Quality of Cyclop-eeze

[phender]

I bought a 750 gm block of frozen Cyclop-eeze a couple months ago and to my surprize, the block contained about 50% foreign material. It sort of looked like brine shrimp pieces, but I thought the cyclops that are used are freshwater. I emailed Argent to see what the filler was and if it was a new policy. They assured me it was a mistake that must have happened at the collection site and offered me a partial credit.
Unfortunately, I bought another block yesterday and it had the same problem. I would be more confident in feeding it if I knew the foreign material was actually food.
Anyone else had this problem recently?

[mano]

Hmmm... My last order of the 750 g blocks (I buy the case of 7 since I have lots of hungry seahorses) had a couple of blocks in it that had foreign matter too. It looked to me like bird feathers and then some other smaller stick-like things. I just picked the stuff out as best I could, didn't bother contacting Argent, but probably should have to get some credit too. I just received my lastest order today actually but haven't used any yet to see what the quality is like. I know I had to wait a few more days to get some because they had run out, so maybe if you got another block it would be cleaner?

Christine

[Fishboy42]

I've always found a few bird feathers and other unidentifiable objects in the freeze-dried product, but it was never a significant percentage and never seemed to do any harm.

This year's harvest is just being shipped out now, so hopefully everyone's suppliers will have fresh product and you will be able to get some "pure" cyclop-eeze.

[Atticus]

wow never ran into that....

[mwp]

Actually, this latest block I'm on has a higher percentage of little unidentified "things" in it besides the nice red cyclopeze...granted it took me almost a year to go through my first one, but yeah, now that you mention it, the quality of my more recently purchased Cyclopeze does seem to have dropped a bit, not that the fish seem to mind. Never found anything like FEATHERS though!

Matt

[Fishboy42]

Yeah, definitely feathers, surprised me too! Usually small "down" feathers; I've always seen a few and just thought they were a "standard" contaminant. Christine and I are the only two with feathers in our fish food?!

Matt

[mano]

I can see how the feathers could get in there during the collection process so I didn't really think too much about it. Matt's right, they are "down" looking feathers though. And all this time I thought it was just me that got the special feather prize!

Christine

[Atticus]

You would think they would at least screen it once after it's collected for the price they charge...

[ediaz]

so that was it?.... feathers....

[spawner]

They harvest these guys from a few lakes way up north, open to everything wild, I'm sure the birds knew about the lakes long before the humans did. Maybe their harves rates are way up. Wonder what the effect of harvesting all that biomass out has on the local populations.

[BruceW]

Cracker Jackeez a surprize in every block :-).

All mine have always been only red never seen feathers.

[phender]

I have gotten feathers in mine before as well, but this is not feathers.
Here is the pic I sent to Argent. (I didn't know I had saved it)
Its about 50% cyclops and about 50% what looks like brine shrimp pieces.
http://home.earthlink.net/~philhenderson/ForSale/Cyclop.jpg

[spawner]

I would email that picture to Argent.

[Kathy55g]

I've found single feathers in the dry stuff.

[Fishboy42]

I've seen "veins" of these copepods in the North Atlantic in the open ocean. It seems that they collect where currents converge in incredibly dense swarms, so I'm sure the currents bring a lot of debris, including bird feathers, together into the mix. I assume that similar things happen where cyclop-eeze is collected. I collected some copepods in the arctic last summer north of Iceland--looks exactly like cyclop-eeze under the scope, although I'm no copepod taxonomist :) Spawner does have an interesting question; I also wonder how it affects the local biology that so much biomass is harvested for this product.

Wow Phil, I've never seen it like that before.

I just opened up a couple of freeze-dried cans tonight--it looks like a powder--the consistency of flour, and it's orange and not red like it usually is....I've never seen this before either, and I've been through many pounds of the stuff...anyone else? I'm going to call Argent tomorrow and see if they can tell me anything about it. It's useless for me as it is...

[Morgman]

Phil,

Throw that under a microscope. Maybe that will help you out!!