Tropical Fish Forum
Tropical Fish Keeping Help and Advice => Fish Food and Feeding => Topic started by: barneyadi on May 11, 2017, 04:23:53 PM
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I have 15 fish at moment, might get a few more tomorrow but at moment just feeding on flake and pellets. Noticed frozen Daphnia in shops, they come in cubes. Would half a cube suffice for feeding and if so any tips to cut them in half?
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I have tried several different types of frozen food - bloodworms, daphnia, chopped mussel, mixed. As a general rule the fish love them. I think it's a great idea to try something different in the diet, to increase the variety and add interest. Not all fish will love everything, but I think it's always worth giving it a go.
As for cutting them, I have found that putting a chopping board down, then covering it with something like paper towel (so the cube doesn't slip), then put a sharp knife (I use one of the kitchen knives) resting on the cube where you want to cut it, then hit the knife directly above the cube. If that doesn't work for you, then you can always try to shave slivers off the cube from one end using the knife in a similar manner, but it avoids having to hit the knife.
Have a play around with techniques and you'll find one that works for you. defrost the bit you need, pop the rest back in the freezer.
Your fish will probably go nuts for something a bit different. ;D
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I prefer to use freeze dried rather than frozen as I find it much more convenient as much as you want whenever you want, no going to the freezer or trying to chop up ice cubes.
:cheers:
That or the gel based foods which last forever in the cupboard and when you want to give the fish a treat, they are simply squeezed out of the tube over a course of a few days and put in the fridge in between times.
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I tend to use live food these days because the dwarf puffers are a bit fussy about food that doesn't move.
I use the bloodworms as the main diet for the puffers and the mudskippers.
A tube costs £1, and kept in the fridge can easily last a week (except not with my gang).
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I use a cycle of frozen bloodworms, daphnia, and artemia for my insectivores. The daphnia keeps them regular if you know what I mean. Don't forget to get any uneaten food out after 24 hours. I like to use assassin snails to hoover up the excess proteins.
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I use frozen 'live' food as well.
One thing about freeze dried is that it has been known to rehydrate and swell up inside the fish, which doesn't do the fish much good. It is better to soak freeze dried 'live' food in a bit of tank water before putting it in the tank.
The same applies to some commercial pellet food. It is always recommended to soak betta pellets, for example. Except my current betta won't eat soggy pellets.....
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:wave:
Mrs Adenann categorically won't have frozen fish food in the freezer so we use Tetra gel based sachets as a "treat" now and then.
It doesn't look very appetising, particularly the bloodworms, and there's no feeding frenzy like the sales blurb would have you believe, but our fish like it well enough. The feeding guide on the packaging is a bit OTT too, by as much as x2.
The best thing they like are NovoTabs. All of them go crazy for them.
:cheers:
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My husband doesn't like frozen 'live' food in our freezer either. To placate him, it is wrapped in 2 freezer bags.
@adenann would your wife allow it if you kept it sealed in a plastic freezer box?
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:wave: @Sue
Sadly no! We had that discussion right from the off. :vcross:
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I got some of the freeze dried stuff, should I mash it up a little as seems quite large for some of the fish?
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I would crush up a pinch then soak it in a bit of tank water to rehydrate it before adding it to the tank. The pieces only need to be small enough to fit the smallest fish's mouth.
Crushing food does have another advantage. Some fish are very greedy and if there are only a few large pieces they will eat the lot before the other fish have chance. With the same amount of food crushed up there are more pieces so the greedy ones can't get round all of it before the other fish have a chance.