Hormones in Food - What is their effect

Hi All,

I'm trying to understand this issue better as I had a collection of Malawis which started breading earlier this year, but since then I changed food and the breeding stopped. I later discovered that the food had "Natural Colour Enhancers", which I was told was in fact hormones.

I have tried to research this matter, and it seems that the hormones will change the sex of the fish permanently. Therefore this means that my fish will not breed again. If so, I am disappointed that I will need to get more fish to get my fish breeding again.

Also, the food I switched to was recommended by a LFS. They used this food for their stock to enhance the colour of their stock, thereby boosting sales. Does this then mean that they then only sell males?

Is there anyone out there who can confirm my conclusion?

 

Seth

can you tell us what food it was that you were feeding please?

Regards
andrew

 

I'm not aware of a food that is able to change the sex of a fish, but I might be wrong. Try including some frozen live into their diet and see if that helps, I find that my fish have been more willing to breed since I've been feeding frozen and their colours and condition is better too.

 

I was feeding them Aqua Supreme Food - Cichlid Floating Pellets.

All fish changed to male colouration, my venustus and my auratus all became male. I thought I was just unlucky with the juveniles all being male, then I suspected the food.

 

@SethD

Have your females that have previously held fry now got male colouration? Did any of your females develop male colouration while holding? Do you have any young juveniles that are fully coloured up? Do you have pictures?
Sorry for all the questions- just trying to make head or tail of this.
PS- re colour enhancements- natural food can be selected to help with this. Look at foods like Spirulina for your blue and black fish and natural supplementation with carotenoid containing veggies for your yellow/orange/red fish.
I would personally hold back on feeding live food as many mbuna are vegetarian and live foods can cause bloat.
In this regard- what Malawis do you have?

 

I have a fairly heavily stocked community tank, which does not normally induce spawning, but it did for a while. My acei and my albino red top zebras spawned quite successfully.

I had 5 auratus, one showing male colouration. after changing foods, they all changed to male within a couple months. It may be my bad luck, but I thought at least a couple would be female- I now only have 1, gave the rest of the males away as there was too many turf wars happening.

I also had 5 venustus 3 of which looked female to me and they were about 8 cm long. They also changed to male colouration. When I went off the food, the venustus did seem to go back to their female colouration.

I now make up my own food so I know what my fish are getting. The staple food is a veg mix with a little with of shrimp added. I supplement with Spirulina flakes and once or twice a month they get a little bloodworm treat.

I'm busy setting up a tank for the acei only. Once they are in their alone they may start spawning again - if the female is still fertile.

 

Good news. The food has not made the fish sterile. My acei spawned again, buy she only held for a few days before swallowing the eggs.

 

Today I found a holding Albino red top in my main tank - her mouth is full. Guess the food did not have any lasting negative effects.