Lets talk food, storage and quality.

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tricksterpup

It's SPRING!!! BUNNIE RABBITS
Apr 16, 2001
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Minneapolis
tricksterpupstanks.blogspot.com
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Jim Soos
Who else keeps their fish food in the refrigerator? like any food, flake foods go bad eventually. I keep my flake in a small soda fridge just to keep it cool and fresh longer. I also do this with my pelleted food as well. I've also started to buy better foods, such as Extreme's Krill Flakes and I also buy Hikari Fancy Guppy. I no longer feed the cheaper foods such as Tetra. Due to the fact, i've noticed better behavior (more Active) and colors from the higher end foods. I also do a mix of Hikari freeze dried, brine shrimp and tubflex worms, and Frozen foods, daphnia and brine shrimp. So lets talk food. What do you feed your fish, have you noticed changes when you fed them X.. was it good or bad? Lets talk about Fish food. Oh and FYI, I stay away from Blood Worms, frozen/Live/freeze dried/and flake due to a severe allergy.
 

dudley

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Feb 9, 2005
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Dee
I buy the NLS pellet food in the large tubs and keep it in the freezer and get Kensfish flake food in varying 'flavors' and also freeze it. I've been doing this for over 10 years and notice no difference in the fresh odor of the food or the fishes enthusiasm to eat it. I do keep small containers of either food out on the various tanks in opaque containers for daily feedings.

I think as long as any pellet or flake is kept dry and away from sunlight, the quality of the food should be maintained if stored properly.
 

dougall

...
Mar 29, 2005
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My understanding that exposure to ait, as well as light and moisture will affect the quality of the food.

I think that the best way to store food, if you are planning to start with a large amount, is to portion it and store it in air tight containers, in the freezer, and then just use each of those containers as usual.. that tehre is little benefit and likely some detriment to keeping it frozen and taking from a large container each day and then putting back into the freezer.

Also the shape of the food matters... flakes have a much larger surface area than pellets, so there's more chance for them to oxidize or to hold any sort of moisture.
 

the loach

AC Members
Aug 6, 2018
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You forgot temperature Doug. The problem is that a lot of folks keep their food in their fish room (which may be heated up to 80 degrees) or store their food on top of the tank on a fluorescent light. Both will degrade quality faster as opposed to the expiry date.
 

tricksterpup

It's SPRING!!! BUNNIE RABBITS
Apr 16, 2001
1,907
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Minneapolis
tricksterpupstanks.blogspot.com
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Jim Soos
"You forgot temperature Doug. The problem is that a lot of folks keep their food in their fish room (which may be heated up to 80 degrees) or store their food on top of the tank on a fluorescent light. Both will degrade quality faster as opposed to the expiry date."

Not to mention that they have fish oils in them. These eventually spoil. But the Loach is right. Most fish rooms or areas they keep fish in warm. I used to do the same thing and I noticed my fish not doing so well with food kept like this. So i bought better food and started to store it in a Soda Fridge. Fish colors are amazing, they are more active and seem far healthier.
 

dougall

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Mar 29, 2005
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Oops...

I only keep fish at room temperature.. so didn't really think about it.

I certainly don't keep food laying around too terribly long either, in the big scheme of things, it's just easier to not buy in bulk
 

fishorama

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Jun 28, 2006
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SF Bay area, CA
I keep dry powdered Repashy gel food in the freezer. After I mix it I put it small containers that last a week or so. I have frozen bulk dry foods but I don't have so many fish these days. Flakes & pellets I keep away from my tanks but don't freeze them any more & my house is fairly cool. I agree heat & humidity are not good...neither are wet fingers, lol.

I do not feed tubifex in any form, I think they can harbor disease & maybe parasite eggs. I am not a fan of freeze dried foods, too crumbly (brine shrimp) +/or hard to hydrate (black worms) +/or dusty. I also think, if fed often, freeze dried foods can lead to constipation sometimes.

When made my own seafood & beef heart foods I froze them & only thawed what I fed each day. Even the next day in the fridge it was too iffy for my spoiled discus juveniles.
 
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Apr 2, 2002
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New York
At this time 12/19 of my tanks are dedicated to breeding and growing out plecos. One of the tings I have learned over time when it comes to spawning many fish is that the single most important factor is what I feed. To that end I know that the best foods are live and the to worst foods are in the commercial sphere.

I messed around a bit with live, but space and time made me abandon that. What I have discovered are the next best foods to feed are frozen and Repashy. However, feeding a variety of either of these food types is a bit time consuming, at least the way I do it. So I do feed some commercial foods, especially flake in community tanks. As a rule, I try not to feed commercial more than about 15% of the time. I can feed all my tanks with commercial foods in about 5-6 minutes. Frozen foods are more like 15 and Repashy is pushing 20-25 minutes. There are times what I am too tired or busy to feed the good stuff and then commercial is helpful. But too much of this stuff tends to slow or halt spawning.

Frozen food will keep for some time in a freezer- months. Mixed Repashy will also do well frozen for months, but only in the fridge for under 2 weeks. I do keep actively fed commercially foods- flakes and sinking sticks or wafers- at room temperature but, since I buy is bulk, most of these are kept frozen. I do store dry Repashy at room temperature. I do not have a fish room, no basement, so tanks are spread across 4 rooms and two buildings.

I think my feeding methodology is is fine since my fish do spawn regularly and I have a high survival rate for offspring. I attribute being able to get some of my species to spawn directly to diet.

In the quest for decent foods for our fish it is very important to read the ingredients. While commercial foods do require some forms of fillers, where these appear on the ingredient list matters. Also, what is added in terms of vitamins etc. also matters.

One more observation re food and feeding. When I hear or read that a fishkeeper has problems finding food their fish will eat, I am amazed. From my very first tank 20 years ago to this day, my fish have all been pigs. The will try to eat anything and everything they think might be food. The only time I have fish which won't eat is when they are sick or old enough to be closing in on death.

I have watched in a tank with 20+ fish how a piece of something in the water that is not food will be taken in by fish #1 which quickly spits it out. Another nearby fish seeing this will head on over and try to eat this inedible morsal and it too spits it out. Over time every fish in the tank will try to eat this piece of junk. Like I said, they are all pigs. Nor do fish stick to their natural dietary needs. Most fish in my tanks will eat any food that hits the water whether or not it is appropriate for them.
 
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