So Who Feeds Frozen Foods?

[pescadero]

How many of you feed frozen TV dinners to your fish?

i know that some of you guys are total flakes and that some of you still feed frozen even though you don't have to.

although I'd prefer not to bother with it, i've got a few fish that just don't want to eat flakes and/or pellets. this isn't really a problem with my LFS bought fish, who have pretty much been trained to eat whatever gets offered to them.

the fish that I got on the group order from LA came right from the distributor. my PBT was so freshly caught that i don't think he's ever seen flake or pellet food before. he was on a hunger strike for two weeks before he would even eat frozen food. he's really picky. he still won't flakes. the best i can do is to get him to eat frozen herbivore formula. he won't eat fresh veggies and he's still not too enthusiastic about pellets. i have to admit, i'm not too excited about the idea of a fish that only wants to eat frozen food.

 

[Fuppets]

I have quite an assortment and I like to mix it up. I have 3 types of pellets, 2 types of flake, Rods, PE Mysis and frozen Cyclopeez. Also live Phyto and Kent's Phytoplex and Microvert.

I feed twice a day. Once as soon as I get home and once later in the night. I feed the frozen stuff about twice a week.

I like to dose the live phyto twice a week and the kent stuff once a week or so. I think I'll stop those when I run out.

 

[BreadmanMike]

I feed mostly frozen and toss in New Life Spectrum pellets and Super Veggie flakes from Omega One every other day.

For frozen in the reef I use mysis, spiraluna brine, plankton, krill, and brine shrimp plus.

 

[JNye]

basically exactly what Mike said for me too. Bob try New Life Spectrum pellets I got mine from the Ark a long time back and I haven't made a dent in it yet and everyone loves them.
I like fozen better because it "seems" like there is less waste. Whenever I feed pellets some alsways make it into the rocks. An truth that frozen procuces less waste?

 

[pescadero]

the frustrating thing for me right now is that i've got 4 separate tanks running, and the fish in the 4 tanks all prefer 4 different types of food. i can't seem to convince any two kinds of fish to want to eat the same thing. :sad2:

the little clownfish and chromis like omnivore flakes. they won't eat herbivore flakes. the biggest clownfish likes F2 pellets, but the small ones and the chromis can't eat them because even the small F2 pellets are too big for them. none of them like spirulina flakes or pellets.

my yellow tang doesn't like the omnivore flakes. he loves the spirulina flakes and pellets though. and he loves nori and fresh veggies.

then there's my PBT. he won't eat any kind of flake, and he doesn't like the spirulina pellets or the fresh veggies. he just wants to eat frozen "emerald entrees" for herbivores and mysis shrimp.

then there's the invert tank. the planktivores want something else altogether, like cyclopeeze.

this whole thing would be a lot easier if i could get any two kinds of fish to eat the same thing. i hope this isn't too much to be asking for. maybe the problem will just go away when all of the fish end up in the same tank and they have to compete for whatever food is offered to them.

WRT feeding frozen stuff, i've noticed that the QT tank that i've been putting the frozen food into is kinda cloudy. i'm at a loss to explain why, as i've been rinsing out the frozen stuff before feeding. i was wondering if frozen ends up being worse for the tank than pellets or flakes. maybe this will all get better once that tank gets out of hypo and i can put an invert cleanup crew in there.

Mike, i'm surprised that you feed mostly frozen. i was under the impression that most reefkeepers used frozen as a supplement for flakes/pellets. you seem to be doing it the other way around.

 

[JRaquatics]

I feed around 8-12 different types of flakes and pellets, plus 4-5 different types of frozen foods. I feed frozen every other day. I feel that you want to offer your fish as much variety as possible for long term success. I also overfeed.

 

[hoosierpat]

Bob,
Try the ORA Glo pellets. I find that just about everybody likes those. I have several tanks that I take care of that I feed it exclusively to. It is also the only dry food that I've ever seen a Moorish Idol eat.

I have decided that frozen food is a very poor long term diet for any fish. I think that they only purpose it should serve is to induce a feeding response. I made this decision in about the last year or so after seeing the long term effects of feeding dry formulated foods on fish that are susceptible to HLLE. I noticed that Purple Tangs and Imperator Angels that were exclusively fed dry food for years did not have any signs of HLLE, while the same species of fish that were fed a good variety of frozen food would develop HLLE in a time period of months.

Any good dry food(Spectrum, Ocean Nutrition, Omega One, ORA Glo, etc.) will be properly formulated with the variety that the fish need without any need to mix up a bunch of frozen food with it. I do advocate the used of fresh greens and seafood but that is about where I draw the line.

 

[bigevill1]

my fish ate some fresh pineapple the other night. Yum!

 

[pescadero]

thanks for the help, guys.

the good news is that the fish that was frustrating me so mucch isn't frustrating me any more (now another fish has taken over that job).

my new PBT came from the Maldives fat, deeply colored and healthy, and promptly went on a 2 week hunger strike. he starved himself for 2 weeks, then he suddenly decided that he liked the small F2 pellets. then he started eating them like a madman.

fast forward a couple of weeks, and now he's eating both the medium and small F2 pellets, the OSI hard/dry spirulina pellets, and spirulina flakes. he goes crazy for them. i still offer some treats a couple of times a week, including things like mysis and frozen herbivore stuff, but he's on the staple of dry pellets/flakes now and he's happy as can be. he eats like a horse -- he's nice and fat and deeply colored. things are going well.

of course, i have a yellow tang that is giving me real problems now. he's in a hospital tank and stopped eating after a NH3 spike a couple of weeks ago. he still won't eat and he's wasting away. i've tried everything to get him to eat, but he just won't do it.

do any of you have experience with fish that stop eating after an ammonia spike? i've read that after a big ammonia spike some of them may never eat again. i hope that's not the road i'm going down now. the ammonia has been stable for a couple of weeks, though i've had a lot of problems dealing with nitrite. that just got better today. the tank is now testing 0-0-0.

the good news is that the maroon clown in that tank has had his appetite return. i'm just wondering how long it may be before the YT starts eating again, and if he can survive that long...

 

[pescadero]

well, it looks like i spoke too soon. when i made fish rounds this morning, i noticed that the bottom of the hospital tank was clean. i always put some pellets in there before i go to bed, just in case that fish that hasn't been eating decides to change his mind. i always end up vacuuming them out the next morning.

well, this morning, it looked like somebody cleaned up the floor while i was sleeping. i put some spirulina flakes in the tank, and i noticed the YT nibbling at them for the first time in weeks. he even started yanking the nori off of the rocks. even though he didn't eat much, at least it looks like he's interested in food again. i feel so much better. i just hope its not too late. he's really in need of some calories.