Frozen Food

[Schmill]

How do you feed frozen food to the tank?
I bought some frozen daphnia recently, and I thought perhaps you just popped the block into the tank and let it gradualyl melt in the water, releasing tasty goodies as it went, but now I am wondering if you are supposed to 'defrost' it first? Just wondering if 'cold' food would have a bad effect on the fish?

 

[Spishkey]

my fish have it frozen or thawed. when its frozen it stays floating at the top and all the fish pick at it, ensuring they all get some, if i defrost it first i have to hide it around the tank to make sure everyone gets some or the greedy danios will eat it all

 

[kewskills]

I do the same, just put it in frozen, and let the fish go mad getting brain freeze

 

[chesterscot]

either way is fine if im trying to get some to the corys i melt it first otherwise just throw it in and watch the frenzy
scot

 

[Athena]

The only problem with throwing the whole frozen cube into your tank is that it can easily pollute your water or cause the fish to over-eat. Obviously, depends on how large your tank is and how many fish will be sharing the cube and how large the fish are. If you have a huge tank with large fish then there probably won't be much in the way of leftovers in the tank. But if it's anything under 3ft tank with smaller fish, then there is the chance you could do more harm than good to your tank and fish.

With frozen foods I would say it's best to defrost in a little tank water, then pour just a little of the food into the tank at a time (or use tweezers or a syringe) until you see that the fish have eaten what's in there (and that they are not gorging themselves). Any leftovers can always be put in the fridge for the next feed.

I know it's quicker and easier to just throw the cube into the tank - but if it can cause problems, I think it's worth taking just that few extra minutes to defrost the food first and avoid all the hassle of an ammonia spike and/or bulging fish tummies and subsequent possible deaths.

Athena

 

[shelaghfishface]

i never feed frozen food whilst still frozen, id be gutted if someone fed me a frozen prawn so why should i excpet the fish to enjoy it

 

[Schmill]

i never feed frozen food whilst still frozen, id be gutted if someone fed me a frozen prawn so why should i excpet the fish to enjoy it

The waiter would be gutted if he gave me a frozen prawn!

However being fed prawns does sound quite nice, in fact if it was the right person I could probably even forgive them for it being frozen - lol