Mr. Saltwater Tank TV Friday AM Quick Tip #136: How To Feed Your Fish When You Are In A Hurry
Saltwater fish have to eat to survive and you are a busy person rushing out the door. Realizing, you haven’t fed your fish for the day, what do you do? You use this quick tip to satisfy your finned friends until you’ve got time to sit down at the table with them and enjoy a proper meal.
Browse the Store! Questions?
Mark, how many times a day do you recommend one should feed their fish?
Good tip Mark, I will be glad when winter come so I can enjoy my tank again…
Good Tip
Do you need to mix the thawed out food with some RO or salt water?
Ryan…if the food is too thick to easily come out of the bottle, I’d add in some RO water. Not saltwater as if you use water from your tank, it will contain bacteria that will die and cause issues during the week
I am asking is it safe for a week in the fridge without harming the animals in my tank…I guess I am asking how long will it last in the fridge before it will go bad? Love all your tips! Thanks!!
Hi Mark,
Garlic ? Whats the story on adding it to food ? Some people say its bad for the fishes liver and it turns them off feeding ? Also it doesnt help with ICH at all ? Is it worth putting on the food in your tank master opinion ? Great feeding tip – always wondered about keeping a supply in the fridge or if there was some auto feed unit out there for frozen cubes! Feed my guys Flake, froozen, and seaweed everyday. gobbly it up but its a challenge with the froozen when your rushing or trusting someone else with feeding! Also would LOVE a Powder Blue am I totally mad for wanting one ? Loads of people saying their mucho trouble and 99% sure they will get the dreaded ICH at some stage ???????
All my fish eat pellets, so I simply throw in a pinch on those days I’m in a hurry and then feed the good stuff later
Thank you for this Tip!!!
I’m ordering a Dispensing Bottle now and if anyone uses the Dr G squeeze bottles I’m sure you could reuse those as well.
I’ve kept my old ones since the new ones only come with Caps now and no longer include the pop up to squirt the food out.
Now that’s a corker of an idea… Genius thoughts squeezed into a bottle 😀
the only concern I guess I would have is that it sounds like a bottle of nitrates, as the food sits in the container for a week. Not to mention for those that put too much in the bottle, so that it lasts for weeks on end. But it’s still a good idea, as there is no fool-proof feeding system. I use an eheim auto feeder with sinking pellets, which is probably full of phosphate, in addition to nitrate. Yes, I’m lazy. But the fish are happy.
For what it is worth I only put enough in to feed them for a week (at most).
Perfect answer to feeding…NO, but it gets you by in an emergency.
I work in surgery and am on call quite a bit. I must make money to support this addiction, and the fish have a habit of needing food.
Quick shot of food and off to save a life I go, without worrying about all the hungry children I have to feed. 🙂
Richard
Ryan:
I thaw my frozen food in DI water, put it in the bottle, and thin it out with additional DI water so “Happy Squeezing” occurs. 🙂
Richard
After thawing the frozen food, rinse it in DI water and throw away that water. It contains phos and nitrates. Put the thawed food in new DI water for feeding later.
How long will it last in the refrigerator?
I use syringes (without the needle) with pre-thawed Mysis & Brine shrimp usually a cube of each in RO,DI water to fill the extra volume in the syringe, then leave it in the fridge, one for each day. This is the only way I can have trust that the person feeding the fish who isn’t experienced at reef keeping (the female in my life) won’t overfeed the tank. Using one of these syringes for each day I’m away with instructions to invert it so as to let the food mix in the whole volume of the 25cc/ml plastic syringe(also stops it clogging the tip) as this size has a larger nozzle that allows the Mysis shrimp out. The last tip for her is to squirt a bit at a time in front of the vortex MP60 firstly put into feed mode.
This small investment of a hand full of disposable syringes cost less than $1.00 per unit gives me complete piece of mind, and lets her feel in control, as she knows how particular I am on this expensive glass box that eats up my time and money. Works for me and they are re-useable, plus I suppose they could be frozen & thawed if needed.
Hmmm , so are you all telling me that what I’ve been doing which is dropping a small cube of frozen food into the tank isn’t a good idea? As it melts it drops small pieces of the Mysis shrimp into the water for slower feeding……
I have been thawing a mixture of frozen foods, with Garlic added and keep in the Frig in air-tight containers (urnine cups are perfect for this) for years now. I always have about a two week supply on hand and have never had an adverse affect. I do go through the proper preparation procedures when thawing, namely, thawing in RO/DI water and rinsing with RO/DI water before storing.
The final mixture is somewhat thicker than what could be squeezed from a bottle, but the principle is the same.
My fish are big, bright and healthy………so ultimately I am agreeing with this quick tip but don’t see why it is a quick tip (as opposed to good habit)
when people add Garlic, is it just that chopped up garlic that you buy at at the regular grocery store? or do you buy some fish food type of garlic solution? and just wondering, i only have a Nano so i dont have to feed much, but how much frozen food does a tank like Marks take each day? 1 cube? 3 cubes? i have no idea, 1 cube last me a long time in my little nano tank !
Garlic I get from pet store. You need as they all say to thaw frozen food out with RO/DI water and dump it in a brine shrimp net to drain it. The frozen food has extra items in the water to freeze it which which we do not need in the tank which the algae love.
Keeping thawed food in DI water may be unsuitable. The DI water has zero osmotic pressure. Hence the food will absorb the water and this will cause cellular breakdown and disruption. To store food I would suggest clean ( not tank) salty isotonic water which will keep the food in tip top condition
What of we didn’t refrigerate the food?