Hey Alex! You sound Your Old Self today 💕 Good to hear. Having mostly smaller fish, I have a curved paring knife i found i must use to shave the frozen cubes prior to feeding. Many won't feed off the bottom. I also use the baster to squirt the softened food several times in the cup prior to feeding. Thought I'd mention in case it helps anyone with nano fish or rainbows with tiny mouths. It's messy in the kitchen but less messy in the tank. Big love!

@Fishtory

2 жыл бұрын

Oh great tips! Thank you

@ladydiane6839

2 жыл бұрын

@@Fishtory Ha! Thank YOU, my favorite fish tuber 💕 You've taught me so much.

I buy the bricks of both bloodworms and brine shrimp. Less packaging waste.

@Fishtory

2 жыл бұрын

Agreed its what I buy when they have them

So funny when you got to the point about your bettas trying to eat the larger worms. I have one betta splendens that CANNOT eat larger pellets. Choke, choke, chase around the tank, try then spit out, etc. I find myself picking through the jar of pellets trying to find the smallest ones for him. But man, that old man betta will practically jump right out of the water for the mysis shrimp, which can be distinctly on the larger side. Motivation, I suppose! 😆😂🤣

@Fishtory

2 жыл бұрын

Haha thanks for the anecdote!

WOW! It's the full meal deal! You always give the information... and the reason why, or what, or when, or where............. and so forth. It's the 4W's

@Fishtory

2 жыл бұрын

I try! Thanks for the comment and support.

I always hear people say not to overfeed their fish. Then I watch people on KZread feed their fish and it seems like so much feed. I may be underfeeding mine in an effort not to overfeed. They seem fine, but they are always hungry. I just chalked it up to fish always being hungry.

@petethegreek5058

2 жыл бұрын

Do you think maybe that's the reason they are always doing water changes? 😁

@alecthenice8115

2 жыл бұрын

People feed a lot on KZread for show

@wabalaka1565

8 ай бұрын

Do they grow? Do they reproduce? If your answer is yes, you are doing good. Fish hungry all the time.

Bloodworms. Reaction can be drastic!!! Burning itchy eyes, skin and throat. Sneezing trouble breathing all went unknow to me until I figured out it was bloodworms. I became much more careful with them but one time I must have rubbed my eyes (after handwashing) and I almost went blind. The whites of my eyes swelled out into something like blister burns that over hung my eyelids. I freaked out and immediately flushed my eyes under running water for 10 minutes and washed my face multiple times. It worked but that wasn't an experience I'd wish on anyone. So please be careful with them!

@Fishtory

2 жыл бұрын

That's super similar to how I end up, also. Sorry you have the same issue.

@Handygrrl

2 жыл бұрын

Had a similar eye experience and went to the ER....Valley didn't think losing ones vision was enough of a reason to be seen immediately and i waited 3 hours

Great video 👍

Great video, thank you

I heard sound...good info!

I might join you in wearing gloves. I've been dealing with similar symptoms lately. Just started feeding blood worms a few weeks ago. Thanks for the info.

@Fishtory

2 жыл бұрын

It really helps. Best wishes, mate!

I love to feed my fishies! Thanks for the tips.

@Fishtory

2 жыл бұрын

"The Best part of waking up... is feeding fishes, - Yup!"...isn't that how the jingle goes?

Ty so much!!! I have been having trouble with pea puffers and you have directed me in a better direction feeding them. Kudos on this video.

@Fishtory

Жыл бұрын

Glad to help (maybe lol) best wishes and good luck!

Great info! Gonna go pick up a some more frozen to add to the arsenal :)

@Fishtory

2 жыл бұрын

Right on!

Always good to see how other people feed fish. Then you get to hear the good tips from everyone! 👍❤️🐠 Good to see you are looking a lot better!

@Fishtory

2 жыл бұрын

Thanks. Feeling better (minus extreme bouts of exhaustion oddly.)

@laurasutton4057

2 жыл бұрын

@@FishtoryBeing in pain for a long time will do that to you. Your body is saying it is not so stressed and rest to recoup. ❤️

Great tip and tricks. Thanks for sharing! - Little Bobby

@Fishtory

2 жыл бұрын

🤘

I feed a variety of frozen foods. Standard are blood worms, brine and baby brine. Recent additions are mysis shrimp and daphnia. Even more recent additions to the rotation are cyclops (seemed to go over well) and tubifex (I, and several of my fish, are not fams. They're very skinny and tangled up, and it just seemed more gloopy as it thawed). I buy some of the gut loaded higher end stuff and some not. I have a little glass jar where I pop anywhere from 2-4 cubes per day (depending on whether they're getting one meal that day or whether I fed them earlier on), some smaller and some larger, and add a few drops of vita-chem, then defrost them in the fridge for a couple hours. Then I go around with tongs and drop some in each tank, starting with the bigger fish who can handle the bigger blood worms, mysis, etc that I manage to scoop up first, and the smaller fish may end up with me dripping in the little bit of liquid that's left in there when you defrost the food, which by that point has the little baby brine, daphnia etc in it. When I had fewer fish, I would naturally only prepare 1 or 2 cubes at a time, but still saved the left over in the fridge for a 2nd day. There is a designated jar, and a designated spot in the fridge, because ewww! Worms and shrimp in my vegetarian fridge! 🤢 I can basically handle it if I know where it is and don't constantly have to move it around as I get out the milk for my coffee.

