Terrible Advice Tuesdays: Your Fish Food Could Be Dangerous

Terrible Advice Tuesdays: A recent University study has shown that some frozen fish food contains high levels of mercury. Therefore, you should be test your food [for mercury] to make sure your tank is safe.

The rest of the story: First, the person who claimed to have run the study through a University refused to publish the result as well as the whole study when asked. Only after a public outcry did the results get released to a limited number of people. One of the merits of University studies is that they, including their results, are peer reviewed (reviewed by people not involved in the study) to make sure the process and results are sound. Given that the University that conducted the study is said to be withholding the results, I’m skeptical of the process and the results.

Second, this study claimed a finding of “20 mg per gram” which is 10,000 times greater than the highest mercury concentration cited by the FDA (source)

Considering blended frozen fish food is often marketed as made of “food grade” or of ‘high quality human consumption”, there would have to be a massive oversight in the monitoring of human grade seafood for a concentration of “20 mg per gram” of mercury to be achieved. Furthermore, the food we feed our fish is frozen and has been in storage for often months at a time. If the food was really contaminated, the humans who consumed the fresh part of the same catch that went into the food would have gotten sick a LONG time ago.

Until I’ve read the so-called “study” and it is peer reviewed, keep feeding your fish your frozen food of choice.

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