frozen foods?

[flautist]

I was so excited... I went to PetCo today to get some Maracyn for Sakana, and they have started selling frozen foods!!!!! I got them home, so excited to give my boys their first tastes of "real" food, and then I realized something: I have absolutely no clue how to go about giving it to them.

They are little cubes. I got a package of bloodworms and a package of brine shrimp. Do I nuke the cubes to thaw them out first? How much do I give to them? Is there anything special I need to do to the shrimp or worms before I put them in the tank?

 

[WILDER]

Just one cube thaw then give them the yummy treats, i use a piplette to feed, i thaw in a little container.

 

[Joby]

I just chop off the amount I want to thaw from the cube or use a whole one if you've lots to feed, then drop it in a medicine cup of their warm tank water. Only do this if you have no disease in the tanks obviously. It only takes a couple of minutes to defrost. Then I use a pipette from a water test kit to feed it to everyone.

Warning, after they've tasted proper food they may never want pellets again spoilt little devils

 

[Dorkhedeos]

yeah, one of my female betta didnt eat anything but live or frozen food after i gave her a live tubifex worm

 

[JoLtNbolt]

I read somewhere online that fish that are fed frozen foods tend to have more problems with parasites... has anyone else heard this?

 

[KeddyPie]

I'd imagine is properly frozen, any parasites their lunch may contain would be killed... Not to mention is they are properly cultured, they are less likely to have parasites to begin with But I can understand live food to be a risk.

I thaw a whole block in one of those little cups you initially buy poor little bettas in (I kept one from my walmart girl) and then just carefully poor a few into each little tank I dump 3/4ths of my leftovers into the community tank (HAPPPPPPY loaches!) and then whatever I have left, I run over and give to my moms 10 gallon.

 

[SRC]

I don't ever buy the cubes I always get the flat pack. Then I chop about half the pack into small cubes (otherwsie it starts to melt if you try to do the whole pack lol) myself ( like .5 cm each [...] ) then re-seal in a ziplock freezer baggie (don't want any freezer burn ). Then I thaw out 1 little cube at a time in a cup of tank water...and I use a plastic spoon to plop some in with each fish.

Since I have no gravel that works good lol.

Now in my community tank though...

I have a saucer I drop in there..then I use my turkey baster to squirt some on the saucer...so none gets off in the gravel.

 

[catxx]

i was thinking about getting some of those cubes
but the guy in the store told me it stinks when you defrost it
and as i only have 1 fish it didn't seem worth it

when i get tiny natty flies in my room i catch them and he eats those quite happily, and the other week he took quite a liking to a flying ant that got in the way of me.
(thats ok to do that right?)

 

[SRC]

I will say this about frozen bloodworms..they do not smell all taht great, but done' "stink" either really.

They can also cause an allergic reaction in YOU. I am allergic to them myself. They make my nose itch and run and my eyes water. I just take a benedryl tablet 30 min before I start feeding them to my babies..and everything is fine.

 

[wuvmybetta]

I'm going to chime in here and say always get the flatpack if possible, seriously. It's so much easier and less wasteful if you just have a few bettas. Also it's a better worm (bw's) the cubes are rather thick and chewy and the flatpack is more of a tender,easier to digest worm.

 

[flautist]

okay... hmm... wonder if they will let me trade my cubes for flatpacks, as they have not yet been opened...

 

[Joby]

I used to use the flat pack stuff as it is cheaper but it was so darn tough to cut that I nearly chopped my finger off so I stick with the cubes now and yes, the bloodworms ponks but you get used to it. I do however buy my Artmeia in a block as it breaks off easily.

 

[JoLtNbolt]

I was at Pet's Mart the other day and saw a little tube... maybe a bit larger than a roll of quarters that had live wingless fruit flies.... I almost bought it, but I didn't see a price. The label said that the flies would continue to reproduce until the growth media is all used up.

 

[SRC]

I doubt they'd take it back, since it is a perishable food item. Once they completely thaw they need to be thrown away imo.

And there would be no way for them to know if you let that happen..you know. Or if you injected it with anything that could harm someone elses fish (not that I'm saying YOU would do that..but you knwo some people are just plain ole mean out there and would).

I don't find the flat pack hard to cut at all. I just use a sharp knife, wet it under the faucet with water (doesn't need to be hot) and it slides through like butter.

I just put down some wax paper in a cookie tray, so it doesn't get everywhere lol.

 

[wuvmybetta]

With the flat packs, I just crack them over the edge of the counter and they break into a bunch of pieces.

Jolt~ those fruitflies aren't too much at all. Usually a bit more than 5.00.