Frozen food

FishForums.net Pet of the Month
🐶 POTM Poll is Open! 🦎 Click here to Vote! 🐰

Ry4n7

New Member
Joined
May 7, 2018
Messages
35
Reaction score
0
What type of frozen food is best for fish growth? I'm assuming some are better than others although I only have frozen bloodworm atm

Sent from my VOG-L09 using Tapatalk
 
Fresh is always best but I realize how had that can be. Frozen blood worms have a lot of protein as does brine shrimp. Some feed black worms, daphnia, and other things. I can’t seem to locate these though. Anybody else?
 
The nutritional value of frozen foods is very minimal by comparison to quality prepared/dried foods. Compare Hikari frozen daphnia with 5% protein and frozen bloodworms with 6% protein, to Omega One shrimp pellets (38% protein) and Veggie Rounds (35%). There is also more fiber in the latter.

The value in frozen foods is their (assumed) greater appeal to fish, as they are the closest to live in texture. This is why we recommend frozen foods as "treats" but not staple foods.

The late Jack Wattley frequently wrote in his discus column that the best foods for raising discus were good quality prepared dried foods. These have more nutritive value and can provide all that fish require to be healthy. We need to keep this in mind and not get misled or off the track by "mandatory" live or frozen foods to spawn, etc.

Live foods can be ideal, but this requires a good blend; feeding only live worms for example is not going to improve fish health for many species. It is not easy (unless you live in tropical regions) to culture sufficient variety in live foods to provide good nourishment. Insect larvae is ideal, but mosquitos flying around the house are not so enticing, lol. Back in the 1980's I raised live wingless fruit flies primarily for my hatchetfish. And I fed live brine shrimp once a week, and live tubifex worms once a week. But I also fed prepared foods as the "staple." The latter are today much more nourishing and beneficial than back then.

Shrimp is a good food in any form as it is natural; most tropical watercourses have some forms of crustaceans, and these are part of the diet for most of our fish. Nothing seems better than live newly-hatched artemia (shrimp) for fry of most species. Dried leaves though also provide infusoria and all fry will readily eat this and be better in growth and health because of it. Infusoria is after all live food.
 
Fresh is always best but I realize how had that can be. Frozen blood worms have a lot of protein as does brine shrimp. Some feed black worms, daphnia, and other things. I can’t seem to locate these though. Anybody else?
I have seen brine shrimp and daphnia in my local shop so I might pick some up as an alternative to bloodworm. The fish go crazy for it though

Sent from my VOG-L09 using Tapatalk
 
The nutritional value of frozen foods is very minimal by comparison to quality prepared/dried foods. Compare Hikari frozen daphnia with 5% protein and frozen bloodworms with 6% protein, to Omega One shrimp pellets (38% protein) and Veggie Rounds (35%). There is also more fiber in the latter.

The value in frozen foods is their (assumed) greater appeal to fish, as they are the closest to live in texture. This is why we recommend frozen foods as "treats" but not staple foods.

The late Jack Wattley frequently wrote in his discus column that the best foods for raising discus were good quality prepared dried foods. These have more nutritive value and can provide all that fish require to be healthy. We need to keep this in mind and not get misled or off the track by "mandatory" live or frozen foods to spawn, etc.

Live foods can be ideal, but this requires a good blend; feeding only live worms for example is not going to improve fish health for many species. It is not easy (unless you live in tropical regions) to culture sufficient variety in live foods to provide good nourishment. Insect larvae is ideal, but mosquitos flying around the house are not so enticing, lol. Back in the 1980's I raised live wingless fruit flies primarily for my hatchetfish. And I fed live brine shrimp once a week, and live tubifex worms once a week. But I also fed prepared foods as the "staple." The latter are today much more nourishing and beneficial than back then.

Shrimp is a good food in any form as it is natural; most tropical watercourses have some forms of crustaceans, and these are part of the diet for most of our fish. Nothing seems better than live newly-hatched artemia (shrimp) for fry of most species. Dried leaves though also provide infusoria and all fry will readily eat this and be better in growth and health because of it. Infusoria is after all live food.
This makes sense actually. All this time I've been thinking the frozen food has been the best food other than live food but the Cory pellets and sticky pellets both have higher nutritional values. I will go to the shop 2moro and look at some higher quality foods, if I'm honest it's not something I looked too much into before. Thanks for your help.

Sent from my VOG-L09 using Tapatalk
 
The nutritional value of frozen foods is very minimal by comparison to quality prepared/dried foods.
I agree. I feed both of the foods mentioned and stopped feeding frozen foods over a year ago. My fish are all healthy and thriving. Live food is problematic for me but I believe my fish get a healthy diet.
 
This makes sense actually. All this time I've been thinking the frozen food has been the best food other than live food but the Cory pellets and sticky pellets both have higher nutritional values. I will go to the shop 2moro and look at some higher quality foods, if I'm honest it's not something I looked too much into before. Thanks for your help.

Sent from my VOG-L09 using Tapatalk

The brands to get are Omega One, New Life Spectrum, and there is another one or two that I can never remember the name of because they are not available here, but other members can list them. It is not only the protein, etc, but the "additives" and "fillers" that the cheaper brands use and these are not that good for fish.
 
