Question about frozen food

[jvswan]

Hi all, I have been successfully using the San Francisco Bay brand of frozen food in my 120g reef tank. Usually I get a package of Emerald Entre and a Saltwater Multi Pack. The Multi Pack has cubes that include mysis, krill, brine shrimp, and some other stuff. I usually feed a small cube of the Emerald Entre with one of the meaty cubes in the Multi Pack.

So, I’m thinking I want to customize my food cubes a bit, but I don’t want to go to the Asian market and get a bucket of shellfish and octopi. I’m thinking of thawing the Multi Pack and Emerald Entre cubes, mixing them up, and adding cyclops and Reef Roids, then freezing them in small cubes again. Before I do all this, I have a few questions:

Is it a bad idea to thaw and then refreeze the pre-packaged food?

Does it make sense to add Reef Roids? I know lots of people only feed the stuff 2 or 3 times per week. I feed pretty heavily once a day

Is there anything else I should add? Like, amino acid compounds or something?

Suggestions would be appreciated!

 

[vetteguy53081]

No reef rounds- will raise phosphates. Add to that mix :
Selcon vitamins
Aminos
Small plankton
Mysis shrimp
Spirulina brine shrimp
Fish eggs
Nori seaweed

 

[Red_Beard]

No reef rounds- will raise phosphates. Add to that mix :
Selcon vitamins
Aminos
Small plankton
Mysis shrimp
Spirulina brine shrimp
Fish eggs
Nori seaweed

Totally agree. I made my own with shimp, clam, squid etc, but also coral food. Vermited snails, no3 and po4 are through the roof! Target feed your coral, better for everyone.

 

[lazlodawg]

You can also buy flexible silicon ice trays online that make cubes as small as 1cm3. These are great for portion control. Be sure to defrost the food in the fridge to avoid spoilage / bacteria.

 

[vtecintegra]

Yes, it's bad to thaw and refreeze. Each freezing process ruptures some cells, degrading the food and nutritional value.

My method:

First feed mid day = SF Eggs.
Second feed evening = Rotate SF Mysis, Krill, Plankton.
Sporatic = SF Rotifers, Reef Chili, and baby brine shrimp. At least once a week.

If you are going to make food from scratch, then maybe add selcon and aminos, but I just use the cubes as is.

 

[homer1475]

Yes, it's bad to thaw and refreeze. Each freezing process ruptures some cells, degrading the food and nutritional value.

Glad someone had some sense in this thread. Not a good idea to thaw and refreeze.

 

[jvswan]

No reef rounds- will raise phosphates. Add to that mix :
Selcon vitamins
Aminos
Small plankton
Mysis shrimp
Spirulina brine shrimp
Fish eggs
Nori seaweed

I have selcon that I add to the cubes as they thaw in tank water. You’d suggest adding it to the food mix?

What/how do you add aminos? Something like the Brightwell Amino stuff?

You can also buy flexible silicon ice trays online that make cubes as small as 1cm3. These are great for portion control. Be sure to defrost the food in the fridge to avoid spoilage / bacteria.

just ordered some!

 

[Littlesquishy]

Where would you guys source mysis, fish eggs, and krill?

 

[Lavey29]

Just get LRS reef frenzy or Rods and call it a day.

 

[Littlesquishy]

I saw LRS's price. I want to see if I could make things cheaper by getting the ingredients myself. The flat I was about to buy at my LFS was 30$.

 

[Dahaker89]

WHat would be the possibility of introducing parasites with DIY food? I really want to start doing this but worry about parasites and other stuff.

 

[Fishingandreefing]

WHat would be the possibility of introducing parasites with DIY food? I really want to start doing this but worry about parasites and other stuff.

How do you introduce parasite when it’s frozen? Get all the ingredients, freeze them then grind them up. I might making my own fish food once I ran out of my stock pile of mysis but I found the diy quit messy, leaving some film on the top of the water

 

[ninjamyst]

Or just get Larry's....better than San Francisco Bay stuff

 

[Red_Beard]

I get my mysis and krill and stuff from a local company. Brineshrimpdirect.com They are awesome, but are really geared towards larger customers... like public aquariums.

 

[Fishingandreefing]

Just went to see what petco got, $10 for mysis, no way.

 

[Littlesquishy]

I think at Brineshrimpdirect, you can get 7x mysis packs (3.5 oz ea) for 10$. If I had a personal freeze for fish food I would get 21 packs at a time to save on shipping cost.

 

[Red_Beard]

I think at Brineshrimpdirect, you can get 7x mysis packs (3.5 oz ea) for 10$. If I had a personal freeze for fish food I would get 21 packs at a time to save on shipping cost.

I get them a case at a time. My wife is fine with it being in the regular freezer. They stack nice too.

 

[ectoaesthetics]

My fish loathe mysid. First time in decades of reefing that I can’t get my fish to touch the stuff. Always worked in the past.

I do use LRS and my own food.

After reading Paul Bs stuff I’ve calmed down a lot over parasites. I now purposely feed only clams and mussels I’ve frozen myself so that they are NOT put in a deep freezer and still have some bacteria. My fish do seem better for it. I also feed quite a bit of live. They love that. The hunting instinct is suuuper strong even if they were captive raised. And they seem much happier.

 

[Sink_or_Swim]

I saw LRS's price. I want to see if I could make things cheaper by getting the ingredients myself. The flat I was about to buy at my LFS was 30$.

Same here, though I mostly want to do it as something "fun" more than price (thought long term that is definitely a factor). Not much to do around here when it's below zero out, so might as well in my opinion! I like Rod's Food if I were to buy frozen. I feed my boss's fish in the office here sometimes and that's what he feeds - all the fish and corals go crazy for it.

 

[Sink_or_Swim]

Where would you guys source mysis, fish eggs, and krill?

BRS suggested find a local Asian store for fish eggs, just make sure they're not the ones dyed red/orange. (Food grade dye so it wouldn't necessarily hurt, but I wouldn't want orange water). I think they used freeze dried krill in their recipe. Can't remember about mysis. They have a great vid on youtube where they show you how to make different types of diy frozen with an ingredient list and all - worth a watch.