Rinsing/straining frozen shrimp

[jabberwock]

Should I strain frozen mysis as they thaw? Or even rinse them? Seems like a lot of extra grease in the frozen cubes. Dr Gs frozen gut loaded mysis. I have a 32 gallon tank with 3 fish and a small cleanup crew. 4 nessarius, 2 trochus, 1 hermit. I think I should feed about 1/4 of a cube a day. Does that sound right? Thanks!

 

[Reefcowboy]

I always throw a mysis cube in a really small fish net and run it under hot water in the sink so it thaws. I then squeeze my fingers through it to squeeze out all water and phosphates, leaving only the shrimp. I would never throw the cube in the tank. Unnecessary phosphate you dont need in the tank

 

[Flippers4pups]

Some drain them, others don't. I just place in a cup with some saltwater, let thaw and drain off the liquid and feed.

 

[40B Knasty]

I think Randy Holmes-Farley did a test on this and he said it basically rinsing it was kind of pointless. I am sure he will chime in.
As far as how much of a cube or cubes you put in all depends on your nutrients export.
For example I have 65g with a plate of Marine Pure in a FLUVAL C4, mini cheato reactor, 65 lbs of live rock, 50 lbs of sand, bag of Phosguard in a tetra 10 filter, and a protein skimmer. I feed 2 whole cubes per day. Sometimes 2 1/2 and I don't get nitrates. Phosguard helps with phosphates. So feed what you feel your tank can handle to export.
If you have a 30g with 10lbs of live rock, glass bottom, and Fluval 50 with the ceramics for your biological filtration. You will run into some headaches of not removing enough nutrients.

 

[Reefcowboy]

I agree with good export as key. My tank is mainy sps so I prefer knowing what goes in my tank. There are many companies producing frozen food out there, it would be impossible to know exactly what they consistently put in all the batches they produce.

 

[jabberwock]

So I guess I don't mean rinsing it, just draining off the excess liquid that is already on it. A small amount of thick oily fluid that the fish don't really ingest, it just mixes in the tank water. The instructions on the package say not to rinse it.

As for export, I think i got it. I have a fully cycled 32 gallon biocube with 25 lbs of reef saver dry rock, 40 lbs of caribsea live sand, ceramic media 2 large sponge filters with a fine floss filter pad and 100 ml of purfiltrum (which is getting some color on it). I am running the stock pump. Three small fish, 6 snails, 1 hermit, and three small frags. Oh and a couple micro brittle stars that hitched their way in. So not a large bioload. I would hate to screw it up by over feeding.

I fed 1/2 a cube yesterday and it seemed like a lot. I think I will go down to 1/4 of a cube and feed just pellets every other day.

 

[mfinn]

I always drain the liquid from my frozen mysis and brine shrimp. Have been for a couple decades.

 

[redfishbluefish]

HERE's Randy's article about phosphates, and the need to rinse....NOT!

Here are the highlighted points that stress that there is no need to rinse the food you feed your fish.

So the hypothetical rinsing step has removed about 1 percent of the phosphate in that food. .....That amount washed away does not seem significant with respect to the "in tank" target level of about 50-100 times that level (say, 0.015 to 0.03 ppm), nor does it seem significant relative to the total amount of phosphate actually added each day in foods (which is perhaps 50-1000 times as much......Again, the conclusion I make is that rinsing is not really worthwhile, in my opinion.

 

[Fin]

Used to thaw and rinse with RO water. Don't anymore and notice no difference whatsoever.

 

[LadyMac]

I hand feed a frozen cube to the clowns and then my freshwater tank gets the rest of it. I don’t hand feed those monsters though.

 

[jabberwock]

I will drain, not rinse, and see how it goes. Thanks for all the help!

 

[Neptune 2k]

Over the years haven’t noticed much if any difference. Maybe it’s a food thing.

 

[CODE3EMT]

I thought PEMYSIS was soaked in some oily additive? Wouldn't rinsing it be counter productive?

 

[jabberwock]

This is an interesting development. Since I have started draining the thawed mysis, the fish have lost interest in eating it. They are preferring pellets now, except the watchman goby, he is still after the shrimp. I will not drain the next batch and see if their behavior changes.

 

[Punchanello]

I would have thought all meaty foods frozen foods would have oils and fats in them. Some in the liquid frozen with the meat and a lot within the meat. Most organisms derive nutrition and dare I say flavour from fats and oils. Washing those out seems counter productive.

 

[jabberwock]

They really seem to like it better when I don't drain it. I also only thaw what little bit I need before feeding., instead thawing a whole cube and using it for a few days.

 

[JRAD]

I bought 400 Jell-O shot cups with lids from amazon for ~$8. I put a cube of omega 3 enriched brine with a cube of mini mysis. Put the lid on and put I refrigerator to thaw. This is 3 feedings for my tank. Before feeding I use a paper towel to wick away the exess juice and then feed. Sometimes will add Selcon or garlic to the mix!

 

[DesertReefT4r]

I used to drain then started rinsing now it all goes in. One critter or another will benefit from the nutrients in the juice from thawing and if not my skimmer will remove it. Lps seem to like it.

 

[aznreef99]

i ised to just dump it into tank but now i drain before feeding. i think its a personal preference

 

[Tajaba]

I'd only rinse if I wasn't sure of how well they were frozen. The main brands like PE or Hikari I usually just throw in the tank without any problems. But when I feed frozen white shrimp juveniles from local sources I usually rinse them a couple times just to make sure there aren't any weird contaminants.