How to feed frozen food?

[Tcook]

I take 3-4 cubes mysis and 1 cube brine into a plastic urine container and thaw in the fridge. Spoon in what I need each feeding and then back in the fridge. Lasts me about 1-2 days. I let some of the liquid run off the spoon but I don't strain.

 

[zalick]

I tend to avoid overthinking it. Throw a few days worth of frozen food (reef frenzy in my case) into a small glass container with a lid. Feed it whenever I feel like into the tank, store the rest in the fridge.

My nutrients have been super super low of late, so I’m up to feeding about 6 or 8 times a day. Working from home is good, but I have a plank auto feeder on order to automate most of those with freeze dried plankton soon. Will keep a couple of reef frenzy feedings though, since the fish definitely dig it

This is my method for the last 20+ years. Never an issue either.

 

[James_O]

Thanks guys! I will try these suggestions.

 

[RuuToo]

Oh. Forgot to add. If you have a spouse, or want one, the lid on that food container in the fridge is *super* important

 

[James_O]

Oh. Forgot to add. If you have a spouse, or want one, the lid on that food container in the fridge is *super* important

I strictly told them not to eat my shrimp cubes. ;Wacky

 

[ReefFrenzy]

Like @RuuToo, I put a week’s worth of LRS into a lab squirt bottle, add Selcon and water (saltwater or RODI, depending on what’s available), let it thaw in the fridge, then just squirt it in at feeding time. Works great and makes it quick so I don’t have to sit and wait for a cube of something to thaw in a glass. Mix in whatever you like, just make sure that it can fit through the tube on the bottle!

I wanted to say thanks for all the R2R members who have mentioned using LRS foods!

Although some people get away with thawing frozen foods and keeping it in the fridge for several days this is not a best practice and certainly not recommended with LRS foods. Our foods are produced using locally sourced shrimp and other seafood ingredients. The fresh seafoods take a few days to reach our facility and then another spend another couple of days during processing. Things like fresh shrimp get harvested on a Wed-Friday and get delivered to the wholesaler on Saturday. Our wholesaler delivers seafood here every Monday and Thursday. So in the case of the fresh shrimp they have been out of water and packed on ice for 5-7 days before we process and re-freeze into our food blends.

If you then take a pack of LRS food, thaw out a chunk and place it in the fridge for a week by the end of that week that food has clearly turned and is not as fresh as we intended it to be for the consumer. Remember in the shrimp example above that the shrimp could be a week old when we get them, so if you keep them in the fridge for another week those shrimp are now in an unthawed state for a total of 14 days. At minimum the lipds and amino acids have degraded and at worst bacteria could start to form. Public aquariums go through the laborious task of preparing food daily because it truly is best to keep the food frozen until it is feeding time. I get that it is easier to keep some food thawed in a cup, but it really isn't that much more work to just snap off a piece of LRS and drop it directly in the tank or thaw in a cup for 5 minutes. You can drop frozen LRS in the aquarium and fish will pick it apart as it floats and thaws.

Again thanks for all the compliments and recommendations for LRS foods, but I wanted to explain why we don't recommend keeping food in the fridge since we have a lot of new hobbyists visiting the forums.

 

[NoahLikesFish]

I just pick up frozen food and feed with my bare hand or I feed with a turkey baster

 

[ReefFrenzy]

I just pick up frozen food and feed with my bare hand or I feed with a turkey baster

In the case of our flat packs of food, you simply break off an appropriate sized piece of food, thaw in a cup of water, stir it up a little and then dump it in the tank. You can use a turkey baster if you choose to but it's not needed.

If you add it while still frozen the fish will pick at it as it thaws.

 

[NoahLikesFish]

Does reef frenzy stick to glass?

 

[ReefFrenzy]

Does reef frenzy stick to glass?

It will stick to glass unless an aggressive fish rips it off. The Fertility Frenzy blend sticks the best because it has a gel binder in the recipe.

 

[dhnguyen]

I make my own fish food from fresh and frozen seafood, add frozen mysis and frozen blood worms. All ingredients are soaked and rinsed in RO/Di to get rid of excess phosphate. I then add selcon and nori and blend it all up. I then divide the mixture into large freezer zip lock bags and store them in the freezer flattened. I just break off how much I want to feed and thaw it in tank water.

 

[jsanchez]

I feed about between 6-8 times a day.

2x a day are TDO pellets on an auto feeder and 2x a day of NLS Algaemax (about a table spoon total per day).

2x a day is a sheet of nori.

1-2 times a day they get @ReefFrenzy. Since I'm in NC it's by far the freshest food I can get that's pre-made. My fish destroy it.

For LRS I just add it to a shot glass with kz fish aminos.