Thiamine Questions

[ichthyogeek]

I put together a list of high and low thiaminase food items for my upcoming fish disease book. I like to list the low thiaminase items as well, so people can preferentially feed them. Of course, this is only one nutrient issue, and the way I get around it is to supplement ALL my seafood items with Mazuri Thiamin E paste (because seafood diet are also often low in E). Trouble is, that is a Zoo/Aquarium product and not available for home use. There are really only a couple of references for this, so you all may have seen a similar list, but here it is:

Thiaminase

Thiaminase is an enzyme that metabolizes or breaks down thiamine (vitamin B1). In high enough concentrations in food, thiaminase will create thiamin deficient diets in fish. This is a common, yet serious problem with predatory fish that are fed feeder goldfish, as goldfish are very high in thiaminase. Lionfish, piranha and oscars cichlids were commonly fed all-goldfish diets by home aquarists. Health issues in their fish were then very common; fatty liver disease in lionfish, pica in piranha (where they eat each other to try to get more thiamin) and HLLE in oscars. Fresh seafoods known to be high in thiaminase can be supplemented with thiamin. Conversely, aquarists can avoid feeding fresh seafoods known to be high in thiamin. The following is a partial list of seafoods that contain thiaminase:

Species high in thiaminase
Anchovy (Engraulis sp.)
Atlantic herring (Clupea harengus)
Capelin (Mallotus villosus)
Carp (Cyprinus carpio)
Clams (family Veneridae)
Goldfish (Carassius auratus)
Lobster (Homarus americanus)
Menhaden (Brevoortia spp.)
Minnows (Cyprinids)
Mussels (Mytilus spp.)
Rainbow smelt (Osmerus mordax)
Sardine (Harengula spp.)
Scallops (Pecten spp.)
Shrimp and prawns (various species)
Skipjack tuna (Katsuwonus pelamis)
White bass (Morone chrysops)
Yellowfin tuna (Neothunnus macropterus)


Species lower in thiaminase
Atlantic cod (Gadus morhua)
Atlantic hake (Merluccius bilinearis)
Atlantic halibut (Hippoglossus hippoglossus)
Atlantic mackerel (Scomber scombrus)
Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar)
Brown trout (Salmo trutta)
Catfish (Ictalurus and related spp)
Cisco (Coregonus spp.)
Coho salmon (Oncorhynchus kisutch)
Flounder / sole (Pleuronectes and related spp.)
Haddock (Melanogrammus aeglefinus)
Hake (Urophycis spp)
Lake trout (Salvelinus namaycush)
Mullet (Mugilidae spp)
Poecilids (Guppies, platies, mollies)
Pollock/Pollack (Pollachius spp.)
Rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss)
Tilapia (Oreochromis spp)
Worms (Lumbricus spp)

Jay

So @Jay Hemdal posted this excerpt from his upcoming book in the predator forum. And while this is fairly comprehensive for a lot of commercial fish species, it does lead to some questions.

Are there any information regarding foods high in thiamine (not thiaminase)?

Or are there any studies on non-poeciliid, non carp fish found in the hobby, and their thiamine concentrations? For example, are clownfish or damselfish in general (the cheapest/easiest to find fish from breeders) super high in thiaminase?

Are all bivalves naturally high in thiaminase? Are oysters exempt? Or is it shellfish in general? (And if not mysis, then what makes them so different?)

 

[Flippers4pups]

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