per kg of food.
The Nutrient Requirements of Fish book says effects of too much vitamin A are: enlargement of liver and spleen, abnormal growth, skin lesions, epithelial keratinization, hyperplasia. of head cartilage, and abnormal bone formation resulting in ankylosis and fusion of vertebrae. Hypervitaminosis A is reflected in very high liver oil vitamin A content and elevated serum alkaline phosphatase. Removal of excess vitamin A from the diet promotes rapid recovery.
This page on beat carotene says it's not toxic like vitamin A can be.
Nutrient Requirements of Fish says 4,000 IU per kg of food.
I've been feeding mine the
color gel recipe once a day for a couple of months now so mine are getting quite a bit of vitamin A and beta carotene. There's 63,500 IU per kg of food in the color gel along with 23,530 mcg of Beta Carotene per kg food. Pretty hefty doses.
The spirulina powder has 2,300,000 IU per kg of powder and 2100 mg Beta Carotene per kg of food.
The Nutrient Requirements of Fish book says effects of too much vitamin A are: enlargement of liver and spleen, abnormal growth, skin lesions, epithelial keratinization, hyperplasia. of head cartilage, and abnormal bone formation resulting in ankylosis and fusion of vertebrae. Hypervitaminosis A is reflected in very high liver oil vitamin A content and elevated serum alkaline phosphatase. Removal of excess vitamin A from the diet promotes rapid recovery.
This page on beat carotene says it's not toxic like vitamin A can be.
wont iron prevent that?
QUOTE(maniacholic @ Oct 24 2004, 12:42 PM)
wont iron prevent that?
dunno.
Letsee... The Linus Pauling people say
QUOTE
Red blood cells, like all blood cells, are derived from precursor cells called stem cells. These stem cells are dependent on retinoids for normal differentiation into red blood cells. Additionally, vitamin A appears to facilitate the mobilization of iron from storage sites to the developing red blood cell for incorporation into hemoglobin, the oxygen carrier in red blood cells (2, 7).
Iron and vitamin A: Vitamin A deficiency may exacerbate iron deficiency anemia. Vitamin A supplementation has been shown to have beneficial effects on iron deficiency anemia and improve iron nutritional status among children and pregnant women. The combination of vitamin A and iron seems to reduce anemia more effectively than either iron or vitamin A alone (11).
Iron and vitamin A: Vitamin A deficiency may exacerbate iron deficiency anemia. Vitamin A supplementation has been shown to have beneficial effects on iron deficiency anemia and improve iron nutritional status among children and pregnant women. The combination of vitamin A and iron seems to reduce anemia more effectively than either iron or vitamin A alone (11).
Doesn't look like iron protects against Vitamin A toxicity. It looks like Vitamin A helps iron be used for hemaglobin tho.
Cool.. they say: 12 mcg of beta-carotene from foods are required to provide the body with 1 mcg of retinol, giving dietary beta-carotene an RAE ratio of 12:1.
so that means we don't have to worry about beta carontene getting toxic.
They also say:
QUOTE
The condition caused by vitamin A toxicity is called hypervitaminosis A. It is caused by overconsumption of preformed vitamin A, not carotenoids. Preformed vitamin A is rapidly absorbed and slowly cleared from the body, so toxicity may result acutely from high-dose exposure over a short period of time, or chronically from much lower intake (2). Vitamin A toxicity is relatively rare. Symptoms include nausea, headache, fatigue, loss of appetite, dizziness, and dry skin. Signs of chronic toxicity include, dry itchy skin, loss of appetite, headache, and bone and joint pain. Severe cases of hypervitaminosis A may result in liver damage, hemorrhage, and coma. Generally, signs of toxicity are associated with long-term consumption of vitamin A in excess of 10 times the RDA (8,000 to 10,000 mcg/day or 25,000 to 33,000 IU/day).
Note that's all human info. Should be similar in fish, but I've gotten in trouble before generalizing from human to fish physiology.
If i can recall most of the Vit A of spiru is Beta Carotene So we dont really have to worry about Bit A in Spiru going toxic.
But lets take a look at something else... Spirulina has a HIGH concentraion of protein being as it is one of the most primitive lifeforms it has proteins that normally not every organisms uses that may only be a problem in speculation that is, even if it is broken down it may be hard since the concentration of one type of amino acid may be greater then the other required amino acids of any protein synthesization and also many pieces of its amino acid is not used at all for many organisms eventually that will go become waste and it'll come in an abundance which may create an already weak digestive system a bit of problem.
But then again this is speculation.
So this rules out Spirulina on the vegetarian Diet Days but puts Peas in the spotlight for those once a week days.
But lets take a look at something else... Spirulina has a HIGH concentraion of protein being as it is one of the most primitive lifeforms it has proteins that normally not every organisms uses that may only be a problem in speculation that is, even if it is broken down it may be hard since the concentration of one type of amino acid may be greater then the other required amino acids of any protein synthesization and also many pieces of its amino acid is not used at all for many organisms eventually that will go become waste and it'll come in an abundance which may create an already weak digestive system a bit of problem.
But then again this is speculation.
So this rules out Spirulina on the vegetarian Diet Days but puts Peas in the spotlight for those once a week days.
All my fish ate Spirulina for breakfast everyday for about 3mths, I only stopped because I ran out and thought I'd use up the food I already had.
There were no unusual effects.
There were no unusual effects.
More time to digest the waste as breakfast but... im gonna start this experiment im gonna use JUST wardleys Premium which has a base of Spirulina to my goldfish for two months as breakfast and lunch then blood + tubifex
I'm certain that spirulina being a primitive organism will have enough protein which are right for fishes and not to mention the greatest source of B12 vitamins (vitamins which inhibits protein production most of time from consuming animals) known from a plant(actually they dont really count as an animal or produer(plants) but are somewhere in between and have both charecterestics of a decomposer and plants categorized as plankton)
If i notice a change i'll post the results then lessen the feeding percentages to see how much is enough.
Wish my goldies luck(although due to the vitamin C they may not get sick by diseases) and a stunning look.
I'm certain that spirulina being a primitive organism will have enough protein which are right for fishes and not to mention the greatest source of B12 vitamins (vitamins which inhibits protein production most of time from consuming animals) known from a plant(actually they dont really count as an animal or produer(plants) but are somewhere in between and have both charecterestics of a decomposer and plants categorized as plankton)
If i notice a change i'll post the results then lessen the feeding percentages to see how much is enough.
Wish my goldies luck(although due to the vitamin C they may not get sick by diseases) and a stunning look.
Ok, just one more thing. I had no colour changes while on the Spirilina although this may just be co-incidence, time of year, etc.
Gee, mine get Goldfish Connections spiriliana wafers every 3 days as a main meal. They get two meals a day - a main one in the morning and a veggie snack or gel food at night.
I have never had any problems that I could attribute to the food.
I have never had any problems that I could attribute to the food.
Do you think 3 times a week safe enough?
I'm new to Goldies, and try to give 'em what's best, but it gets confusing sometimes!
I'm new to Goldies, and try to give 'em what's best, but it gets confusing sometimes!
3 times a week is most certainly safe.
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