How to Feed Frozen Fish Food to Your Aquarium

Feeding only fish flakes or wafers to your aquarium fish is like the human equivalent of only eating protein bars every day. Yes, they contain a well-balanced mixture of nutritious ingredients, but wouldn’t it be nice to treat your fish to a sumptuous roast chicken dinner every once in a while? Frozen fish foods are a great option. Premium-quality fish foods are packed with healthy fatty acids and high-quality protein. After live foods, frozen foods are the next closest thing to what fish would normally eat in the wild and therefore are irresistible to picky eaters or sick animals that have decreased appetite. They are an excellent way to provide more variety and nutrition to your fish’s diet, and breeders often use them to condition their fish for spawning.

Frozen foods typically contain whole ingredients that have been flash frozen to retain as many of their original nutrients as possible, and eliminate any pathogens. Fish food can be bought at any local fish shop, pet shop or online store. They come conveniently packaged in individual cubes or as large frozen slabs that you can break apart into smaller pieces. We’ll be discussing the various types of frozen foods available and how they are best suited to your fish in the next section.

For quick and easy feeding, frozen fish foods are packaged in individual cubes.

Different Types of Frozen Fish Foods

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Like betta and pufferfish, frozen bloodworms are a hit with many species, including loaches, betta, pufferfish, and betta fish. “Bloodworms” are actually the larvae of midge flies that live in all sorts of freshwater bodies and are commonly eaten by fish, amphibians, and aquatic insects. Their bright red coloration is not caused by an artificial dye but rather naturally comes from the hemoglobin inside their bodies. Frozen bloodworms can be purchased in a variety of sizes, including regular, jumbo and mini. This will allow you to choose the size that suits your fish best. You can also try frozen tubifex, which are great for corydoras or other fish to breed with.

Dwarf puffers love eating frozen bloodworms, but make sure to add other foods to their diet for optimal health.

Certain fish (like goldfish, betta fish, and Apistogramma cichlids) can be prone to bloating and constipation if they consume too much protein and not enough fiber. We recommend frozen brine shrimp to include more roughage in their diet. Artemia brine shrimp, a 0.4 inch (1 cm) aquatic crustacean, is popular in aquarium hobby as fish food. The exoskeleton of the Artemia brine shrimp is made from tough chitin. This is not easily digestible by most animals. It acts as fiber and helps your fish pass their waste more easily. For an extra boost in vitamins and natural color enhancement, you can also feed frozen spirulina brine shrimp, which consists of brine shrimp that were gut-loaded with nutrient-rich spirulina algae.

Fish food made from brine shrimps and other crustaceans may help your fish’s digestion system run more smoothly.

Filter feeders and nano fish can’t eat larger frozen foods. They are too big to swallow and hard to eat, so you might consider giving them smaller food like frozen daphnia or cyclops. These tiny freshwater crustaceans are between 0.02-0.2inches (0.5-5mm), with cyclops being the smaller of the two. These crustaceans are delicious and rich in protein. They also have exoskeletons which aid with digestion. Frozen baby brine shrimp are a great option for baby fry. These shrimp are only 450 millimeters in size. Baby brine shrimp are different from adult brine shrimp because they still have their yolk sacs, which are filled with healthy fats and proteins that are ideal for newborn fish.

Baby salt shrimp is an excellent food for fish fry that will increase their health and survival rate.

If you have larger and more complex fish, it is best to choose frozen fish foods that are richer in ingredients like mysis shrimp, silversides, and krill. For monster fish, it may be necessary to shop at the grocery for food that is human-sized such as frozen cocktail shrimp, fish fillets, and prawns. To file their ever-growing teeth certain pufferfish need hard shells so make sure you buy frozen oysters and clams.

Frozen Fish Foods: How to Feed them

There are several methods that are commonly used to feed frozen foods, depending on how many fish and tanks you have. The easiest way is to drop a cube (or piece of the frozen food slab) directly into the aquarium, where it quickly thaws so fish can start nibbling on it. To slow down the release of the food, some people prefer to place it in a cone called a worm feeder. This will prevent any fish that are the fastest or largest from eating the entire cube.

Fold a cube with frozen bloodworms inside a worm feeder cone. This will help keep the worms contained and makes it less messy.

Other fish keepers prefer to defrost the cubes in a small jar of tank water for a few minutes and then feed the liquid using a pipette or turkey baster. This method is great for feeding many fish at once or targeting certain fish who are struggling during mealtimes. To boost the immune system and brighten your fish’s colors, you can freeze frozen food and add a few drops vitamin supplements.

We recommend adding multivitamins for fish that eat only frozen and fresh foods to prevent them from becoming deficient in nutrients.

Frozen food should not be left at room temperature more than 30 mins. Otherwise it could start to smell and spoil. Refrigerate any frozen food once it has been thawed at ambient temperature. This is because bacteria growth can have started and could have contaminated the fish food. To avoid food waste and to not upset your family members or roommates, set a timer.

Frequently Asked Questions about Frozen Fish Food

How often should you feed frozen fish food?

It all depends on what you prefer and how your fish needs to be cared for. Frozen foods can be fed to common omnivores, such as community fish, anywhere from once a fortnight to multiple times per week. Some fish, such as pufferfish and African dwarf frogs may not eat frozen food. If possible, try to vary your fish’s diet with a mix of frozen, freeze-dried, gel, live, and prepared foods (e.g., flakes and wafers) to make sure they get all the necessary nutrients they need to live a healthy and long life.

How many frozen foods should I feed my fish? Different fish have different appetites and different species are better at eating. The two main things to look at are 1) how skinny or fat your fish are and 2) how much excess food is leftover. Ideal for fish, you want a slightly rounded stomach. If your fish’s bellies appear too large, you might consider decreasing the amount they are fed. And if their bellies seem sunken in or too swollen to eat, you may consider increasing their portion sizes. If your fish leave a lot of frozen food on the ground after they are fed, you can remove it and give them less the next time. For example, if you only have one betta fish, an entire cube of bloodworms is too much for it to finish in one sitting, so you may need to cut off a section of the cube to thaw out or buy a slab of bloodworms that is easier to break into smaller pieces. You can read the full article to learn how much fish you should feed.

What should I do if my fish refuses other frozen foods? You can train your fish to eat other foods by, for example, mixing pellets with the frozen bloodworms and feeding them together. Gradually increase the amount of pellets to the bloodworms until the fish is able to eat the pellets by themselves. Fasting your fish for 2-7 days may also help whet their appetite so that they are more willing to try something new.

Frozen fish foods can be a fun, tasty way to increase variety in your fish’s diet. For more ideas on how to expand your fish’s palette, read about 5 high-quality fish foods that you have to try.