Sergeant's Pet Care Products Inc. is voluntarily removing some ornamental and aquarium fish food products from retail store shelves. A portion of some production lots of Atlantis Goldfish Flake Food and Atlantis Tropical Fish Flake Food have been found to contain the contaminant melamine. Melamine was the chemical recently found in cat and dog foods causing the nationwide pet food recall and leading to illness and death in some cats and dogs.
"Given the uncertain nature of the effect of melamine, the high visibility of this ingredient at this time and Sergeant’s concern for the health and well-being of pets, we believe that removal of the Atlantis product from store shelves is the right thing to do,” said Robert Scharf, president of Sergeant's Pet Care Products Inc.
Sergeant's said the levels of melamine are very low and probably pose little danger to fish, citing Denise Petty, Aquaculture Extension Veterinarian at the University of Florida.
“At this time, it is not known if melamine contaminated fish feed has any effect on ornamental fish,” she said. “It is unknown if melamine forms crystals in the kidneys of fish.”
Sergeant's has advised all national and international distributors and retailers who carry Atlantis fish food products to remove the products and that consumers either discard or return the product to the store.
Sergeant’s is looking at its manufacturing facility in Taiwan to determine the source of the contamination.
The affected Atlantis fish food products are listed below. The numbers in parentheses are the last five digits of the UPC code.
* Atlantis Tropical Fish Flake Food, 0.88 oz. (10006)
* Atlantis Tropical Fish Flake Food, 2.25 oz. (10057)
* Atlantis Goldfish Flake Food, 0.75 oz. (10154)
* Atlantis Goldfish Flake Food, 2.15 oz. (10731)
* Atlantis Color Enhance Tropical Fish Flake Food, 0.88 oz. (10847)
* Atlantis Betta Food, 1.2 oz. (10926)
* Atlantis Tropical Fish Flake Food, 0.42 oz. (88515)
* Atlantis Goldfish Flake Food, 0.42 oz. (88516)
For more information go to www.sergeants.com.