# thawing frozen food



## chongx (Mar 18, 2006)

i feed my 3 rbp mostly frozen foods, and im to lazy to thaw it out, so i just throw it in there frozen. is this a bad thing? the p's are about 1.1 inches in a 29 gallon tank. also does anyone have tips on how to get your piranhas to eat ciclid pellets? im low on cash and don't want to keep buying frozen food.


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## 2PiRaNhA~2FuRrY (Nov 1, 2005)

blind-fury said:


> i feed my 3 rbp mostly frozen foods, and im to lazy to thaw it out, so i just throw it in there frozen. is this a bad thing? the p's are about 1.1 inches in a 29 gallon tank. also does anyone have tips on how to get your piranhas to eat ciclid pellets? im low on cash and don't want to keep buying frozen food.


first off







to p-fury, if you want to feed your p with froozen food, soak it with warm water untill it get soft. becuse your p are to little to eat it froozen.

if you want to feed them pallet you have to train them. dont feed them froozen food, starve them for a day or two, then put the pallet in. if they eat the pallet, keep feeding them that.


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## therizman1 (Jan 6, 2006)

You def need to thaw it out... it isnt that hard to keep a cup by your p tank and when you feed them just let the frozen food float in a cup of tank water.

As for getting them to eat cichlid pellets... mine learned from watching feeder guppies eat them.


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## chongx (Mar 18, 2006)

alright thanks alot, i thought when everyone said to thaw frozen food was to get rid of watery germs or sumthing.


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## MR.FREEZ (Jan 26, 2004)

fish are cold blooded and feeding them frozen foods

isnt good cause it will mess with their digestive tract.

it doesnt take long to thaw out the food.


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## boontje (Mar 27, 2005)

why is it so much work to thaw frozen food? you just put it in a cup of water and wait. Not much work.
BTW never use hot water to thaw the food. It will decrease the nutritional value and it might give it a strange taste so your fish won't like it too much.

I don't know what kind of frozen food you feed, but cichlid pellets are IME a lot more expensive than frozen foods. Get some uncooked frozen foods (whole fish, fish fillet, mussels, shrimp,squid, etc.) from the grocery store.  (Make sure it has no preservatives). You cannot beat the price of that.


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## rocker (Aug 12, 2005)

i just blast my smelt under hot water for like 20 seconds. works fast.

and dont say "thats bad your cooking the food" cause it 20 seconds. It honestly isnt going to take ALL of the nutrients out and its not really even cooking the food.


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## boontje (Mar 27, 2005)

rocker said:


> i just blast my smelt under hot water for like 20 seconds. works fast.
> 
> and dont say "thats bad your cooking the food" cause it 20 seconds. It honestly isnt going to take ALL of the nutrients out and its not really even cooking the food.


Did you ever try to put your hand in boiling water for 1 second? I mean it's only 1 second it can't hurt, right?

Obviously it won't remove all the nutritients, but 20 seconds will probably not be enough to thaw the food properly and it will remove SOME of the nutritients.


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## chongx (Mar 18, 2006)

hmmmm i buy packed frozen food(packed in cubes) from the pet shop for about 6-8 dollars which i think is kinda expensive. the pellets are only 3-4 dollars. hmmm well my folks get food stamp (what do you expect im from fresno, and i don't care what anyone thinks, its free money) so i may start buying from the grocery store from now on...what should i get for my p's cause they still kinda small.


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## mblaze420 (Jan 9, 2006)

Just buy some Tilapia or catfish fillet. maybe some UNCOOKED shrimp. Im sure there is a thread on feeding. cut them up into small enough pieces then freeze. I wish my ps ate dry food but they just chew it up an spit it all over the tank.


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## PiranhaHockey88 (Jan 9, 2006)

if you wanna go frozen from the pet store....save some money and dont buy the cubes, you are paying for the extra packaging. just buy the bads that are separated ayou get alot more for the money. all ya do is break off a piece instead of pullin out a cube, same thing and a lot cheaper if ya wanna stik with the LFS food. But if you can, definately check out the grocery store...can definately get the most for your money. Catfish nuggets are usually the cheapest but my p's definately love them along with many peoples that feed this. good luck man, just do a little shopping around and you'll be fine


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## boontje (Mar 27, 2005)

blind-fury said:


> hmmmm i buy packed frozen food(packed in cubes) from the pet shop for about 6-8 dollars which i think is kinda expensive. the pellets are only 3-4 dollars. hmmm well my folks get food stamp (what do you expect im from fresno, and i don't care what anyone thinks, its free money) so i may start buying from the grocery store from now on...what should i get for my p's cause they still kinda small.


Yes, frozen food from the LFS / LPS is very expensive.

You can get plenty of things from the supermarket. Just make sure it's uncooked and that it has no preservatives or seasonings in it.

Some ideas: fish fillet (go for the white fish), (small) whole fish (e.g. smelt), squid, mussels
I used these to raise my babies, and never had problems them eating it. (although I had to clean up some fish heads when feeding smelt to very small reds).


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## PiranhaStein (Dec 30, 2005)

The best way I found around expensive lps food prices is to make my own frozen food with gelatin, you get your p's stuff they usually won't and you know they will be healthy. And its cheaper then buying cubes, just put in different white fishes with some other sea foods. Do a search.

This was my solution to expensive food problems.


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## rocker (Aug 12, 2005)

boontje said:


> i just blast my smelt under hot water for like 20 seconds. works fast.
> 
> and dont say "thats bad your cooking the food" cause it 20 seconds. It honestly isnt going to take ALL of the nutrients out and its not really even cooking the food.


Did you ever try to put your hand in boiling water for 1 second? I mean it's only 1 second it can't hurt, right?

Obviously it won't remove all the nutritients, but 20 seconds will probably not be enough to thaw the food properly and it will remove SOME of the nutritients.
[/quote]
there is a difference between boiling and hot water. Obviously even the tap water wont get hot enough to boiling temperature. 20 seconds isnt going to remove all the nutrients. If anyhitng it removes like 0.000000000001 percent it honestly doesnt mater.
o and it does actually thaw the food pretty fast.


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## boontje (Mar 27, 2005)

rocker said:


> i just blast my smelt under hot water for like 20 seconds. works fast.
> 
> and dont say "thats bad your cooking the food" cause it 20 seconds. It honestly isnt going to take ALL of the nutrients out and its not really even cooking the food.


Did you ever try to put your hand in boiling water for 1 second? I mean it's only 1 second it can't hurt, right?

Obviously it won't remove all the nutritients, but 20 seconds will probably not be enough to thaw the food properly and it will remove SOME of the nutritients.
[/quote]
there is a difference between boiling and hot water. Obviously even the tap water wont get hot enough to boiling temperature. 20 seconds isnt going to remove all the nutrients. If anyhitng it removes like 0.000000000001 percent it honestly doesnt mater.
o and it does actually thaw the food pretty fast.
[/quote]
Of course there is a difference between boiling and hot water, Mr Genius. I was just using this as an example because you said that something won't hurt because it's only 20 seconds.

I never said it removes all of the nutritients (how much emphasis do you need on the word "some"???). Unfortunately I cannot give you any percentage as precise as yours, but I'm sure it is significant.


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