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jml1149
03/09/2015, 10:16 AM
Currently I have a 29g tank, with one occelaris clownfish and one purple pseudochromis.

Generally over the course of a week, in my 29g tank, I feed about one whole frozen cube, a couple pinches of pellets, and a couple pinches of flake for the clown who likes the small pieces that float around.

My question is, can I thaw a whole cube and keep it in the refrigerator, portioning out a bit each day, or should I cut the cube up and thaw it fresh each day? Does it make a difference?

Also, may be a stupid question, but how warm should the frozen food be when feeding it? Is it ok if it's refrig temp, or should I let it warm up first?

Its generally a cube of frozen mysis, frozen brine with selcon, or a frozen cube of marine feast depending on the week.

It's also my beer fridge, so the wife doesn't really care. Too much. She cares some. Hah. It does tend to stink it up, even in a sealed container.

As always, any help certainly appreciated.

FraggledRock
03/09/2015, 10:18 AM
well 1. thats a lot of food for just 2 fish.

cut back a bit.

what I do is mix a few different types into a little plastic container with garlic extract and a bit of tank water. I then use a mini baster to squeeze some in.

keep in mind i also have a process in rinsing the frozen food with a net and fresh rodi water or tank water, to remove excess additives that they freeze ti with.

Dmorty217
03/09/2015, 10:38 AM
I thaw out food and leave in the refrig and feed daily until it's all gone at refrig temps... I don't cover the food like some suggest and it sits in my fridge and is fed off over a week sometimes more. Have been doing this for years without any problems. I would rinse the frozen like mentioned above with a tank your size to rid the food of excess nutrients

cloak
03/09/2015, 10:44 AM
Feeding the food cold is fine. As far as thawing it out goes you could try doing this, but after 48 hours or so I would be a little weary of this. You'll just have to see how it holds up. (smells) IMO you would probably be better off just thawing out a half a cube at a time. GL.

cloak
03/09/2015, 11:47 AM
Woops... (edit gone wrong)

jml1149
03/09/2015, 01:18 PM
well 1. thats a lot of food for just 2 fish.

cut back a bit.

what I do is mix a few different types into a little plastic container with garlic extract and a bit of tank water. I then use a mini baster to squeeze some in.

keep in mind i also have a process in rinsing the frozen food with a net and fresh rodi water or tank water, to remove excess additives that they freeze ti with.

Thanks! Do you have a post to your rinsing of the frozen food?

Also, if 1 cube a week is too much, should I cut that in half to half a cube per week for the two small fish? Generally, there's never any left. There's 4 hermits and 4 Nass. snails roaming the tank when the food hits and within 3 minutes all of the food suspended in the tank is down or gone, and within 10, there's no remnants left on the sand bed that I can see.

jml1149
03/09/2015, 01:19 PM
Feeding the food cold is fine. As far as thawing it out goes you could try doing this, but after 48 hours or so I would be a little weary of this. You'll just have to see how it holds up. (smells) IMO you would probably be better off just thawing out a half a cube at a time. GL.

Do you feed 1/2 cube per day in your 20g DT?

cloak
03/09/2015, 01:57 PM
A half a cube of Mysis or something similiar would probably last me a couple of days. Being that I feed different foods on different days though, I could probably stretch the whole cube out for a week, but I'm not willing to keep thawed out food in the refrigerator for that long. Also, food hitting the ground is something I try to avoid. The fish are eating damn near 99.9% of what I offer them.

The link below has some good information in it regarding rinsing frozen foods btw.

http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2012/3/chemistry?utm_source=nivoslider&utm_medium=slider&utm_campaign=clickthru

kmbyrnes
03/10/2015, 07:21 AM
You can also buy the smaller cubes. Either way I wouldn't keep the stuff around more than a day.
I just thaw the cubes in some tank water until they melt enough to break apart easily and dump them in the tank.
I don't rinse, but in a smaller tank the extra additives might be a concern.

Waters40
03/10/2015, 07:33 AM
I just cut a small amount from a frozen block and put it in a dixie cup with some tank water until it thaws. I then drain the water out and feed the fish.

Pigpen17
03/10/2015, 07:40 AM
You'll get a lot of different answers regarding how much to feed. The gap is actually amazing. From once a day, to once a week. It just goes to show how much we still have to learn about fishkeeping. I just do what seems to make my fish happy.

I'm going to have to try this thawed in the fridge thing. Would save me a ton of time.

tmz
03/10/2015, 09:42 AM
I'd cut them up into smaller pieces.24 to 48 hours is about as long as go refrigerated . I feed a lot and lean in that direction.

Rinsing is useful with tap water to limit vibrio bacteria,IMO. It's not much of a deal in terms of additives and may be ok without rinsing at all but I'm a bit cautious. Garlic is pretty useless, IME and may be harmful to internal organs overtime per some reports.

I feed alot of a mixed variety of foods 2x per day for the 50 plus fish in my system.

I take a days porotion of food and thaw it in tap water. Pass it all torough a brine shrimp net. Dump the food back into the container after dumping the rinsing water and mix it with ro water before feeding.