lyndatu

Hello

We have 3 fishes in our 7-gallon quarantine tank to prepare to populate my empty 20-gallon tank: a male guppy, an albino pleco, and a newly-bought ghost shrimp. When the first time I fed my guppy some flakes in his 1st day in the tank, he ate. I gave my pleco a veggie round and he ate it, as well as my guppy. But when I tried to feed them flakes the next days, they didn't eat. My newly-bought shrimp doesn't want to scavenge too. Well........

The fish flakes and other fish foods we have are all several months old.........

The guppy probably ate the first day because it's very hungry.......and the veggie round we gave them are freshly cooked. I think my fish food is moldy.......we've been having these for lots of months........we keep them in small bottles. Is my food moldy, or are my fish just picky eaters? If the food is indeed moldy, what do I do with the moldy food? My parents are going to get mad at me.......

Thanks in advance!

COBettaCouple

After about 6 months at the most, the nutrients really aren't in the food anymore. Perhaps that's why they're not interested in it now. If they were moldy, you would see mold on the flakes so it's probably just time to replace the food. It doesn't mean you didn't take good care of keeping the food good, it just only lasts for so long before needing replaced.

lyndatu

Thanks! My parents understand. We'll going to buy new food for the fishes. But, therein lies a problem: What to do with the old and non-nutritious food? Will I throw them away, or do they have other uses?

Thanks in advance!

COBettaCouple

You're welcome. Old food can be used for cycling new tanks, rather than spending money on new food that is going to not be eaten. I have some containers of old food for that purpose.