Can fish food go bad? Specifically medicated food?

Awhile back I bought some used tanks and with them were a lot of 'supplies'. There was a bottle of Anti-Parasite medicated fish food by Jungle. The copyright date is 2004. I can't find any other numbers or stamps to indicate a 'use by' time.

The only reason I inquiring about it is because I have a couple of female guppies that are flashing. They have been in the same tank for over a month with 2 other female guppies. All 4 have given birth at least twice, maybe more, I've never been able to observe it unfortunately. But every few days I see at least a couple of newborns. There are no external signs on the 2 that are flashing a lot. No inflamed gills, no injuries or 'spots'. They eat vigorously like the others. I noticed them flashing about a week ago.

I have 0 ammonia and 0 nitrite. Nitrate varies between 20-50 at the highest. I've done multiple water changes this week but they still are scratching. I lost one female about a week ago to dropsy. Other than that, the water is clear. Ramshorn and mystery snails are growing amazingly fast. Guppy babies are growing fast. I know it would be hard to tell but I can't find evidence of a single baby dying (other than probably getting ate, but for the most part the 4 females leave the newborns alone).

So as a precaution I was wondering if it would be OK to try some of this medicated food? I know it's cheap enough to buy fresh, but I buy all my supplies online and it will be a week before it could get here.

Thoughts?

platytudes said:

It would be ok to try, although that food tastes pretty awful to begin with

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So how do YOU know? :grinyes:

Thanks for the tips.

Ok, I'll toss it. I don't think it really is bad in that it's the equivalent of spoiled or something, but I agree that the actual medication in it is probably no longer active or have any potency. I used to always wonder why prescription pills have an expiration date. I mean it's a dry pill that can't evaporate but doing a basic quick research showed that chemicals used to make them go inert (lose it's power/ability).

I've still been doing water changes. Nitrates are like 10-20 before doing the next change and they are still flashing. And it's just the same two females. The other two females are not flashing at all (that I have seen and I have been spending a lot of time staring at this tank watching all the cute babies .

And as mentioned, there's no outward appearances of any ich or anything. They look great over all, very healthy, active, eating very well and having babies. I haven't had a male in the tank in almost a month. I'm trying to give the females a break but they're still pushing out babies like there's no tomorrow (I know they store sperm, but when does it run out? LOL)

I'm raising some mystery and ramshorn snails in this one tank too (and they help to clean up all the extra food as I tend to overfeed a little to ensure the tiniest ones are getting enough to eat). Can the snails tolerate any amount of salt? Or will I need to remove them all first?

jm1212 said:

My guess is that they are still adjusting to the water chemistry in the tank. Changes in water can sometimes irritate the fish.

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A month to get used to the water chemistry?