How long is frozen Hikari food good for after thawed?

[littlefoxx]

Sorry? For small amounts of food, I just put the frozen food in plastic bag and place that in a cup of room temperature water. For larger amounts of food, I place it on a tray and let it thaw at room temperature for a bit (sometimes using a fan to speed things up). However, just like with human food, thawing in the refrigerator is best.

Jay

Oh so you dont put it in any kind of water at all to thaw? Sorry that wasnt a clear wuestion, made more sense in my head

 

[Jay Hemdal]

Oh so you dont put it in any kind of water at all to thaw? Sorry that wasnt a clear wuestion, made more sense in my head

Correct - water thawing is bad, it washes away nutrients.

Jay

 

[dwarfseahorse]

Air thawing is o.k., but you should then feed it all out at that time, don’t refreeze or refrigerate it to feed later.

I often toss frozen chunks of food in and let the fish to feed directly as it thaws, no issues from that.

Jay

I was throwing a cube in frozen (like the manufacturer says you can) and I also had no problem - UNTIL I got 3 new fish which turned out could not handle the frozen and died within 15 minutes of feeding. I learned my lesson, i now defrost before putting in.

 

[ralteredstates]

I respectfully disagree that using tank water is bad. The frozen food ends up in the tank water anyway before being eaten. I would never use the shrimp more than a couple hours after melting. Any dissolution of the shrimp will be taken care of by either the corals, cleanup crew or anemones. I have 4 tanks including a seahorse tank. The seahorses have done so well, they have bred multiple times. My largest tank is fed with Reef Nutrition mysis because it's much quicker than frozen. This shrimp looks much dirtier than the frozen after the cubes are melted in tank water. Have never had a problem. Using Selcon can add healthy fats but I've always been concerned that it will actually fowl the water more. My head tech "hand" feeds with a feeding tube. The fish love seeing her coming over to the tank. I broadcast feed except for twice a week I target feed certain corals. Been doing this since 1995. Just mho.

 

[dpfriedman]

I have frozen Hikari brine in cubes (no flat packs available at my LFS) that I am feeding to my nano tank that only has 3 fish (2 clowns and a PJ cardinal). One cube is too much. I thaw a cube in a cup filled with tank water and pour a small amount into the tank.

Will the food still be good if I refrigerate the leftovers? For how long?
What if I re-freez

I have frozen Hikari brine in cubes (no flat packs available at my LFS) that I am feeding to my nano tank that only has 3 fish (2 clowns and a PJ cardinal). One cube is too much. I thaw a cube in a cup filled with tank water and pour a small amount into the tank.

Will the food still be good if I refrigerate the leftovers? For how long?
What if I re-freeze?

Use a knife and cut cube to desired size the drop in a cup and add a dab of RODI to thaw. Add in a little phyto, reef energy, reef chili etc… wait 5 mins stir and serve.

No bacteria, no waste, no worries. Nob Nob happy

 

[littlefoxx]

Correct - water thawing is bad, it washes away nutrients.

Jay

Ah gotcha I suppose that makes sense when you think about it! Ill be making some changes for my food thawing then since I want my fishies to get all the nutrition they need! Do you believe the selcon, garlic, and vitachem works then?? I always add those to my food since people say it helps keep color and helps keep tangs from getting ich?

 

[Sisterlimonpot]

I'm still baffled by this thread, there's talk about a shelf life for using unthawed frozen. But lacks any explanation of why this is.

This concept is surprising to me, I ran this up the flagpole with a network of hobbyist and most everyone goes 10-14 feeding refrigerated unthawed food.

I feel I probably need to preface this by saying all these tanks are on the larger side 200g plus and are heavily populated with fish. Not to mention every one soaks selcon and vitachem in with their food. We differ on how we thaw it, some use rodi water, others don't use any additional liquid. No one uses saltwater, with a concern that at the end of a week you're starting to pickle your fish food... haha.

Can someone point me to the explanation on why 2 weeks of unthawed food is bad?

I mean there has been occasions where the food was starting to smell, but upon feeding the fish, it put them into a feeding frenzy, like they wanted it even more.

Is this a fish health thing, or is the concern more about raising N and P?

