MudHog

What do I need to do to feed frozen foods to my fish? I went buy a pack of bloodworms at my LFS and have them sitting in the freezer. Do I need to break the cube in pieces or just drop a cube in the tank or half a cube, etc? Do I need to heat it or let it sit in water for any time to thaw some?

poppet

Hi here is some info i found for you.

The intestinal lining of all fish is very sensitive and does not tolerate cold food very well. To serve frozen food properly, we suggest you thaw it first before feeding it to your fish. The following is our recommended procedure for feeding frozen food.

Decide how much food you’re going to use and place it in a plastic dish and leave it out to thaw for 30 minutes or so. Never leave it out any longer or it will spoil. Thawed food can be left in the refrigerator for two days maximum, any food left longer than that should be thrown away.

Butterfly

I take how ever much I'm going to feed and let it soak until thawed, then drop it in a net and rinse with a bit of tank water,blot with a paper towel(so it doesn't drip) then feed bits at a time to my fish using my finger tips.
Carol

Fishface

i fill an unused solo cup with a few milliliters of tank water and put the cube in it for a good 15 min to let it thaw. then i use a toothpick to handfeed my fish one by one. that way, I make sure there is no waste food.

Butterfly

Some people are allergic to bloodworms so if you start itching after/while handling them wash your hands really good immediately.This is unusual but it does happen.
Carol

MudHog

thanks for the info guys/gals.

COBettaCouple

It gets both of us, doesn't take much to get the itching going so we have to use tweezers to feed them to our Bettas.

Luniyn

If your fish will take them, try the freeze dried blood worms. My fish LOVE them and you don't have to worry about thawing, itching (maybe... depends on the level of your allergy), or parasites and bacteria in them.

Muffymouse

I'd been wondering about that too, Thanks for asking it =)) But still seeming unanswered is how much at a time?? Is there any good way to gage an amount per fish??

COBettaCouple

We would put a cube into a sealable container of room temp. water, then feed a few to each betta, seal the container and store it in the fridge. Since they're not an everyday food and more of a treat, we still are going to end up tossing a bit of them when they hit 6 months.

MudHog

Well I fed my kids last night their first treat of bloodworms. They inhaled them as I was feeding them. I took a plastic cup and got some water out hte tank, then let the cube thaw out in the tank water. After 15 or so minutes I poured it into my fish net. Then used some tweezers to grab them and put in the tank. My Cherry Barbs really impressed me as they got aggressive and was in the middle of the Tiger Barb school to get some. Normally with flakes they just wait toward the bottom for the current to take the flakes downward.

I will look into the freeze dried bloodworms and possibly go that route once this pack is used up.

Butterfly

Most fish love bloodworms and how much depends on the fish your feeding. If their small then just a few each, larger fish of course could have a few more and used only as treats. If they are being conditioned to breed they can have a few each day for several days. Some times the freeze dried bloodworms seemed to constipate my fish faster than frozen. I thought it was maybe because they are dry and absorb moisture from their stomachs. I still use them but not as often as frozen. Hope that helps.
Carol

COBettaCouple

we feed those 1x a week to our bettas, even the finicky ones only get them 2-3x a week (they also get pea dinners 2-3x while the rest get it once.)

Luniyn

I use the freeze dried items to give liquid vitamins to my fish. So there isn't as much of a concern. Also you can pre-soak them in water which will help as well. I've been searching for a good source of fiber for my tetras (my cory cats and dwarf gourami get plenty from the shrimp pellets and spirulina pellets they eat) and thought I had found it in the Mysis shrimp from Omega One. Unfortunately though they seem to like it, it's too large for them to eat more then one piece here and there and it's hard to break up into small bite sized pieces. But in any event, a good source of fiber will help keep the constipation problems at bay, but yeah that is a concern.