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    Thread: Ethoxyquin (a preservative) in koi food

    1. #1
      ckoi is offline Senior Member
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      Ethoxyquin (a preservative) in koi food

      I was thinking of ordering some food for next season and thought of buying Mizuho which seems fairly priced. Then noticed that it has the preservative Ethoxyquin and googled it. Found out it is used in alot of pet foods at a regulated ppm level. Wondered if anybody had any reservations in using Mizuho for their koi because of this ingredient? Don't know what other koi foods use as a perservative? Long term affects on kidneys might be problem when using Ethoxyquin?

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    2. #2
      inazuma28 is offline Senior Member
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      It looks like it is also used in produce, spices, and pet food. It has been suggested that it may have caused heart problems in pets in the past but nothing has been proven. I just read that it also causes a build up of liver enzymes and molecular deposits in the liver....... So you have two arguments here
      -pros: the FDA clears it for human consumption and no ill effects have been conclusively shown to result from consumption
      -cons: MAY cause heart, liver, and kidney problems and most likely was never thoroughly studied because it is only consumed occasionally and in small quantities by humans.

      I would look for foods without it to be on the safe side. There is no penalty for playing it safe when it comes to health matters.

    3. #3
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      I would be more concerned about the oxidation of fats and vitamins that would occur in the food that does not contain a preservative than I would be about the extremely low concentration of ethoxyquin that is present in the food. While concentrations of ethoxyquin in food up to 75 ppm are considered safe, most products that use ethoxyquin as a preservative are using concentrations of 0.5 to 5.0 ppm.

      The risk of your neighbor using pesticides in his yard and drifting into your pond is a bigger threat then ethoxyquin.

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      MikeM is offline Super Member
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      Preservatives are commonly used in pellet foods. Not all tell you what they use.

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      ckoi is offline Senior Member
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      Quote Originally Posted by RickF View Post
      I would be more concerned about the oxidation of fats and vitamins that would occur in the food that does not contain a preservative than I would be about the extremely low concentration of ethoxyquin that is present in the food. While concentrations of ethoxyquin in food up to 75 ppm are considered safe, most products that use ethoxyquin as a preservative are using concentrations of 0.5 to 5.0 ppm.

      The risk of your neighbor using pesticides in his yard and drifting into your pond is a bigger threat then ethoxyquin.
      Thanks Rick , that good to know that the concentration is lower than the stated limit. I suppose it depends on perhaps whether it consumed daily or not just as inazuma stated earlier. For instance say your koi are fed exclusively food that has ethoxyquin vs human diet which is more variable. Would the cumulative effect cause problems to your koi say after 10 years? It would be interesting what other koi foods use as perservative.

    6. #6
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      Quote Originally Posted by RickF View Post
      I would be more concerned about the oxidation of fats and vitamins that would occur in the food that does not contain a preservative than I would be about the extremely low concentration of ethoxyquin that is present in the food. While concentrations of ethoxyquin in food up to 75 ppm are considered safe, most products that use ethoxyquin as a preservative are using concentrations of 0.5 to 5.0 ppm.

      The risk of your neighbor using pesticides in his yard and drifting into your pond is a bigger threat then ethoxyquin.
      So glad you are here for your input

    7. #7
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      In the "for what it is worth" department, I just looked at the ingredient list for several koi foods and ethoxyquin is listed as a preservative in foods from the following:

      Blue Ridge
      Kaytee
      Omega One
      MicrobeLift
      Tetra
      Wardley

      This is by no means a complete list, but these were brands that I could easily find the complete ingredient list. Many other brands have such vague descriptions of what is in them that it is not possible to give an accurate assessment of whether they contain ethoxyquin. All pre-packaged pellets must contain some preservative or else the fat will go rancid and the fat soluble vitamins (A, D, E, and K) will oxidize.

    8. #8
      mtsklar is offline Senior Member
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      Quote Originally Posted by ckoi View Post
      Thanks Rick , that good to know that the concentration is lower than the stated limit. I suppose it depends on perhaps whether it consumed daily or not just as inazuma stated earlier. For instance say your koi are fed exclusively food that has ethoxyquin vs human diet which is more variable. Would the cumulative effect cause problems to your koi say after 10 years? It would be interesting what other koi foods use as perservative.

      Ethoxyquin is a standard antioxidant in fishmeal production world wide, and for years the US gov. required imported fishmeal to be treated with ethoxyquin. Ethoxyquin is a synthetic compound.

      All natural antioxidant options as such as Rosemary Extract, and Mixed Tocopherols are very good antioxidants.

    9. #9
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      Quote Originally Posted by mtsklar View Post
      All natural antioxidant options as such as Rosemary Extract, and Mixed Tocopherols are very good antioxidants.
      But just because they are all natural does not mean they are any safer than a synthetic product, nor have the "natural" products necessarily been tested as thoroughly as the synthetic product. There are a lot of all natural products that are extremely toxic.

    10. #10
      mtsklar is offline Senior Member
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      Tocopherols are well studied and understood in fish nutrition. They are part of the Vitamin E group.

      Vitamin E deficiency signs would include fatty liver, and muscular dystrophy. Sekoke disease in carp, which is the thinning of the flesh ( muscle) on the back of the fish which has been demonstrated by feeding oxidized silkworm pupae, and corrected by supplementing the diet with vitamin E. A condition I actually saw on a koi in the Minnesota koi show this summer.

      Vitamin E has been tested at 100 times the daily requirement and show to reduce the blood concentration of red blood cells in some fish.

      Additional reading can be found :
      Nutrition and Feeding of Fish
      *edited by Tom Lovel

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