Old food

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bozco

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Dec 4, 2003
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A retired petstore owner was selling out all his stock at a garage sale today. I bought alot of fish food, because it was really cheap. $1 for something I pay $8 for at the stores. I picked up literally hundreds of dollars worth of stuff really cheap. Most of it for my birds though

Anyways. I asked him how old the fish food was. He went under about 3 years ago, says that is how old it is. But the food doesn't have an expiry date on it. And it is vaccum sealed dry food. He says his son feeds it to his fish with no problems. I plan on starting to feed it to my guppies, just to see how it goes, then if everythig seems fine, I'll feed it to my other more expensive fish.

Any thoughts on feeding this? I'm trying it anyways, but some opionions would be nice.
 

NatakuTseng

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Well a few things need to be asked I guess. Was the packaging in a clear container or in a container that light can't penetrate? Also what brand(s) is it? The problem with a container that lets light in is that, it starts to break the food down, and becomes less and less nutritional over time, and despite the fact that it is vaccum sealed oxygen can still get in there and also start to break the food down. Some of the better brands out there take this stuff into consideration when packing their products.
 

LGooley

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I would be careful when using it. Maybe test sample it on a couple of fish that are separate. Consider this....Would you eat a three year old bag of potato chips because it is vaccuum sealed?;)
 

aquariumfishguy

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The "standard" rule is if the food has been around for more than 1 year, pitch it. Thats one of the very few rules I live by when it comes to my fish. I won't take chances when it comes to the food they eat. ;)
 

QCppg

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Originally posted by LGooley
I would be careful when using it. Maybe test sample it on a couple of fish that are separate. Consider this....Would you eat a three year old bag of potato chips because it is vaccuum sealed?;)
Me, yes. Most people, no. Slim Jims taste better after they've aged 4-5 years...

Smell it, see if it smells like the fresh kind. If the smell is off it is decomposed and worthless.
 

bozco

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They are in opaque containers. Nutrafin and Tetra are the brands. The very first thing I did when I opened the first few containers was smell them and they smell exactly like my fresher food. I did turf the tubiflex cubes because they aren't completely dry and they stunk really bad when I opened the container. Feeding the guppies and one raspbora on it and they seem fine.

Why don't fish foods have expiry dates? All my bird foods do.
 

bozco

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Originally posted by aquariumfishguy
Who knows. :)

But since you mention they were in an opaque container, that alone would prompt me to pitch em.
Why would you say that? NatakuTseng just told me that if they were in transparent (clear) containers that it was not a good idea. In these containers, being opaque, light can't get to them, so why would that make you throw them away?
 
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