Feeding Frozen Foods

[Ficious]

so ive recently been buying live blackworms and frozed bloodworm. i ran out of blackworms but i still feed bloodworms to all of my fish once a day. i also drop shrimp pellets to my cichlids but everyone else is just bloodworms. my dwarf puffer gets fed them once a day to 1.5 days...but gets stuffed when he eats. my white clouds have been conditioning with them twice a day. its amazing how large these have gotten compared to the ones in my community tank not getting so many.



are they safe to feed as the main food everyday?
are there any dangers to feeding frozen or live food?
is its worse to overfeed with frozen foods?

thanks guys

 

[mwood2]

Frozen foods are fine but its always good to feed them a good diet. I would suggest feeding some snails from time to time since DP need them (some say they dont) and its also a good source of food since snails eat alot of greens. Most pet stores will toss them free to you since they tend to be pests anyways (I know petsmart does for me). I would suggest for your other fish some flakes if they will take them or even some fresh veggies. Most fish nibble on them when the get soft.

Also try brine shrimp

 

[Eclecticoldsod]

Your LFS should have 12 – 15 different types of frozen food, so try a packet of each. Variety is the secret of success. Also try some flake and sinking dry food. Lastly, all overfeeding is bad, although with live food most of it will just hang about until people get hungry again.

 

[Inchworm]

Hi Ficious

I prefer blackworms but they aren't always available so I keep some frozen bloodworms in the freezer. IMHO, they are probably not as nutritious as the live blackworms because they burst when frozen and much of the blood runs out. On the other hand, the do have a lower fat content.

What you feed depends on the particular fish you have. Some need more vegetable matter in their diet and can get this, and certain vitamins and minerals, from flake or other dry foods.

As to overfeeding, dead meat will pollute a tank quickly, but live blackworms might get into the substrate. If your fish eat from the bottom, they will pick at them for snacks. Since they do have a higher fat content, if you made them the only food, you might end up with overweight fish. I've seen ones like this that someone brought into the lfs.

I might also suggest that you read the label on the fish pellets. Some brands are high in fillers which provide little actual nutrition that the fish can use.