Am I overthinking fish food?

[Andrea Gonzales]

Hi Everyone,

I'm just getting started with my aquaponics system.  I think I will be ready for fish in the next couple of weeks and am planning to start with goldfish.

Due to an autoimmune illness I have a number of dietary restrictions and have noticed that most fish food includes items that I have to avoid - namely soy and gluten.  Since I'm starting with goldfish I obviously will not be eating the fish - but I do plan to switch to something edible when I have a larger space (I live in a condo and my system is on my balcony). 

So I guess my questions are:

1.  If I feed the fish a product that contains soy and gluten, will there be traces in the excrement, which in turn could result in traces in my plants?

2.  When I do grow edible fish, if they eat soy and gluten will it contaminate their flesh?

3.  Is there any such thing as a gluten-free, soy-free fish food (short of growing my own, which I don't have space for)?

4.  Am I just thinking about this too much?

Thank you in advance!

Andrea

[Meir Lazar]

Fish would eat the soy and gluten and convert it to proteins and fats so that it won't be an issue if you want to eat the fish meat. The excrement, which may contain small amounts of undigested soy and gluten, would not be absorbed by the plants anyway, so eating the plants would be fine as well.

The easiest way to test this is get a fish from any supermarket (guaranteed to be pellet-fed) and eat it, see if you get a reaction.

As for the plants, that's also easy. Grow a lettuce or radish from seed in a small pot of soil and take fish food and mix it into the soil. Eat the produce, see if you get any reaction.

[TCLynx]

It would be nice to find an affordable fish feed that doesn't contain huge amounts of corn, soy or wheat.

So what sort of reactions do gluten and soy cause you?  Is it such a strong allergy that simply touching some of it causes a dangerous reaction?  Or is it that you can't digest them?  If it's the first, then you will want to search for algae based feeds so that you won't be physically handling fish feed that will cause you allergic reactions.  If it is the latter, then Meir's take on the issue sounds good to me.

[Andrea Gonzales]

I have an autoimmune thyroid disease (most likely) caused by leaky gut.  Leaky gut caused (most likely) by years of eating gluten.  So I have cut gluten and dairy permanently from my diet and have temporarily cut eggs and nightshade vegetables.  I don't have a "reaction" in the traditional sense - a little bit of tummy pain if I eat gluten sometimes.  But its my hope that by eliminating gluten and the other stuff and allowing my gut to heal I will reduce the production of anti thyroid antibodies and thereby reduce my thyroid symptoms.  So the only way I would know if I reacted to the fish or the veggies would be several days or weeks later when I either A) have thyroid symptoms or B) happen to have routine bloodwork.

I realize I'm probably over-thinking the whole thing, but I've been working really hard to be gluten free for the past three months and I had an exposure last week, so I'm just extra mindful right now.  Plus, I've spent a lot of time (and money) making my home completely gluten free (even my shampoo and conditioner!) and I don't want to undo all my work.

[Andrea Gonzales]

If I test it by eating the produce and I DO react, that means my entire system is contaminated and I will have to scrap it and start over again.  Not really interested in testing that way.  Guess I'll just make my own fish food.

Meir Lazar said:

Fish would eat the soy and gluten and convert it to proteins and fats so that it won't be an issue if you want to eat the fish meat. The excrement, which may contain small amounts of undigested soy and gluten, would not be absorbed by the plants anyway, so eating the plants would be fine as well.

The easiest way to test this is get a fish from any supermarket (guaranteed to be pellet-fed) and eat it, see if you get a reaction.

As for the plants, that's also easy. Grow a lettuce or radish from seed in a small pot of soil and take fish food and mix it into the soil. Eat the produce, see if you get any reaction.