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Right now the only freeze dried foods I am feeding are bloodworms. I was wondering what other freeze dried foods you all feed to your fish? Also how available are these freeze dried foods at any local fish store? I would like to mix it up a little so I am not always feeding bloodworms.

Justin

Colts Fan For Life
30g platy tank: 2 sunburst wag platys, 2 redtailed white calico platys, 2 red wag platys, 1 fry(not sure who it belongs to), 1 Golden CAE.
Bettas:1 VT male

I like to use freeze-dried Tubifex worms every now and again. The bottoms feeders especially seem to like those.

I've also used bloodworms with great success.

I've never used it, but I hear that freeze-dried brine shrimp is also popular.

Joe Potato

Freeze dried krill is also fairly common but large. It's better for medium to large fish unless you crunch it up some. Leaves an impressive smell on your hands when you do that. I've also seen freeze dried brine shrimp and there's cyclop-eeze http://www.drsfostersmith.com/Product/Prod_Display.cfm?pcatid=12141&N=2004+6110

I don't look into freeze dried too often though since I mostly feed frozen with the occasional flakes.

cyclop-eeze is a bit on the expensive side, and a bit on the smelly side, but it's amazing. IME it works best to actually mix it in with your regular food by scraping a bit off the block then mashing it with a small pellet type food.

If you've got omnivores or herbivores in the tank don't forget that they'd like a treat too and that they can get blocked up if you feed them too much heavy protein.

^_^

I feed my Tiger Barbs freeze-dried bloodworms and I just began feeind them freeze-dried plankton as well. The plankton are supposed to be good for them to help maintain their color.

I pre-soak the plankton in a little dish of tank water prior to feeding it to the fish. The plankton can be a little too big. Soaking them really softens them up and they scarf them right down.

I believe the cyclop-eeze I linked to is already ground up but they do also list wafers. It is expensive. For that reason I prefer brine shrimp flakes. http://www.drsfostersmith.com/Product/Prod_Display.cfm?pcatid=8129&N=2004+6105 and if your looking for something for herbivorous fish try dried marine algae. I have some Julian Sprung's Sea Veggies that the fish really like. You do have to soak it first or they don't sink for hours but it's often a good idea to soak all freeze dried foods before giving them to the fish. Much easier to eat and digest and some say it helps prevent issues like bloat and blockages.

Ya the cyclop-eeze is like a frozen mash, which can sometimes make a bit of a gunky mess in the tank. Thats why I let it get absorbed by some dry food, that way when it hits the water it dosent all dissapate and it also lasts longer.

While the topic is freeze dried foods, let's not forget such grocery store favorites as frozen peas or fresh veggies for plecos and other omnivores. Peas poped out of their skins are great snacks for barbs. Mine would always fight over them.
For those of us further away from a LFS that actually carry more than just dry foods than human foods are an easy alternative.

^_^

Why freeze-dried instead of frozen? Convenience? The frozen food is much more effordable and comes in a great variety, fortified and from very reputable sources.

I gave up using freeze dried years ago. The main reason is it must be dissolved ( for a better word) other wise when a fish eat it, it can swell up in thier stomachs and posibly cause other problems. The only frozen food I use is the frozen blood worms in the little blocks. Yes I do dissolve it first except the Betta tank I float it in a live worm feeder. I have basically cut the bottom off and made the side slits bigger.

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Keith

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I didn't know you have to soak the freeze dried bloodworms, I am looking on the back of the container and it doesn't say anything about that(I'm not saying any of you are wrong I just can't find anything that says that). My betta is still doing great so I must not have done any damage by not soaking the bloodworms. I only feed him bloodworms once or twice a week, don't want to make it where he won't eat his pellets. Keep up the comments, I enjoy hearing your opinions on my numerous questions!

Justin

Colts Fan For Life
30g platy tank: 2 sunburst wag platys, 2 redtailed white calico platys, 2 red wag platys, 1 fry(not sure who it belongs to), 1 Golden CAE.
Bettas:1 VT male

We tried a few types of freeze dried foods and came to the conclusion it was all a waste of money so we just use frozen versions now.
Don't use bloodworm or tubifex anyway as they're deadly to my fish, but tried freeze dried daphnia, glassworm & krill - they were OK but even after soaking them there was still a tide-line of bits around the top of the water line which was a real pain to clean up - especially as we had 11 tanks at the time.
None of the lfs I know (in the UK that is) stock freeze dried so we bought them online via: http://www.ta-aquaculture.co.uk/

Id have to agree with the later posters here, becuase there is the isuue of vitamin and nutrient loss during freezing and freeze drying. While tubifex is mostly protien and that survives freeze drying, a lot of the other foods are not so good frozen or, and are in fact nothing like as nutritious as flake, having lost many of their properties from freezing or freeze drying. freeze dried bloodworm for instance will immediately lose many of the enzymes in them that help stimulate fish breeding, brineshrimp loses about 50% of ots nutritive value frozen, and is worse when freeze dried, normally losing 85% or more of its nutritive value.

Think of it in terms of nutrient loss damage, fresh is best but has pathogen risks, frozen is a compromise, but less risky on disease and still has only a partial loss of nutriment, but freeze drying loses so much nutrition that unless fortified with additional vitamins it becomes little more than a bit of protien, and it would be unwise to become too dependant on it, and in terms of diet variety its almost useless as the fish wont be getting anything from it that doesnt come in flake anyway.

The only freeze dried foods I copnsider worthwile are the tubifex for those fish that love them, and who need the extra protien, the others arent really worth the bother. Quality flake, fresh and frozen foods are better, and freeze dried should only be a small component of the diet.

Ok I made my decision on what I was going to add to his diet, and the winner is mysis shrimp. I will see how he likes it and let you all know.

Justin

Colts Fan For Life
30g platy tank: 2 sunburst wag platys, 2 redtailed white calico platys, 2 red wag platys, 1 fry(not sure who it belongs to), 1 Golden CAE.
Bettas:1 VT male