# Frozen Food: How Often Can You Use It?



## lauraleellbp (Feb 3, 2008)

I rotate foods and rarely feed the same from day to day. Frozen foods (mysis, bloodworms, spirulina-enriched brine shrimp, and daphnia) make up about 50% of my fish's diets, with a good quality flake and sinking wafers making up most of the rest.

I think you would be OK feeding just frozen foods, as long as you provide variety and make sure that they also get enough vegetable content (which is part of the reason I also feed flake and spirulina-enriched foods).


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## barbarossa4122 (Jan 16, 2010)

I make my own food using Mazuri gel powder and "Gerber garden vegetables" baby food . I make enough for about a month and keep it in the freezer. Oh, I forgot, sometimes I add spirulina sticks to the mix. I feed goldies, neon tetras and harlequins. Also feed them blood worms once a week.


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## mistergreen (Dec 9, 2006)

I rotate the food types throughout the day. I'd feed flakes, pellets, frozen and live when I can get it within the same day. They do get spoiled if they eat nothing but frozen and will eat nothing else or at least it seems like it


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## EntoCraig (Jun 7, 2010)

I pretty much use Brinshrimp exclusively. And blanched veggies for those that eat veg.


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## LilGreenPuffer (Sep 23, 2010)

Brine shrimp are high in fat and low in other nutrition.

Insectivores will benefit a lot from frozen worms and shrimp - invertebrates are the best food for them. As long as they are still getting variety in the types of frozen food or from other prepared foods, you can use it quite a bit. When I don't have access to live worms, my dwarf puffer has to eat frozen foods exclusively, and then my bettas (insectivores) are on a completely frozen diet because I might as well defrost enough to go around. They do very well on it, just as well as on a high-quality prepared food diet, if not better.


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## EntoCraig (Jun 7, 2010)

LilGreenPuffer said:


> Brine shrimp are high in fat and low in other nutrition.


False. There is a lot of mis-info out there on the quality of brineshrimp.

At first I thought they were crap also, but after a visit to 2 local wholesale / large scale breeders. I learned the truth. Both had done extensive research on the quality of Brineshrimp. Both warehouses feed almost all there fish Brines Exclusively.

If you would like some info on Brineshrimp and the truth about their quality, email Bob at http://www.africanlake.com


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## lauraleellbp (Feb 3, 2008)

If you raise your own brine shrimp and therefore control what they eat and how often they eat then yes, BS can provide decent nutrition.

That's not realistic for the average hobbyist, and frozen BS may or may not be good quality.

Buying live BS at the average fish store, those BS are rarely fed and usually poor nutrition.

So it really all depends.

Personally, I wouldn't rely on a single food source for my fish. The vast majority of fish are opportunistic omnivores, so their diet would vary considerably in the wild from day to day and feeding to feeding. Offering a wide variety of foods can help prevent various nutrient deficiencies that might develop if relying exclusively on one food source.


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## EntoCraig (Jun 7, 2010)

I agree. My omnivorous fish get blanched veggies and Algae tabs to supplement the Brine Diet.

Living near SLC gives me the benefit of having unlimited access to BS eggs and raising my own  New hatched and proper raised Brines are ridiculously healthy! Most local shops and warehouse breeders to feed there entire stock these little guys, but again we have The Great Salt Lake in our backyard so...


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## LilGreenPuffer (Sep 23, 2010)

Baby brine shrimp are great, sure, but the older ones, not so much, not unless they're well gut-loaded, which frozen ones aren't, at least not the brands I've tried.


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## ReefkprZ (Aug 21, 2010)

between my freezer and My "bookshelf" I think i have more fish foods than I do people foods in my house. I use umpteen various frozen foods, plus my own home made foods (yes plural i have several different varieties) plus tons of pelleted flaked and other garbage that was given to me as samples or such, mostly I just use those as an occasional treat not true nutrition. Brine I only use to entice finicky eaters to start hitting at foods, only after soaking in garlic or vitamins. but as a complete diet no, IMO frozen adult brine are the equivilent of popcorn, adult live gut loaded are OK if you can't get your fish to eat anything else (though i would shoot for anything else first). baby brine are great for the first 12 hours after hatching, after that they are pretty much nutritionally void unless your feeding them hardcore.

but back to the op's question. your fine to feed frozen foods everyday (or rather at every feeding), but you do want to try and rotate your fishes diet a bit because feeding exclusively one food is going to lead to deficiencies. in the wild insectivorous fishes would eat many types of bugs that are consuming a wide variety of things to completely balance their diet. IMHO there is no "ONE TRUE FOOD". Variety. even if they have a favorite, you should feed them other things too.


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## EntoCraig (Jun 7, 2010)

LilGreenPuffer said:


> Baby brine shrimp are great, sure, but the older ones, not so much, not unless they're well gut-loaded, which frozen ones aren't, at least not the brands I've tried.


Which why you need to breed your own


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## Sharkfood (May 2, 2010)

Some fish will not eat prepared foods in which case live or frozen foods are your only option. The best method as has been previously stated is to mix it up. Feed several types of frozen food or live if possible. 

BTW I've found that some fish that will spit out flakes and give you a dirty look afterwards will often still eat Hikari micropellets. I have no idea why as the ingredients are basically the same as every other garden variety flake/pellet food I've seen. It might be the small size which allows them to swallow it without chewing. There are 1 or 2 types of fish I've had over the years though that just simply will not consume anything other than frozen/live food.


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## mistergreen (Dec 9, 2006)

Food freshness could be an issue as well. I don't think anybody likes stale food.


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