The nutritional value of frozen foods is very minimal by comparison to quality prepared/dried foods. Compare Hikari frozen daphnia with 5% protein and frozen bloodworms with 6% protein, to Omega One shrimp pellets (38% protein) and Veggie Rounds (35%). There is also more fiber in the latter.

The value in frozen foods is their (assumed) greater appeal to fish, as they are the closest to live in texture. This is why we recommend frozen foods as "treats" but not staple foods.

The late Jack Wattley frequently wrote in his discus column that the best foods for raising discus were good quality prepared dried foods. These have more nutritive value and can provide all that fish require to be healthy. We need to keep this in mind and not get misled or off the track by "mandatory" live or frozen foods to spawn, etc.

Live foods can be ideal, but this requires a good blend; feeding only live worms for example is not going to improve fish health for many species. It is not easy (unless you live in tropical regions) to culture sufficient variety in live foods to provide good nourishment. Insect larvae is ideal, but mosquitos flying around the house are not so enticing, lol. Back in the 1980's I raised live wingless fruit flies primarily for my hatchetfish. And I fed live brine shrimp once a week, and live tubifex worms once a week. But I also fed prepared foods as the "staple." The latter are today much more nourishing and beneficial than back then.

Shrimp is a good food in any form as it is natural; most tropical watercourses have some forms of crustaceans, and these are part of the diet for most of our fish. Nothing seems better than live newly-hatched artemia (shrimp) for fry of most species. Dried leaves though also provide infusoria and all fry will readily eat this and be better in growth and health because of it. Infusoria is after all live food.
Great information, @Byron. Thank you! I was under the belief that dried foods were at the bottom of the totem pole and little nutritional value. Looks like I had it backwoods. I do feed frozen dried San Francisco Bay brine shrimp which are high in protein. I thought it was something they had done to preserve the protein. Are freeze dried fine? Very informative. By the way, my main staple for my fish ate New Life Spectrum and Omega One, just as Byron has mentioned. Another good one Repashay gel food.
 
Last edited:
The brands to get are Omega One, New Life Spectrum, and there is another one or two that I can never remember the name of because they are not available here, but other members can list them. It is not only the protein, etc, but the "additives" and "fillers" that the cheaper brands use and these are not that good for fish.
I'll have a look for those. The 2 I have atm are fishscience and king British

Sent from my VOG-L09 using Tapatalk
 
Great information, @Byron. Thank you! I was under the belief that dried foods were at the bottom of the totem pole and little nutritional value. Looks like I had it backwoods. I do feed frozen dried San Francisco Bay brine shrimp which are high in protein. I thought it was something they had done to preserve the protein. Are freeze dried fine? Very informative. By the way, my main staple for my fish ate New Life Spectrum and Omega One, just as Byron has mentioned. Another good one Repashay gel food.

Just be certain to thoroughly soak the freeze-dried shrimp so they fully expand before you put them in the tank. Freeze dried foods will soak up water and expand, and it takes a little time so if a fish snapped one up as soon as it went in the tank without this the food would be swallowed, begin to expand, and cause issues for the fish. This is why I never feed FD foods (I used to until I learned this); flake and pellet do not have this problem.
 
I'll have a look for those. The 2 I have atm are fishscience and king British

If you use King British, I assume you are in the UK? I have never seen Omega One or New Life Spectrum in shops, I get mine on-line.

Northfin is another make with good ingredients; they seem to specialise in food for large fish though they do make betta pellets and small slow sinking pellets. And I see they have now introduced a community flake and Bug Pro which sounds like the Big Bites everyone else is talking about. Again, I buy this brand on-line as there are only 10 shops in the UK that sell it.
Northfin is a Canadian product so members across the other side of the Atlantic should able to find it.
 
Last edited:
If you use King British, I assume you are in the UK? I have never seen Omega One or New Life Spectrum in shops, I get mine on-line.

Northfin is another make with good ingredients; they seem to specialise in food for large fish though they do make betta pellets and small slow sinking pellets. And I see they have now introduced Bug Pro which sounds like the Big Bites everyone else is talking about. Again, I buy this brand on-line.
Northfin is a Canadian product so members across the other side of the Atlantic should able to find it.
Yea from the UK, I like the king British food because it sticks to the glass and allows the Cory's to get their pellets without the angels etc chasing them. I'll head to my nearest specialised fish shop 2moro and see what brands they have. The king British food is from pets at home(I guess similar to petco) which is the big pet chain rather than just a specialised fish shop so they won't have a big a variety of fish food.

Sent from my VOG-L09 using Tapatalk
 
King British website doesn't give ingredients, so look at the packs you have to see what they contain. If the list includes lots of fillers such as wheat, it is not a very good quality food. If it lists "fish meal", it is a not a good quality food - but if it lists "whole fish meal" that is better. And they should specify which species of fish they've used. The difference is that fish meal is normally just skin, bones, blood etc, while whole fish meal usually contains more of the fish.
 

Most reactions

trending

Members online

Back
Top