Can a tetra get bound up from eating too many frozen brine shrimp???

[Magnum Man]

I lost my biggest, best, interuptus male today ( the one that’s been dancing a lot lately ) he kinda had a pooched out butt when he was dead… he was typically hogging the frozen brine shrimp cubes, sometimes eating literally half a cube at a time… otherwise he looked like a show fish, really beautiful, nearly 4" long, with lots of color, & extended fins... with my best Denison doing the same thing, a week before... ( different tank ) maybe the dominant fish are eating too many at a time??? I’m feeding a couple cubes per tank, every other day, trying to make sure at least everyone gets a chance at 1 or 2 frozen shrimp...sometimes 2 days I’m a row… thoughts???

 

[Fishmanic]

I dissolve part of a cube in a small container of tank water and feed with an eyedropper to control how much is fed and where to direct the shrimp. Dont overfeed brine shrimp.
How many and what type of fish are in the tank.

I consider brine shrimp as an occasional treat. Pellets or flakes are better balanced foods.

 

[Magnum Man]

There’s “too many fish” ( I have heavily stocked tanks, but all are pretty "over filtered" & highly aerated ) but big boy always ate more than his share… I think I’ll add a shaker jar, to the aquarium tools… the shrimp fall apart easily, but the frozen blood worms I don’t feed as often, are in a big tangled ball ( frozen cubes as well ), but don’t fall apart as easy, as they are longer & in a tangle in the frozen cube… I haven’t been feeding the frozen blood worms as often, because of that… BTW... I use a quality dry packaged "everyday" food with probiotics... but since I found a source for the frozen foods semi-local, I've been feeding them more often... the Denison was the dominant Denison, but the Tin Foils in that tank are dominant as far as eating… this interuptus was the dominant fish in that tank… I have been trying to thaw the cubes on a tea spoon, just in an attempt to spread them around, so the bigger fish don’t dominate eating them, like this Congo Tetra always did.

 

[MaloK]

I use an old fashioned glass to melt the cubes in tap water then use a strainer to rinse thoroughly under the tap. I put it back in the glass and add tank water before serving with a large dropper.

I keep the rest in the fridge with sufficient level of water.. And rinse before every use.

It's not good for the fish to have them eat those frozen, and not rinsing will put a lot of nutrients in the water.

The juice from the brine shrimps turns into ammonia in like 5 minutes. It's not really a problem in large tanks, but in a 5 gallons and smaller tanks, it will crap the water real good.

 

[Magnum Man]

yes, I've been plopping them in frozen... & all the tanks are 45 gallons or larger... no ammonia issues with as heavily as the tanks are planted, & well seasoned

 

[Magnum Man]

"How many and what type of fish are in the tank." these 2 unexpected fish deaths occurred, in my African Tetra tank, & my Asian tank... both of which have pretty pristine water since I added a dedicated RO filter for my aquarium fill water, & I haven't lost a fish in either tank for more than 6 months, or at least as long as I've been doing the RO water

 

[Colin_T]

Frozen brineshrimp will not kill fish unless the brineshrimp is contaminated with bacteria. Then the fish can get an internal bacterial infection, stop eating, swell up overnight, do a stringy white poop and die.

Brineshrimp do not have a hard shell and fish can eat as much as they like and it will not kill them.

I used to drop a couple of blocks of frozen brineshrimp into my tanks (and the shop tanks) and it floated around while pieces came off or got ripped off by the fish.

If you are losing fish regularly, then you need to find out why.
What symptoms did they have and how long did they have them?

 

[GaryE]

I'm with @Colin_T on this one. I doubt it's the food.

It's time to become a forensic aquarist and try to figure the pattern (if there is one) and the cause here.

 

[Lateral Line]

I always put frozen food in an egg cup, (any convenient suitably sized container to hand), filled with tank water to melt. I can imagine a situation where a fish swallows frozen food which then damages the throat/intestine of the animal by frost bite or similar. It is not a natural thing for a tropical fish to encounter, so their systems and generally poor intelligence are not geared to "best practices".

 

[Magnum Man]

I have started adding 1 ounce of hot RO water from my kitchen RO unit, to a small bottle, then adding 2-3 frozen brine cubes, cap it & shake it up, 10-15 minutes before feeding, shaking intermittently, then just pout it between a few aquariums... doing this disperses the shrimp very nicely, so everyone gets some... by only using a small amount of RO water, I can add the shrimp to several different tanks, without mixing tank water... my Kitchen RO unit only does hot or cold RO... if adding hot water is a problem, I could use cold, but with the frozen cubes, the water chills right away... but I'm sure the cubes would also melt in the cold water, in the 10-15 minutes before I feed them... no strange unexplained deaths since I started feeding the frozen brine this way...

 

[Uberhoust]

I lost my biggest, best, interuptus male today ( the one that’s been dancing a lot lately ) he kinda had a pooched out butt when he was dead… he was typically hogging the frozen brine shrimp cubes, sometimes eating literally half a cube at a time

I have had a similar issue, but with blood worms. One of my favorite angel fish would gorge on frozen blood worms then a day later would have a prolapsed anus. In my case he recovered but then the next time I feed blood worms he did the same thing again, eating almost a whole cube, and again a prolapsed anus, again he recovered. In the end I had to start thawing the cubes before feeding and the issue went away. If the anus did not recover rapidly there is a high chance of sensitive tissues being exposed to external damage and infection.

I have been feeding fish frozen unthawed bloodworms for years and I have never had a fish suffer from a prolapsed anus before or since, but I believe that if a fish is pre-disposed to having issues passing a large stool (is that the right word for fish poop), then I suspect it is possible to have the same affect with brine shrimp.

 

[10 Tanks]

Hello Magnum. If you're worried about your fish having trouble doing their business, just add some Spirulina to their diet. It's a great source of numerous nutrients and has the added benefit of fiber.

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