 

[Tangs-A-Lot]

I have, on many occasions, when wanting to only use a 1/2 cube have put the cube in a ziploc and bashed it a few times with the handle of a big kitchen knife and it usually splits into one big piece and 2 or 3 smaller pieces or sometimes even 2 relatively equal sized pieces. Whatever amount I want then is picked out and put in my feeding cup for thawing. I use RODI or saltwater and always feed it all right away with turkey baster.

 

[Scubadoo4u]

I put a mix of frozen in a frag cup overnight then feed fish for a week, They Don't Mind the Smell.......

 

[leon.1980]

I have frozen Hikari brine in cubes (no flat packs available at my LFS) that I am feeding to my nano tank that only has 3 fish (2 clowns and a PJ cardinal). One cube is too much. I thaw a cube in a cup filled with tank water and pour a small amount into the tank.

Will the food still be good if I refrigerate the leftovers? For how long?
What if I re-freeze?

Do you keep fresh saltwater mixed up all the time? If you do use FRESH saltwater in the cup and then put the cup in the freezer. It won’t refreeze but it will still be kept at the freezing point of water. Salt water has a lower freezing point than fresh. This will keep it fresh until it’s all used.

 

[tbone28]

Do you keep fresh saltwater mixed up all the time? If you do use FRESH saltwater in the cup and then put the cup in the freezer. It won’t refreeze but it will still be kept at the freezing point of water. Salt water has a lower freezing point than fresh. This will keep it fresh until it’s all used.

Thanks for that idea. Unfortunately, I don't mix fresh saltwater until a couple of days before a water change.

 

[ErikVR]

Yes - food should not be thawed in tank water. That rinses nutrients out of the food and it introduces bacteria from the water itself which can multiply if the food is not fed out right away.

Thawing in a refrigerator works. If you need to thaw it faster, put it in a plastic bag and hang that in water.

Jay

If that's the case then I need a new brand. I thaw mine in tap water and then run it through a sieve.
If I thaw a cube in a cup by itself, there's a lot of nasty liquid that thaws with it. Feels wrong to dump that in my tanks.

 

[Jay Hemdal]

If that's the case then I need a new brand. I thaw mine in tap water and then run it through a sieve.
If I thaw a cube in a cup by itself, there's a lot of nasty liquid that thaws with it. Feels wrong to dump that in my tanks.

Yes, some foods are really messy. Even good quality foods can develop lots of particles and milky liquid if the food is thawed and refrozen multiple times between manufacturing and your freezer. I once went to a pet store that had a self-service frozen food freezer. I picked up a packet of food and it was partially thawed! I went elsewhere (grin).

Rinsing with tap water through a sieve will rinse off too many of the nutrients. You can try supplementing those back in with additives, but remember that those will rinse right back off as fast as they soaked in.

Try gelatin foods, good quality pellets or masstick.

Jay

 

[Sleeping Giant]

I make a multi-frozen food mix in a 1 litre bottle with RO water and place in my fridge for around 4-5 days, using the food twice a day. I have zero issues with it. I don't understand how defrosting it in tank or other water can strip the nutrients from the food... wouldn't the nutrients still be in the water in the container when I feed the tank?

 

[Jay Hemdal]

I make a multi-frozen food mix in a 1 litre bottle with RO water and place in my fridge for around 4-5 days, using the food twice a day. I have zero issues with it. I don't understand how defrosting it in tank or other water can strip the nutrients from the food... wouldn't the nutrients still be in the water in the container when I feed the tank?

Yes - the water pulls the nutrients out of the water by osmosis, as well as simple rinsing action. Once it has left the food, it is unavailable for the fish, the fish cannot get it back out of the water.

I used to soak / rinse my frozen foods in water, did that for decades. Then, as a public aquarium curator, I had our diets analyzed by a fish nutrition lab. They had three recommendations: supplement with Vitamin E and Thiamin, and STOP all water thawing. They were adamant about that.

You should air thaw in a refrigerator and use thawed food within 3 days (I only hold it for two days max myself).

Jay

 

[flashsmith]

Ask yourselves this. Would you take out a piece of fish for your own consumption and let it sit on the counter for several hours and then eat it? There's your answer. Think your fish want to eat spoiled food?

 

[Sisterlimonpot]

Ask yourselves this. Would you take out a piece of fish for your own consumption and let it sit on the counter for several hours and then eat it? There's your answer. Think your fish want to eat spoiled food?

What's the correlation here? Just because I won't eat it doesn't mean the fish can't.

