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celiacx7 <[log in to unmask]>
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Sat, 28 Jul 2007 07:55:33 -0500
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<<Disclaimer: Verify this information before applying it to your situation.>>

I received only a few answers to my query about gluten free fish food. Apparently most people just use regular fish food and wash their hands afterward.  My daughter cannot do that as she is very sensitive to gluten and develops very dry, rough hands if she comes into contact with gluten. And just the smell of gluten is enough to make her and me feel sick.  

(My comments are in brackets.)

Of the responses I received, they fall into three categories: 
1. Make my own fish food
2. Use frozen fish food (e.g. brine shrimp)  as it should all be gluten free [but expensive!]
3. Try Cyclop-eeze or Ocean Nutrition brands. [I looked at these web sites.  While the cyclop-eeze did appear gluten free, it also was recommended to feed it to young fish then decrease the amount as the fish get older, so I would still need another source of fish food besides this one.
As for Ocean Nutrition, the only flakes that did not contain wheat germ or wheat flour were the Spirulina. But, the Spirulina contain Brewer's Yeast, so I emailed the company to see if that is gluten free or not.   I also told them about the large Celiac/gluten sensitive population and asked them to consider producing a gluten free flake food. I will post the response when I receive it.]

Complete responses follow, with my comments in brackets:


Something else you might consider is making your own fish food from scratch.
I would use Google to look for recipes - I used "homemade fish food" and got
quite a number of hits. Since I don't know what kind of fish you have, it's
a bit difficult to recommend specific recipes. Keep in mind that you need
to have a food which is balanced for your fish. These webpages looked
useful:

http://www.aquaticcommunity.com/fishfood/fordummies.php

http://www.fruciano.it/Acquario/fish-food-recipe.shtml

http://ezinearticles.com/?Homemade-Fish-Food;-Basic,-Goldfish-and-Carnivoure
&id=369333 (definitely check out the link at the bottom of this one for
nutritional information; it is, however, a very detailed article)

The biggest thing to worry about is overfeeding and clouding up the water,
and having either ammonia spikes or algae issues. If you're using homemade
fish food that is more likely to be a problem than with regular flake or
frozen food. Regular water changes will go a long way to keeping these from
being an issue, and make your fish happier anyway. 

If you're not a member of your local aquarium club, you might also get in
touch with them to ask people there for their thoughts. Granted, your
question will strike most people as odd initially, but I'd surprised if the
group were anything other than helpful. They'll likely also have a lot of
suggestions about the best place to buy live foods, and the least expensive
places to buy frozen foods in your area. If you only have a small tank,
expense is less likely to be an issue for you, but I have a number of tanks
so I make a point of buying frozen food at the cheapest place in our area,
and of buying it in bulk to save even more money.
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we use frozen food found at the pet store. 

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There are very few dry foods which appear to be gluten-free from their
labels, but I have the following:

Argent Cyclop-eeze Wafer (a flaked supplement; www.cyclop-eeze.com will tell
you more). The regular Cyclop-eeze (both dried and frozen) is very tiny -
ideal for small fry - but not appropriate for larger fish. Think of it as
taking the place of baby brine shrimp. The "wafer" flakes are what you want
for larger fish. 
[This looked like a good product, however, according to their website, cyclop-eeeze  is not supposed to be used as the primary food source as the fish becomes an adult.]

Ocean Nutrition Formula One (balanced flake food, one of several they make,
but I don't have them all to check the ingredients; www.oceannutrition.com) 
[I looked at the Formula One food and it contains wheat flour, so perhaps they have changed it since this poster bought it last. I did inquire as to whether the Spirulina fish flakes contain gluten and have not heard back yet. I also told them about the large Celiac/gluten sensitive population and asked them to consider producing a gluten free flake food.]

Frozen foods and live foods should always be gluten-free. I generally feed
frozen or live foods once a day, and dry food of some sort at least once or
more often a day. 

I personally don't worry about gluten content, but rather the quality of the
food for the fish. I do always wash my hands after feeding the fish, but
keeping away from foods containing gluten probably wouldn't be a bad idea if
one is very reactive.
[My daughter is very reactive and gets dried out, rough hands from touching gluten.]
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