My slings like fishfood...

[malhomme]

The gelatin is similar to what water crystals are made of, and poses no danger to the tarantula. The flakes already have binders in them anyway. I've fed gel foods to snails, shrimps and other invertebrates and they thrived on them.

I think you've made an great suggestion to try using gelatin.

I'm not busting chops, just pointing this out in case someone tries making this out of water crystals: gelatin and "water crystals" are not the same thing at all. Gelatin is food safe and "water crystals" are not.

"Water crystals" are polyacrylamide, i.e. polymerized acrylamide. Acrylamide is a neurotoxin which remains unpolymerized (in small amounts) in these gels. This is why it's not food safe.

Gelatin, on the other hand, is a form of collagen that is obviously wholesome. Agar would make an acceptable vegan substitute for gelatin, should anyone be concerned about feeding critters to their spider.

I hope this helps. Again, great idea Scott.

 

[esotericman]

"Water crystals" are polyacrylamide, i.e. polymerized acrylamide. Acrylamide is a neurotoxin which remains unpolymerized (in small amounts) in these gels. This is why it's not food safe.

I've been saying that for years, but folks want to ignore it. I wouldn't be shocked to find out it's the reason behind "dyskinetic syndrome".

Gelatin is used in many frozen fish foods, mostly for marine fish.

 

[JC]

I've been saying that for years, but folks want to ignore it. I wouldn't be shocked to find out it's the reason behind "dyskinetic syndrome".

+1

But as far as I am concerned, the most likely cause of DKS are airborne chemicals.

 

[LeilaNami]

+1

But as far as I am concerned, the most likely cause of DKS are airborne chemicals.

I've spoken with one of my professors on DKS. While there can be numerous reasons he mostly witnesses DKS when the spider is dehydrated to the point that it can't recover.

 

[micheldied]

I've been saying that for years, but folks want to ignore it. I wouldn't be shocked to find out it's the reason behind "dyskinetic syndrome".

Gelatin is used in many frozen fish foods, mostly for marine fish.

Wow, I didn't know that. Thank you.
But we supply our feeders with these their entire lives(til' they get eaten, of course), and then we feed them to our Ts and such?

 

[esotericman]

Exactly. I've been saying it for years, I suppose I could find the posts... but yes, the ASSUMPTION is that all chemical is harmless because it is polymerized.

Dehydration and heat shock both have been well supported for the imaginary "disease" DKS, the issue are those animals which are not dehydrated, nor over heated, nor immatures (removing genetic/developmental issues).

Back to the thread topic, how are the experiments going to separate the "food" source being fish food or the gelatin? Gelatin as noted is a water carrier. What control is being proposed for that?

If we're going "to do" science, let's not muck around. Controls and sample size, a thing which even post-docs often need to have explained to them.

 

[malhomme]

Polyacrylamide

Even if the risk is low, I certainly wouldn't eat a helping of it everyday. That's why I stopped giving it to my dubias.

 

[PrimalTaunt]

Forgot to update here, the betta flakes failed for me. I'll still keep them around though in case the LPS runs out of crickets again.