Feeding Frozen Foods

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?

 

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.

 

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

 

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.

 

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

 

thanks for the info guys/gals.

 

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

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.

 

If your fish will take them, try the . 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.

 

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??

 

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??

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.

 

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.

 

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

 

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

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.)

 

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

I use the freeze dried items to give 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.

 

How do you feed frozen food correctly??

 

Some times I just toss the cube in the tank, and let them go at, frozen. Usually, though, especially if you have don't have enough fish to eat the whole cube, its thawed in a bit of tank water, and some is used, and the rest is put in the fridge for the next day.

 

any frozen food, or something specifically? and what are you feeding? you want to thaw it out. usually put it in a small glass with tank water. I also add some vita-chem and garlic guard, but that's optional. depending on what you're feeding, you can chop it up (if one large piece), or just toss the water in the glass back into the tank. also if you're using the frozen blocks of assorted food (mysis shrimp, bloodworms, etc), you can always cut the block into smaller pieces and keep the leftovers frozen so you use only what you need.

 

I usually put it in a bowl, drop about 5 drops of tank water on it and let it sit there for about 30 minutes. Then I feed.

I use all of the frozen food ( bloodworms ) in one feeding

 

I put the frozen food in a small plastic container (condiment size) and then place that in a slightly larger container of tap water at about 76 degrees. It usually thaws very quickly to about the right temperature. Then I swirl some tank water in to make it easier to pour it in spots around the tank. I use either an entire cube or, when using a small package of baby brine shrimp, I break off a 1/4 " square chunk at a time to feed fry.

 

I use hot tap water that thaws the cube. I add a drop of Prime, sometimes I use Vita Chem in addition. Swirl it around and then use a dropper syringe to feed to the fish.

 

On my frozen food for the fish,it says never to use hot water to thaw the cube because it makes the food lose it's vitamins I think ?

 

I use hot tap water that thaws the cube. I add a drop of Prime, sometimes I use Vita Chem in addition. Swirl it around and then use a dropper syringe to feed to the fish.

That seems like more work to me - the part about adding in prime. Why not use tank water and skip the prime? Just wondering.

 

I don't use tank water since I'm feeding 4 different tanks and didn't want to transfer anything from one tank to another.

My packages of frozen food mention nothing about hot water - just to thaw it and then feed a certain amount depending on how much fish eat in a minute. I feed HikarI cubes (Brine Shrimp, Mysis Shrimp, and Daphnia) and Bloodworms from I believe Sally's.

 

I was feeding brine to 2 clownfish I ended up putting it in a container cap and putting some tank water on it to unthaw it. I only used a little less than half and I even think that was too much just for the two of them but they LOVED it!!!! Ate more of that than they do the solid food!!

 

from what I understand, it has to be thawed before they can eat it...yes?
any specific tips on thawing it ( counter thaw etc)
how thawed does it need to be?

we splurged on a meal for them... bloodworms with other stuff- not for marine fish and not for giant fish like eels, sharks,lionfish, etc.

hope this goes well....

 

I use a small container of tank water to thaw frozen food. Do not thaw on your counter, frozen food spoils quick.

 

I use small plastic dixie cups to thaw, then feed and toss. Alison

 

I find that the frozen food in the small cubes thaws really fast. I cut small pieces off for my bettas and it thaws almost instantly, ready to feed by the time I get to the tank. If you're putting a whole cube in it might take a little longer, but I know from accidental experience that those cubes thaw a LOT faster than I would have thought.

 

I thaw mine in small container with tank water then use a turkey baster or eye dropper (depending on the food) to feed it into the tank

 

that's what we used, the cubes, in the 90 it practically disintegrated- the danios were sad
the 60 its still mostly in tact and my fish are clueless... one has way more red worms than the other.. guess its all hit and miss huh...

 

I will try that next time! thank you

 

Okay you know those frozen cubes of Brine Shrimp, Bloodworms, Daphnia, etc that most LFS carry? Okay, so how many fish is that supposed too feed? I'm trying to determine if I need to do 2 or if 1 is sufficient with a supplement of flakes. Thanks!

For current stock see profile.

 

I'd say start with 1 cube and see how long it takes them all to eat it. If it's under 2-3 mins maybe 2 cubes would be better. General rule of thumb for feedings is no more than the fish can completely consume in 2-3 mins time.

 

Well I know that rule lol. I fed one cube of Blood worms tonight and they gobbled it all up in about a minute and were looking for more. I gave a pinch of flakes (probably 10 or so, crumbled up) and they ate them up too right away, and were still picking at the bottom and stuff looking for more.

 

Yeh, but most of the fish you have are greedy eaters. I would never feed my rainbows and rasbora 2 minutes worth of food, they would explode. Just keep in mind, that their stomachs are only the size of their eyes, but they will eat 5 times that.

 

I feed my 2 angels about 1/4 of a cube of the brine shrimp... other wise there would be way to many floating corpses in my tank

 

This is the feeding schedule that I have come up with. Let me know thoughts and suggestions. I fast the fish on Thursdays but do provide a slice of Cucumber. This is the day before I will do weekly water changes (Friday Morning 25% PWC) once its cycled.

Feeding Schedule	Morning	Night	Catfish Pellets	Algae Wafers	Veggies
Monday	Flake	Frozen Bloodworms	2	0
Tuesday	Flake	Veggie Flake	3	0
Wednesday	Flake	Flake	3	1
Thursday	-	-	0	0	Cucumber
Friday	Flake	Veggie Flake	3	1
Saturday	Flake	Frozen Brine Shrimp	2	0
Sunday	Flake	-	3	1	Romaine

 

I split a single cube of daphnia up among several different tanks, totaling one betta, six rasboras, three angelfish, and seven cories... and I still end up throwing half of it out. I guess it depends on how much you're used to feeding.

 

How do you feed your fish frozen foods such as brine shrimp and blood worms?

 

I use one of those round fish feeder with a Sunny Delight top siliconed to it. Then just drill the bottom with holes. Throw the frozen food in and the fish figure it out. Slow dissolve and no mess. Picture shows top reflection.