Freeze dried or Frozen food

[Melfice]

Hello all:

I have been using freeze dried Bloodworms made by Hikari (Also the Brine Shrimp too) & Flakes to feed my fish. They love them My question is about the frozen version. Are they about the same or better for the fish to eat (vitamins etc)?

 

[Cheese Specialist]

I dunno about vitamins but my fish go mad for frozen bloodworm and barely even notice freeze dried!

 

[pebbles]

my love the frozen best , hardly touch dried but then the frozen spreads through the tank and i think the fish think they are living because they move, they love to chase them, also find that all fish get to get some as it moves through the tank... pebbles

 

[tstenback]

My gouramis love the frozen variety while the rest of my fish attack the freeze dried versions. So i guess its all about what your fish love to eat. As far as the vitamins go the labels show similar content however I believe i read that the frozen varieties are better as they are not exposed to the air as much therefore they do not lose any of the vitamin content over time.

 

[thecichlidaddict]

It's my understanding that the freezing process retains more nutrition then the freez-dry process, but don't quote me on that

 

[heresmike]

I've heard the same thing as thecichlidaddict

 

[Dragonslair]

You are all right and so it's come down to personal choice and whether you have freezer room to store the frozen food. Sme people find it convenient to have the dried food variety.No storage problems, especially for those of you whose parents/partners object to worms or fleas or anything creepy in the freezer along with your food. Even those of you who have limited freezer room. Then there's the bother of having to defrost the food before feeding the fish. Freeze dried has only one setback, and that is it can sometimes give fish constipation if fed too much.
You see feeding freeze dried food means ALL the moisture contents is removed and therefore unless you soak the food first which very few people do. The fish eat the dried food before it has time to rehydrate, and so as the fish absorb moisture in their gut the food starts to swell. So feeding on FD foodstuffs, you need to be "mean" with it. When the food is rehydrated it can be up to 4X as big as you see it in the tin. Imagine taking one bloodworm from the tin and leaving it to soak until it could take no more mosture. Notice the size. Multiply that by the amount you put into the tank. Now that is how much you are feeding your fish.