Frozen Food Question

[filippo]

Hi.

I am in a hurry sometimes and feed my clowns with frozen food straight out of the fridge. Is it ok? Will it hurt them, or should I wait until the food actually defrosts?

Thank you

[tcilmo]

I dont defrost my cubes. I just toss them in . . . I have two 20 gallon tanks. 1 perc and 1 yellow stripe marone. Not in the same tank of course. I just cut a cube in 1/2 and 1 goes in 1 and one goes in another. Some people say to rinse the cubes before you put them in, I have never done that before though. I am stll doing some digging on that to see if it is all that necessary. Maybe some more people can chime in about that.

[ahullsb]

I think it depends on the tank. I think people who already have nitrate and phosphate problems are much more careful about adding more in the form of food. I fill a shot glass with water and let the cubes dissolve in it. It doesn't take very long. But that 1 ounce of water is pretty cloudy after something thaws. (Even mysis) So I just strain it into my net and add the mysis only. The benefit I have seen is that when my net goes near the water, my fish expect food instead of being caught. I caught my anthias in under 5 minutes today that way. (He was going back to the store)

[geraldwhite]

Originally posted by ahullsb
I think it depends on the tank. I think people who already have nitrate and phosphate problems are much more careful about adding more in the form of food. I fill a shot glass with water and let the cubes dissolve in it. It doesn't take very long. But that 1 ounce of water is pretty cloudy after something thaws. (Even mysis) So I just strain it into my net and add the mysis only. The benefit I have seen is that when my net goes near the water, my fish expect food instead of being caught. I caught my anthias in under 5 minutes today that way. (He was going back to the store)

Humm thats very interesting about what you said on the net... seems like reason enough for me to start feeding by the net... I too just drop the cube in, i havent seen any neg effects so far.

[norwall]

Yes, cool tip about the net. Thanks ahullsb.

[snorvich]

Rinsing frozen food thaws the liquid portion and removes a potential source of nitrate and phosphte. Some foods, like Rods, have nutritious things in the frozen liquid part so this would be undesirable. No issue with temperature as they melt almost instantaneously.