Properly feeding frozen foods?

[ptychoptera]

My boss and I have a disagreement on the proper way to feed frozen foods at our fish store.

One of us believes that frozen foods should be thawed in water and rinsed/drained so that any juices that thaw out aren't added to the tank, with the belief that this helps control nitrate/phophate levels.

The other person believes that thawing frozen foods in water greatly reduces the nutritional value by drawing out more of the bodily fluids that would normally stay inside the individual mysis/brine/etc.

So what are your feeding techniques?

 

[Amazon4]

I remove the "juices" but then soak them in selcon, vita-chem, and garlic guard. So I'm replacing those "bodily fluids" with the suppliments I want the fish to take in.

Plus, I'm trying to keep nitrates down.

 

[GoingPostal]

I rinsed for a while when I had an algea problem but it didn't seem to make a difference, now I just thaw and feed juice and all.

 

[CBehr]

Amazon4 x2

 

[Agu]

I thaw it in RO/DI water then feed it with all the juices.

 

[Jar*Head]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14664872#post14664872 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Amazon4
I remove the "juices" but then soak them in selcon, vita-chem, and garlic guard. So I'm replacing those "bodily fluids" with the suppliments I want the fish to take in.

Plus, I'm trying to keep nitrates down.

Since i feed my fish a lot daily, i did the same thing as Amazon 4. I thaw it out in RODI, rinse the food really good with RODI water, squeeze all the water out then use tank water with selcon, Vitamin and Garlic let it sit for 30 mins before feed the fish.

 

[odyssey1]

I thaw in RO/DI Water then Feed. No Problems for me!!!!

 

[aninjaatemyshoe]

I use my frozen to feed my corals and not my fish (my fish prefer flakes anyway). Rinsing will take out some of the nutritional value, but I doubt that whatever stuff that rinsing would take out would be with the food long after putting it in the tank anyway. Chances are that the "pack juice" will dissolve into the tank water and away from the food as it is. However, in my case, I broadcast feed for filter feeders and have a feeling that something is eating the pack juice (the stuff that doesn't make it to the skimmer anyway).

If you're using the frozen food to feed fish and/or spot feed corals and worry about extra nutrients in your tank, I'd rinse the food off with tank water. Why tank water? RO water will be too low in salinity, causing a hypotonic situation, which can cause the cells in the food to rupture - releasing more nutrients. Since the food we feed is typically from the sea, the salinity from our tanks is isotonic with respect to the cells. It should be worth noting that the freezing process already will have resulted in ruptured cells in the food - the longer the food is frozen, the worse it is.

 

[JHemdal]

Water thawing is bad from the standpoint of rinsing off essential nutrients, but good from the standpoint of not introducing as much waste material into a system. So I guess the answer is what is more important to you?

We thaw our frozen foods in plastic bags in containers of water because air-thawing takes longer and has its own issues with bacterial contamination.

IMO - People who rinse their frozen foods in RO water and then soak the foods in Selco or vitamins need analyze the logic in doing that(grin). My huge issue with soaking foods in substances is first, there is no way of knowing the final concentration of the substance and second, much of it obviously rinses off into the tank where it doesn't help the fish, but does add nutrient loading to the system. Much better to produce a gel diet that has known quantities of whatever it is that you want to supplement - the gel helps bind up the material.


Jay

 

[snorvich]

Good advice from Jay

 

[gregod]

I just thaw it in tank water and dump it in

 

[LifeIsFish]

so what is best to feed the fish, frozen food or dry food?

i give my fish in the morning dry food, and then at night i give them frozen food. what i do with the frozen food is i thaw it in a RO/DI water and then dump it into the tank. but my nitrate and phosphate is too high... and i dont know how to remove it...


any help with that? because i'm sure that its a food problem. i did installed a dosing system that do a daily water change of 4 gallons (every day) and i build a de-nitrator but nitrate is high...

 

[dma]

Ditto gregod's approach... I figure that it's all good- big stuff for some, the rest for the rest. Why throw away perfectly usable invert nutrition?

 

[Dragonlady]

Preservatives are almost always added to frozen seafood to increase weight and shelf life or..... to make it look more appetizing. Rinse it. Better yet, raise your own food to feed!

 

[dma]

Wow!
Never considered the potential for preservative content in frozen food, presuming the low temperatures attendant to the frozen state of these foods to perform the duty of preservation. What preservatives are found in the contents of currently available frozen fish foods, and how can I determine the presence(or absence) of such offending additives in the product that I purchase?
Thanks!

 

[tspors]

If you do not rinse off the oils in the mysis shrimp over time all that un eaten nutrient will aid in a significant Cyano outbreak. Rinse the Mysis. However, using frozen multi packs where they use gel to hold food together, if you thaw it rinse it there will be nothing left. If you thaw it and toss it in, again un eaten nutrients build in the tank. So to help avoid Cyano rinse the Mysis, and partially thaw other cubes with Gel.

 

[dma]

Everything is Good with Moderation.

Does this apply to moderation?

 

[BigJay]

For me it depends on the food.

Frozen H2O Spirulina - obviously there's no point to rinsing this. I thaw the cubes in a cup and toss them in.

Mysis, chopped clam, marine mix: I'll thaw using a fishnet in a little cup, then use the net to distribute the food. I don't squeeze it or anything.

Homemade fish food: (Spirulina powder, squid, octopus, krill, cyclopeeze, misc marine food in a blender). I usually throw this stuff in due to the additives.

Flake food: I soak flake food (formula one and two) in selcon/zoe vitamins. Yes I know the vitamins don't stay in the food for long once it hits tankwater. However, the food itself doesn't last that long after hitting the water anyways, the fish devour it.

The fish tend to sit at the usual feeding spot waiting to be fed, and they pounce on anything added to the tank in a big frenzy. They must be getting some benefit to vitamin enhancement, maybe not as much as I want though.

Nori: Fed as-is. The fish graze on it slowly over a full day, so additives would be pointless.