Frozen Food

Stingray · 05-31-2008, 09:24 AM

When we unfreeze a cube of say mysis shrimp for our fish, after we feed them through out the day, is it ok to put whats left over in the fridge for the morning feed or would this be to cold for the fish?

Tangster · 05-31-2008, 10:06 AM

No its not to cold , Are you rinsing these in a net with R/O water ? Tell uoi waht add a little of the juice they are packed in to a PO4 and NO3 test see what you get .. I'd get away from frozen meats and get them on a good blanced enriched flake food thats all we feed and have for yrs.

BluePhish · 05-31-2008, 10:12 AM

i dont think it would be a big problem, maybe just let it sit out for a min befor feeeding.
FYI i feed alot of frozen foods,
i have a cup, and at the start of the week i toss a few cubes into it, a cube of mysis,cube of enriched brine shrimp, squid, what ever else i feel liike. then i run it under hot water and strain it threw some screen. really helps to clean frozen food befor you add it to the tank.,then i add some tank water to it,just a lil. and i feed with a turkey baster.( i have lots of finicky eaters), after im done i put the cup in the freezer, then let it sit out a little the next day befor to thaw out.
ive also recently started adding fresh garlic to the mixture, for a neon goby who got ick from cleaning a tang. it cleared up in a matter of days and has not returned.
def alot more info then you asked for sorry.

my nitrates are at zero, i feed every day, no algae problems. and fish have always been fat and healthy, (i also add cyclopeze to it sometimes, and when i feed the corals)
the ick was not do to poor conditions, it was introduced on the tang, let just say the tang is back at the store and a sixline is in his place. as of yesterday!!

double2mk · 05-31-2008, 10:13 AM

Hey Tangster.
If rinsed in a net with R/O does that help enough to keep using ? Everyone love the Mysys and Brine, I hate to limit them to flake. My PO4 is only .05 but its not 0. I used 1 cube a day at night with Flake in the morning.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tangster

No its not to cold , Are you rinsing these in a net with R/O water ? Tell uoi waht add a little of the juice they are packed in to a PO4 and NO3 test see what you get .. I'd get away from frozen meats and get them on a good blanced enriched flake food thats all we feed and have for yrs.

BluePhish · 05-31-2008, 10:35 AM

not to take anything away from the vast endless knowledge that tangster has, but just in my experience flake food always seems to have a lot uneaten pieces left. some sink, some dont, some get stuck under the rim of the tank that decay if you dont wipe it. ive never feed flake food to any of the fish ive owned even growing up with freshwater tanks. it always seemed to foul the tank more to me. this just might be my luck, who knows if the same is good for you. just got to make sure the frozen is enriched with vitamins.
(most of it now is enriched.)

YES DEF RINSE RINSE RINSE THIS IS KEY!!!

Tangster · 05-31-2008, 11:01 AM

The rinse removes some of the PO4 and NO3 the pollutants from the food . If you as many feel animals need a variety of flavor or that they like a certain food better ? First off animals could care less about flavor or taste or smell even.. People try to Humanize animals for some reason .

Like lets look at pond or pen grown wild Salmon and Trout , Catfish Koi to mollies the man made pellets supply far more nutrients and aids health much better in captivity then they would ever get in the wild this also applies to Cow chickens dogs cats parrakeet's to hamsters its a totally balanced feed . as is a good fish flake .. As for serving any fish food cold from the fridge Hell how many defrost their Brine and other shrimps to planktons most just toss the frozen cube into the water I did and do on a rare occasion I ever feed it. But I have filtration and denitrater coils in place so its not a huge concern for myself..

As for when I feed flakes seems so is always left over . There is always some frozen meat left over as well .. Then on the other hand they will eat a frozen snack faster then they will whats good for them also. Like put a plate of proper food in front or a todays adult and then a pizza or a bowl of chicken wings now what do you think will be eaten totally and faster ? Or lets say a cat or dog feed them a bowl of dry good for them food or a bowl of soft mighty dog or cat or table scraps ! what will they eat the faster ? Look these animals are in your care like a child is now ever try to make a child choose between Mc Donald's or Pizza Hut or healthy meal ? But being humans there is a element of taste preference .. Short and long in all my time in this hobby I find as with most people they simple feed their tanks to death. Hell just look at the Fat dogs and Cats that people keep now .. hell look at some of their owners (:

Animals will eat and or act starved all the time as its their Nature to eat what they can when they can as it may be days if not weeks until next time the feed and they have to fight and move to get it then.. (: We /I feed 99.99 % a balanced flake to my tanks and I feed the corals the settlement in the sumps nightly never any sick fish or starving corals . Or water problems thats what I have learned in real world time with aquariums , animals and children..

Oh P.S if anyone ever has /had a problem with flakes sticking up under the rim of a tank there are several problems with that statement. First off that tells me you are simple tossing the flakes onto the waters surface ? I pinch mine to a wet glob then let it start to sink thats what triggers the feeding area of the fishes brain , The floating sinking movement triggers the feeding instinct theses being reef fish they seldom feed on surface matter they are used to currents moving the food around or back and forth.

And food up under the rim ? tells me you are slack on surface water movement and might want to look into that .. You toss flakes inti my system its either pulled down from currents or its sucked to the overflows to the pump then back to the main tank I use nothing to filter that .. its in through and out the sump all but the skimmer water that is.. But nothing hangs around at the surface. (:

mr40g · 05-31-2008, 11:19 AM

speechless.

double2mk · 05-31-2008, 11:20 AM

Yikes, thats alot of info...

OK, I am happy feeding flakes as I would save money anyway.
What about the fish type that say " Feed Mysis, Brine, ect ? "
Is it a nutritional thing or finiky thing ?

All mine eat the flakes, but they freek over the Mysis.

If they can be healthy with the flakes, I am fine with that.
'I am just trying to keep everyone healthy at this point.

Cheers

Tangster · 05-31-2008, 11:46 AM

Look I came a rats ass of just deleting that whole post ,, I know it will stir someone up. But I deal in common sense and experience gained from yrs of working with theses animals . Now some fish will never accept any unnatural food and some of them can be weaned and or trained . I have had tangs over the years to just starve to death and never acclimate to tank life . But in general on the whole on average I feed totally flakes, Now that being said we had a powder blue Young and was about starved to death and would not eat flakes I got hit attention with Frozen Brine totally worth as a food source no nutritional value at all. I soaked it in antibiotics and Cod liver oil It took several weeks to get him to look at it. But he started to peck and more and more he perked up. Then when I had him fat and healthy the others in the tank had gotten spilled to the meats stuff . i started cutting the meat back out until it was all flakes again and has been sine last yr or so. You do what you have to do to keep them alive then when you get them healthy then you wean them.

I'm a old farm boy I have had to teach may kinds of animals to eat un-natural foods until they where weaned .. But My horses always where better off with Purina horse chow then on sweet feed or Omileen or natural orchard grass alone .. They would kill to get to the sweet feed and corn over the oats and hay But it not a balanced diet. That applied to our cows chickens and even our racing pigeons they had a balanced unnatural diet daily to fly 500 miles natural food would never do ..

BluePhish · 05-31-2008, 12:13 PM

you say that frozen is more like pizza and what not. if you look at a quality enriched frozen food then a quality flake food, find alot of the same stuff.
i kinda see it as the flake is like a hotdog bunch of stuff mashed and processed together.lol
the frozen is like steak and your side of vitamins.

no this is proly totally inaccurate.follow tangsters advice. i really dont even want to attempt to switch, because the fish i have. dragonets, plus my sixline, and coral goby.