# Naturose Discontinued by Manufacturer



## UmbraSprite (Mar 2, 2007)

Bad news!!!

The folks who manufacture Naturose have discontinued the animal grade product in lieu of a "for human consumption" version which sells at 10X the cost.  

I am looking into alternate supplies but this means basically the cost of this stuff is going to go up for all of us. I will keep everyone updated on what I find out.

Chris


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## elscotto (Mar 1, 2005)

Chris-
Thanks very much for the update. Do you know the shelf life of this stuff? Is excess powder best preserved sealed in the fridge? Frozen? Thanks.


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## UmbraSprite (Mar 2, 2007)

Not sure about temperature. I do know you should seal it air tight and protect from light. I would assume room temp is acceptable under the previously mentioned conditions.

Chris


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## Rain_Frog (Apr 27, 2004)

looks like we may have to go back to cyclops for tadpoles. :roll: 

Chris, so you're saying they're going to "keep" Naturose, just make a different grade that is fit for human consumption?


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## UmbraSprite (Mar 2, 2007)

Naturose was the name of their animal grade product. Bio-Astin is the human grade and brings in a price about 10x of the Naturose. Here is a link...

http://www.cyanotech.com/news/news_032608.html


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## tzen (Nov 22, 2007)

So the problem is the natural astaxanthin made from algea just can't compete in the animal feed market with synthetic astaxanthin.

Listed synthetics are:
Carophyll Pink from DMS 
Lucantin Pink from BASF.

Lots of facinating stuff about astaxanthin on wikipedia.
Anyway, could you get & offer them?


(Although I'm not to sure why I'm asking. All I have are azureus.)


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## Dancing frogs (Feb 20, 2004)

My opinion:
Even at 10x the cost, it is still not extremely expensive for a hobbiest doing it for fun, and not trying to make a living out of it.
I mean, I use maybee at most 1/4 of a teaspoon per week...all my frogs that are able to eat fruitflies get a little every week...and I don't think I'd see much difference in the frogs if I went to 10-12 day intervals instead of weekly.
Yeah, it does suck that naturose is being discontinued, but my comment is just to draw things into perspective.

My first order of naturose was a 2 oz. jar, and lasted a good year (at the above feeding intervals)...not even trying to conserve it...monkeyed around putting some in ff cultures here and there, making gutloads etc., and I don't think most would consider my collection small at all.

I know the chemical sources are "safe" at proper dosages....but my frogs will never be subject to them...I'm an organic kinda guy.
If I find the human grade too expensive, I'll just go back to cyclop-eeze...even though it doesn't stick to the flies nearly as well (but still works).


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## Dancing frogs (Feb 20, 2004)

Just tried looking around for straight powder bioastin, to see how much a year's supply (2oz) would cost me...but couldn't find any straight powder...only gel caps :roll: 
I propose a group buy of bioastin when I run out of what I have left...(couple years from now probably).


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## Ed (Sep 19, 2004)

A quick search for powdered astaxanthin pulled up natural astaxanthin on http://www.jehmco.com/html/powders__spi ... nkton.html 

This could very well be repackaged naturose but you can always get some repackage it and freeze it. 

If you search around you can get some bulk suppliers. 

Ed


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## gary1218 (Dec 31, 2005)

Just as an FYI, the Jehmco company Ed just referenced above is an excellent company to do business with. I bought many a supply from them in my fish keeping days. Excellent service and always there to answer your questions.


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## UmbraSprite (Mar 2, 2007)

I am currently investigating bulk suppliers of astaxanthin. My main concerns are quality and cost. I dug around quite a bit looking for Naturose and the distributor I was using was considerably cheaper than the others. I don't think it will impossible to replace the stuff....but the price is going to go up.


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## KeroKero (Jun 13, 2004)

What about the possibilities of having you buy in bulk and sell in different sized quantities yourself? One of the things mentioned above is that a little goes a very long way... Just wondering because 2oz would obviously be $$$ and how many of us can use all that in a year? Smaller collections might not need more than an oz or so... smaller quantity, smaller price, less waste. You might pay the same amount for 1oz after the price change as you would the 2oz originally, but at least it would be in a more usable quantity?

Or would the repackaging cause issues since it should be in sealed containers and lacking light? (Can't think of any el cheapo containers that can be used off the top of my head but I'm sure there is something).


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## UmbraSprite (Mar 2, 2007)

My distributor has some Naturose left but has increased the price 45%. The minimum packaging is .5 kilograms. I will go ahead and buy out the remaining stock. I think I can absorb the price increase if I can get a deal on shipping. Might as well just do it as, like Aquarian flake back in the day, we aren't going to have access anymore. Hopefully we will find an affordable alternative.

I will let you guys know when I get it in...

Chris


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## UmbraSprite (Mar 2, 2007)

Ok...

I bit the bullet and bought up some of the remaining Naturose stock. To get a better price (they doubled it) I had to buy in bulk. I mean BULK! 10 lbs to be exact and thats ALOT of Naturose. So...I will have it for sale at NAAC and would appreciate you guys spreading the word to anyone who may be interested. 

Chris


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