Question about feeding frozen foods

T

TeaPea

AC Members
Aug 26, 2002
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Brightwaters, NY
Took a trip to lfs store last night, bought 3 georgous "Albino Cherry Barb's" (don't know how they're Albino because they're a lovely pink color)and also bought some frozen brine shrimp.

The package says "any food that is left after an hour must be removed from the aquarium..."

How the heck do you know what is left over? It's like little specks, and it settles to the bottom. This confused me. I just did a water change yesterday and the only way I can think of to remove the uneaten food would be to do another p/water change.

Do you all really do a water change after feeding frozen food?

Also, I made the mistake of breaking off a little piece and dropping it in the tank, not realizing how much would come out of that piece! Next time I'm just going to "swirl" the end of the frozen package in the tank like it suggests on the instructions... Even still it was a very small piece that i put in and I don't think there was that much left over...but I really can't tell!
 
I don't do water changes after every feeding. I have bottom feeders that make sure nothing goes uneaten, as well as snails to help clean up.

One way to improve feeding of frozen foods is to use a small jar with a lid. Scoop up some tank water, and thaw the food in the jar. Now you can use a small baster to suck up an appropriate amount to feed, and put the rest in the fridge for future feedings. Food will stay good for a week if covered (which also helps with odors!). I use a small jar that had marinated artichokes in it.
 
Great idea, Orion Girl, about the jar. It helps that I have an 8 month old and about a zillion baby food jars that I've been saving for...something (ok now I'll have a zillion jars minus one). Thanks for the suggestion!
 
Anyone know any good sites for an introduction to live and frozen foods, which fish prefer them, and how to rank them. For instance, all my books refer to tubifex worms, but most suggestions about them on-line seem to indicate that they should be avoided...

For instance, this a question that I've been too embarrassed to ask before, but can the brine shrimp survive the freezing? Are they alive when you drop them in the water (assuming the've been thawed)???

Thanks,

Val
 
I just answered something about frozen brine shrimp on another site last week. First off it is dead shrimp and will not come back to life. My water tests at about 80ppm to 120ppm hardness; when I thaw out shrimp in a small container I always rinse it off. A few times! This week I did a little testing of the water. The water that the thawed out shrimp sat in was 1000ppm! I rinsed once and it dropped to 250ppm and after the second rinse it was at about 150ppm. That is 850ppm that I didn't put into my tanks! Then people wonder why their fish die. After a few feedings of unrinsed shrimp I can't imagine how high it would raise the hardness.
 
Sorry--guess I should have been more specific. I don't leave the thawing water in the jar, just the food. I strain off as much of the water as I can to avoid the dissolution of nutrients, as well as nitrates. The tank I feed this way is only 5 gallons, and if I were dumping tons of nitrates in, I think it would be green with bacteria. Since I don't feed this tank exclusively frozen foods, I am not sure how much nutrition the fish get from the frozens. They slurp the food down, but with gouramies and kuhli loaches, I would be shocked if they didn't.
 
Oh Geeze, now I'm really confused. I didn't rinse the shrimp, nor did I defrost it first. I just hacked off a small chip with a knife and dumped it in the tank! The package didn't say to do either of these things. Am I in trouble? Should I do a water change? I think I'll stick to flakes. Now I'm worried that I'm going to kill them!
 
Calm down TeaPea. I didn't mean to get you all upset. A one time thing won't hurt. What I do (I use 2 pound sheets of frozen shrimp) is use a serrated knife and score the block of shrimp and then snap it apart (it takes a few tries to get it perfect) and then put all the small pieces in a Zip-loc freezer bag so I have pieces ready any time I need them. They do sell frozen shrimp in little plastic trays but WOW are those expensive. BTW I pay $9.95 for that 2# sheet. Just do your normal water change when due.
 
Can I buy a (one) fresh shrimp from the deli and feed a small chunk of that to my fish? *Steve pictures the look on the cashiers face as he shows up with one shrimp :D *
 
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