I'm still baffled by this thread, there's talk about a shelf life for using unthawed frozen. But lacks any explanation of why this is.

This concept is surprising to me, I ran this up the flagpole with a network of hobbyist and most everyone goes 10-14 feeding refrigerated unthawed food.

I feel I probably need to preface this by saying all these tanks are on the larger side 200g plus and are heavily populated with fish. Not to mention every one soaks selcon and vitachem in with their food. We differ on how we thaw it, some use rodi water, others don't use any additional liquid. No one uses saltwater, with a concern that at the end of a week you're starting to pickle your fish food... haha.

Can someone point me to the explanation on why 2 weeks of unthawed food is bad?

I mean there has been occasions where the food was starting to smell, but upon feeding the fish, it put them into a feeding frenzy, like they wanted it even more.

Is this a fish health thing, or is the concern more about raising N and P?

My post went unanswered. I was hoping for a logical explanation. I'm truly trying to understand why it's recommended. Is it to err on the side of caution? To prevent elevated nutrients? Something to tell new hobbyist to give them a better chance of not running into unexplained issues?

Admittedly prior to starting my current tank (2018), I was just tossing in cubes of frozen and allowing the fish to peck at it. With my current tank being the largest I've had and the configuration of the weir, I can't drop cubes of frozen in without the majority going over into the sump. And I'm reluctant to strain off anything with rodi or tank water in fear of losing nutrients.

All I want to do is try to understand the position of throwing away unthawed food after a certain time. Because right now as it stands, my experience has proven that 2 weeks unthawed and kept refrigerated has no perceived visual effect on fish health.

 

[Jay Hemdal]

What's the correlation here? Just because I won't eat it doesn't mean the fish can't.

My post went unanswered. I was hoping for a logical explanation. I'm truly trying to understand why it's recommended. Is it to err on the side of caution? To prevent elevated nutrients? Something to tell new hobbyist to give them a better chance of not running into unexplained issues?

Admittedly prior to starting my current tank (2018), I was just tossing in cubes of frozen and allowing the fish to peck at it. With my current tank being the largest I've had and the configuration of the weir, I can't drop cubes of frozen in without the majority going over into the sump. And I'm reluctant to strain off anything with rodi or tank water in fear of losing nutrients.

All I want to do is try to understand the position of throwing away unthawed food after a certain time. Because right now as it stands, my experience has proven that 2 weeks unthawed and kept refrigerated has no perceived visual effect on fish health.

Bacterial decomposition of the thawed food is one concern. Trouble is, it is not easily measured, so best to err on the side of caution.

Rinsing in water DOES wash away important nutrients, so that needs to be avoided.

One thing I alluded to, but should emphasize - frozen food in the pet supply chain is not always handled very well. For decades, there have been issues with frozen foods being repeatedly thawed and refrozen while going from the manufacturing plant to your home. Each cycle degrades the product. It is really bad with brine shrimp...in that case, the subsequent refreezing causes large ice crystals that pierce the shrimp's body, allowing virtually all the nutrients to leak out.

Jay

 

[tbone28]

Bacterial decomposition of the thawed food is one concern. Trouble is, it is not easily measured, so best to err on the side of caution.

Rinsing in water DOES wash away important nutrients, so that needs to be avoided.

One thing I alluded to, but should emphasize - frozen food in the pet supply chain is not always handled very well. For decades, there have been issues with frozen foods being repeatedly thawed and refrozen while going from the manufacturing plant to your home. Each cycle degrades the product. It is really bad with brine shrimp...in that case, the subsequent refreezing causes large ice crystals that pierce the shrimp's body, allowing virtually all the nutrients to leak out.

Jay

What is the time frame for washing away of nutrients? I'm trying to figure out the difference between dropping cubes into a cup of tank water and feeding the tank as soon as it has thawed versus thawing at room temperature (no water) and then feeding the tank, where not all the food can be eaten immediately and is in the water column for several minutes. It seems the same to me

 

[Bitcoin Reefer]

Yes - food should not be thawed in tank water. That rinses nutrients out of the food and it introduces bacteria from the water itself which can multiply if the food is not fed out right away.

Thawing in a refrigerator works. If you need to thaw it faster, put it in a plastic bag and hang that in water.

Jay

I don't understand. If I thaw a few cubes in a jar with tank water, and pour small amounts in throughout the day, is that a problem? I'm feeding it same day.