Shark & Ray Product Updates & FAQs

Mazuri Shark & Ray Product Updates & FAQs PDF

5MD8 Replacement Product ChartWhat’s are your options for sharks, rays, and skates? How do I best choose to best fit my needs?

5MD8 Bottles

Mazuri Shark and Ray supplements are designed to provide nutrients deficient in fish-based diets, with vitamin E, thiamin, and iodine being the most important. All our supplements give directions on the ratio of tablets to amount of food fed.
Recommendation: Mazuri Shark & Ray Supplement (5MD8)

  • This is our most up-to-date supplement formula and the one we highly recommend. It incorporates the most recent elasmobranch nutrition developments and comes in two sizes to help fit the needs of different-sizes fish.
    • Two tablet sizes:
      • 0.2 g – Best for when feeding small fish or if you have certain individuals that are really picky about tablets in their food and frequently spit them out. The smaller tablets are harder for them to pick out.
      • 1.5 g – Best for efficiently supplementing animals eating a lot of food or eating large-sized fish

What is the difference between 5M24 and 5MD8?

5MD8 is our most updated Shark and Ray Supplement and is the formula we recommend for customers just getting started with using our Shark/Ray supplements. 5M24 was the first-generation formula, and we had many aquariums use this formula successfully in the past. 5MD8 was formulated to better complement the nutrient profile of fish typically fed to sharks and rays in aquariums.

5MD8 Chart

 

 

What is the difference between 58QZ and 5MD8?

We recommend using the Shark/Ray tablet (5MD8). Shark/Ray II with iodine (58QZ) is a higher iodine version of 5MD8 that some of our customers, based on their husbandry/food/water quality circumstances and clinical signs, started using. We’ve found that the Shark/Ray tablet 5MD8 works well to meet the needs for the majority of sharks and rays under human care.

Do the shark and ray supplements provide enough vitamin A even when gutted fish are fed?

The tablets provide plenty of vitamin A to meet shark and ray requirements, even when gutted fish are fed.

There is not a tablet for gutted vs whole fish. These tablets have worked very well for over 20 years. The supplements were designed to meet the nutrition requirements of shark/rays in collaboration with veterinarians at various aquariums looking at the daily intake of what they believed the Shark & Rays needed at that time. While there are nutrition requirements out there for Elasmobranchs, it must be kept in mind that there has been not a study to actually determine the Vitamin A requirement of shark or rays. Much like a polar bear, they are able to handle very high levels of vitamin A as they are a top predator in the food chain and have evolved in eating very high vitamin A levels in their daily diet.