Tropical Fish Forum
Tropical Fish Keeping Help and Advice => Fish Food and Feeding => Topic started by: fcmf on October 29, 2019, 06:31:15 PM
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Has anyone ever tried feeding this to their fish http://www.waterlife.co.uk/products/TROPICAL_PRODUCTS/Foods_12131?product_id=90 and, if so, was it readily accepted? I'm considering it as an alternative to live or frozen or gel-based (e.g. https://www.tetra.net/en-gb/products/tetra-freshdelica-brine-shrimps) products.
Edited to add: Actually, in retrospect, having read some reviews on Amazon, I might give this a miss, unless anyone can convince me otherwise.
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I used to use it for fry until I discovered frozen lobster eggs. It’s a good product but lobster eggs are even more nutritious and give quicker growth rates.
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Thanks, @Hamaplong - do you think my gang (x-ray tetras, harlequin rasboras, neon green rasbora, cardinal tetras) would be interested in lobster eggs?
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Thanks, @Hamaplong - do you think my gang (x-ray tetras, harlequin rasboras, neon green rasbora, cardinal tetras) would be interested in lobster eggs?
Very much so. :)
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Hi fcmf,
I have fed freshly-hatched brine shrimp (Artemia) to GBR fry but not the actual eggs. But it can be time-consuming. Out of interest, what drew you to brine shrimp eggs? Was it an article you read?
JPC
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@jaypeecee: I'd had a couple of unforeseen fatalities (one extremely so) earlier this year, after having fed frozen food - a catastrophic demise of a perfectly healthy fish a few hours after having fed frozen brine shrimp. I'd also had a few near-death episodes in the past in my goldfish associated with having fed frozen food. Separately, it struck me that I hadn't actually been feeding live/frozen food to the tank at all since the former events, and that my newish cardinal tetras are quite fussy eaters and might appreciate daphnia or brine shrimp as fish profiles tend to advocate these. When looking up my usual online supplier, I noticed these particular products in stock.
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This raises an interesting point... ive come to believe that i might be introducing ilness to my fish through frozen foods too. My camallus work outbreak earlier this year (successfully treated fortunately) and now my Betta, both seem to have been post feeding frozen foods (which i also probably don't do a regularly as I'm led to believe I should). Does anyone else have similar experiences? Im probably going tongive these a go as a result of the claims they make about it being disease free etc...
It does beg the question though as to why my dwarf puffers which are fed exclusively on frozen blood worm (including the khuli loach and otos in the tank) have always been absolutely fine...
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I have always fed frozen food to my fish on a regular basis (every other day). Never had any problems. I will say that I use food produced by the same manufacturer.
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Some frozen food is gamma irradiated. This kills any pathogens in the cubes and is safer than non-irradiated frozen food.
I've not had problems myself but I have read of others who have, mainly bacterial problems.
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*I’ve yet to read of a pathogen that can survive freezing. I’ve fed frozen most days for nearly 50 years with no problems. If anyone has info to the contrary....
*Edit.... And on that note, a quick google came up with this paper on a host of bacteria found in imported frozen fish. Shows what I know, lol.
https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/701b/8312af46cf45f2110ba881f7e984420b3d69.pdf
I only ever buy frozen food that looks good. Bloodworms have to be bright red with no brown parts or ‘empty-skin’ parts, brine shrimp also have to be the right colour, and both with no ‘foreign bodies’ or other impurities.
They also have to be proper frozen solid. If it partly defrosts at any time throw it in the bin.
Re lobster eggs. It’s an awful lot easier to feed these (“straight from the freezer”) than to hatch brine shrimp eggs, which is a faff and also of course needs to be timed right, if feeding to fry.
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My goldfish's experiences following frozen food were so extreme that I never fed him it again for the following 4 years of his life. An anti-bacterial treatment saved the day (Interpet). It took me a long time before I decided to "brave it" with frozen food for my tropicals, and at least one of the fatalities was absolutely in no way foreseen, whereas another could have been accounted for by what seems to be a weakness in the particular shoal of fish.
While I only live a 5-minute drive away from my LFS and so there is little time to defrost, I have no control over what happened in the time between production and arrival at the LFS. Admittedly, the bloodworms I've purchased in the past are not particularly red and even an individual worm ranges in colour from white-brown-black. Brineshrimp tend to look much the same to me.
All that said, I'm one of these folk who do everything by the book but still encounter problems (often sheer bad luck).
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I have a suspicion that the dodgy batches are the ones that have defrosted somewhere along the line. I’ve also seen them in shops that are only just frozen and quite soft, from old freezers etc.
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@fcmf I would not touch the bloodworms you’ve described even if they were free. I often have to shop around for frozen that I would even consider using, and I’ve often visited every shop and still gone home empty handed. When I find the good stuff I tend to bulk buy because of this. If it’s not of exceptional quality, leave well alone. Possibly why I’ve never had problems. :)
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I'll have a look for frozen lobster eggs next time I'm at an aquatics shop, it sounds as if my gang would appreciate them too.
Luckily I have amano shrimp in most of my tanks, so the other inhabitants are sometimes lucky enough to get a feed of fresh shrimp eggs. It looks like this is going to happen soon in the river tank as two of the females look ready. No point in wasting them.
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Very helpful advice about the bloodworm, @Hampalong - thanks! :cheers:
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Very helpful advice about the bloodworm, @Hampalong - thanks! :cheers:
Happy to help. I actually buy mine from a pet shop. It’s terrible for fish, but their frozen food is exceptional (San Francisco Bay brand). The frozen food at all the dedicated fish shops leaves a lot to be desired.
Ruto quality appears to vary a lot, and Gamma is just consistently awful.
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Aha - seems like that's where I've been going wrong. Gamma was the brand I'd been using, and Ruto may have been the brand before that as it looks familiar. I don't think I've ever used the SFB brand but will check that out at a pet shop next time I'm able to get there.
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I get the SuperFish brand from MA, and they seem quite red, no yucky bits.
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Yeah they should be exactly the same bright red as a live bloodworm.
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Funny you mention live bloodworm @Hampalong as I used to feed them to my puffers, and to my axolotls when they were very young.
Luckily there was an place between work & home which got their deliveries at the same time every week, so I took advantage of this and picked up a few packs on the way home at the end of each week. I remember that the quality of the live bloodworms was not fantastic, and there were always dead & manky ones in each pack.
The dwarf puffers always enjoyed the live food, but I find the quality of the frozen ones I use now is much better.
With an imminent house move looming, I'm confident that I'll be able to get the same brand of frozen bloodworms from the MA in the new area. Luckily PFK did a road trip to the new area recently, so I've got the names of a few other places to visit too. :)
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I remember when the bags of ‘live’ food would be on the counter all week, till the next batch came in. Even when they were ‘dead food’ people still bought them, at full price. Maybe not the bloodworm so much but daphnia and brine shrimp...
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These guys were a bit more organised and had a fridge for live food. I'd go in on the afternoon the food was delivered, and the stock arrived in polyboxes. I'm guessing that they weren't shipped refrigerated, resulting in some fairly manky worms - a lot of brown ones, a lot of dead ones. The puffers got the live ones, so I was probably wasting quite a bit.