[wozza]

its the one at the bottom of the page is it any good?

STM Kent

cheers james

[Ninong]

The manufacturer makes the following statement: "Vitamin C is often deficient in aquariums in which no previous supplementation has been done."

(P.S. -- Sorry! I looked at the one at the TOP of the page! So all of this applies to their Vitamin C product that they want you to add to the water column daily. I have no experience with any of their vitamin products but I have used Selcon.)

I wonder what the basis is for that claim??? I didn't know seawater contained Vitamin C. I guess we learn something new every day.

I have used Selcon, a liquid multi-vitamin supplement, as an additive to fish food. I simply add a few drops to the small cup that I soak the fish food in before using it to feed the fish. I frequently add about 1/8 tsp of finely minced fresh garlic, too. The fish will actually eat the tiny pieces of garlic!

Joyce Wilkerson, in her book Clownfishes, relates using fresh lime juice to soak pieces of fish and other seafood that she intends to use for her home-made food recipe. The lime juice is an excellent source of Vitamin C. She soaks the food in the refrigerator for about 24 hours, then she rinses off the seafood pieces in a sieve under running water before throwing them in a blender to be chopped into tiny pieces. She adds other ingredients and then freezes the whole mess in the freezer. She grates off just as much of the frozen food concoction as she needs to feed the fish at feeding time.

I don't doubt that Vitamin C might be helpful as a dietary supplement, I just question the claim that an aquarium can be deficient in something that is not found in natural seawater. I have no opinion on whether is is good or bad or neither to add vitamin C to the water column daily but I suspect it would be more effective as a food additive in the food the fish eat. That's why I would prefer one of the multi-vitamins, such as Selcon.

[leebca]

Vitamin C is an important immune booster to fishes. See: Fish Immune Boosters.

It should be in any good multi-vitamin mix I proposed in: Feeding Marine Fish and Fish Nutrition

Selcon and Zoecon (the "con" is the tip off) are both fat additives with some vitamins. The best choice is to use a vitamin supplement routinely AND a fat supplement routinely.

Vitamin C needs to be stabilized in order to have any effect as a tank additive. Unstabilized, the Vitamin C quickly degenerates. The tank additions of this vitamin are not needed. Just optional.