Feeding Frozen Food

[twintanks]

I'm wondering how some of you give frozen foods to your fish. Over the past years I've only had goldfish to give it to, and there were no problems because they gobbled it up before it sank any more than an inch or so. But I am finding it tricky to feed this stuff to tropicals. Mainly because the food goes in (thawed of course); it sinks, then drifts off around the tank, settling on the plants and generally just disappearing. The fish don't know it's there half the time. A lot of it ends up in the filter.
Do any of you have little methods or tricks to get it under the fishes' noses? (frozen foods e.g bloodworms, daphnia, etc).

 

[RCA]

I use planting tongs, the best ones have a slight bend at the end. I can then show it to the fish prior to releasing it. If you use the daphnia, or small food then generally it gets blown around but stays in the water column for longer than some of the heavier blood worms etc. Hope this helps,

 

[fluttermoth]

You could always switch your filters off while you feed the fish. It's commonly done in marine systems; just remember to switch them back on again!

 

[Byron]

Interesting that your fish ignore frozen foods.  Fish have a good sense of smell, and can usually detect food after a few moments.  My fish do usually like for me to get lost after I've added the floating and sinking prepared foods, and they begin eating when I have left them.  But the frozen foods (I use bloodworms and daphnia, just once a week) I feed sitting there, bit by bit, and they are used to this and gobble these things up as fast as I can feed them.
 
So it could be an overfeeding issue (fish should always be hungry, so don't overfeed), or a threat response (someone hovering near the tank).
 
One little trick I use is to gently tap on the tank frame every time I feed them, whatever the food type.  They soon get used to this as a "dinner gong," and this allows me to see all the fish, even those normally relatively hidden that will come out when they hear this.
 
Byron.

 

[RainboWBacoN420]

Do you just throw a chunk in there?

When I feed my fish btine shrimp, I throw a chunk of it a cup filled with the tank water, stir it around until it's all broken up and you can see every individual shrimp. Next, I take a pipette and try to get as much water out of the cup as possible, then I slurp up the brine shrimp with the pipette, and just add one shrimp at a time. By doing this, I found that the shrimp sink a lot slower and this also helps in avoiding over eating. It's really easy to add one shrimp in at a time using a pipette.

Usually, when I hold any food up to the tank, the fish all gather at the front awaiting for feeding time.

 

[Akasha72]

I add the blocks to a clean yogurt pot, add a some tank water and let it thaw. Once thawed I grab my turkey baster, stir gently then suck up a bit and squirt it in various area's of the tank so my angels don't gobble the lot. I keep feeding it bit by bit in the same manor until it's all gone. This way all my fish get some and not just the greedy bunch (my angels mostly but the tetra's can be fast and greedy too)

 

[twintanks]

Yes I do thaw using the tank water, and have got a few plastic pipettes also....tried squirting here and there, above areas where the fish tend to hang out and probe the substrate. I'm wondering whether I should try a non-feed day, the day before I give them frozen food....and turn the filter off for a while, since this seems an acceptable idea. The only fish that seem keen are the neon tetras, who scrap over bits of bloodworm. Byron's idea of a dinner-gong is nice...our neighbour used to bang a saucepan for feeding chickens...overall it  looks like I have to finesse the technique and reduce the menu a bit....

 

[Byron]

I don't know how often you are feeding frozen foods, but my suggestion would be to consider them as special treats, not staple foods.  Bloodworms should only be fed once a week at most.  Daphnia is fine.  But the prepared (dry) foods are generally going to be more nutritional and should form the staple diet.
 
Byron.

 

[Brodeur30]

I just pop in a bunch of frozen bloodworm drops and they go nuts. I usually feed small south american cichlids

 

[vwdank]

I usually let my blood worms thaw for about 5 minutes after cutting up into very small cubes and then use the tank water to finish up thawing and release my fingers and let loose. 
 
I am going to use the tank water in bowl method next and even the dropper tool sounds great. 
 
Very good idea on the dinner gong tap, I will start doing this as well.
 
Ok I just googled "pipettes" so thats what they are called, I have these as well (wife loves to bake/cook yay me).