@Fishtory

2 жыл бұрын

Thanks for sharing your experience with this stuff!

@pjp9383

2 жыл бұрын

@@Fishtory 👍👍👍 (Based on my notifications, I appear to have written some very long comments recently. Last couple of days were not very good ones - had to put down my dog. 😢 KZread comment section was serving as a welcome distraction in some difficult moments.)

Thanks Alex. This was very informative. I used to use a turkey baster as you do, but I started to use the clear squeeze bottles used for condiments and love it. I pop the food into the bottle with filtered aged water and squeeze into the tanks when thawed 😊

@Fishtory

2 жыл бұрын

Oooo I'll have to give that a ... squeeze! Thanks

@ladydiane6839

2 жыл бұрын

Thanks @Audra Meyer! The baster is rather bulky at times. 💕

Very good!

@Fishtory

2 жыл бұрын

Thanks buddy

Thanks Alex!

@Fishtory

2 жыл бұрын

Thank you!

Love the video. This year I stopped feeding flakes and pellets entirely in favor of only feeding frozen, freeze-dried and the occasional live. Sometimes I get anxious that I’m not providing them with a quality diet but then I remember that there’s actually way more variety this way compared to dry foods. And I make sure to supplement with vitamins, minerals, amino acids and garlic just in case.

@Fishtory

2 жыл бұрын

Right on! I bet their energy, Color and activity is all much better now!

@pjp9383

2 жыл бұрын

I'm pretty much totally on frozen in the evenings, with a good and ever expanding variety. Often, they only have the one meal in the day. But when I feed twice (or three times when there's fry) that's when I pull out the flake food and pellets and bottom feeder bug bites, etc. Oh! And my livebearers especially often get a little bit of dried seaweed dropped in the tank at bedtime so they have something to eat overnight and first thing in the morning.

@kendallwikoff8900

2 жыл бұрын

@@pjp9383 I recently started using a saltwater seaweed clip in my livebearer tank and replace the seaweed each morning so they can “graze” during the day. Mine always seem to be asleep at night. I gave away all my dry food to friends.

@kendallwikoff8900

2 жыл бұрын

@@Fishtory Life Hack: For freeze-dried foods that are too big for my fish, like red river shrimp, earthworms, gammarus, etc. I use pepper mills (grinders) to grind them down over each tank.

@pjp9383

2 жыл бұрын

@@kendallwikoff8900 Yeah, I don't know exactly when they eat the seaweed, but it's usually gone when I turn the tank lights on, which is for the evenings. I keep a kind of strange schedule (sleep issues) and I live in a basement apartment which is pretty dark even during the day. So I started the overnight seaweed feeding thing with my larger livebearers (limia) when there were fry in the tank. The "ladies" are always ravenous, and seaweed seemed like something that would allow them and the fry to graze without fouling the water too quickly.

I love the baby betta tank

@Fishtory

2 жыл бұрын

Hehe it's pretty colorful and chaotic

For someone who's tanks are not very seasoned yet, I've been feeding lightly once a day. Micro pellets for the rasboras and Danios. Piece of algea wafer way for for loaches algae eaters and corys. And Target feeding the bettas. Should I scale this back, maybe every other day?

@Fishtory

7 ай бұрын

Well if you do water changes and the nitrates arent over around 40 or 50...then no. But if nitrates are creeping up, id try to cut it back a little and or do more water changes/ add more plants

Had not seen the frozen baby brine shrimp before at my lfs just the regular. I will need to look for it. Great info!

@Dracobear13

2 жыл бұрын

Petco and Petsmart aren't allowed to order baby brine. I can only get at a different chain store 55 miles away from me.

@TheNanoAquariumGuy

2 жыл бұрын

@@Dracobear13 well that explains part of it. Thanks for the tip, I will be checking around my area and look for those.

@Fishtory

2 жыл бұрын

Yeah we have only one petco that's a "tier 1 or 2" out of 5 tiers...they let the top tiers (which means over $10k in fish sales a month ) order the best stuff... and for that matter- all sorts of shrimp and oddball fish also

@markhaunert5029

2 жыл бұрын

@@Dracobear13 i noticed that Petco by me just recently started to carry cubed bbs. Maybe yours is now also✌

@Dracobear13

2 жыл бұрын

Well, my Petco should be able to get them as they're tier 4.

Very beautiful fish

@Fishtory

2 жыл бұрын

Gracious

@Fishtory

2 жыл бұрын

Gracias!

Love the mini cubes for the bloodworms too - always have whole worms in there. Bob Caylor feeds his fish the frozen like this too. The daphnia are a mess and the fish don’t seem to eat them ..? I keep them around in case of constipation ... in the fish not me 😂🤣😂🤣

@ladydiane6839

2 жыл бұрын

😆 🤣 Pattie's here!

@Fishtory

2 жыл бұрын

Yeah you're correct .... PATTIE IS HERE!

@Fishtory

2 жыл бұрын

Lol Pattie...I bet if you ate some daphnia, it would clear out your ...well everything lol. Eww gross,.daphnia smoothie.

My fish hate those ciclid cubs. I may try them again and mush them up.

@Fishtory

2 жыл бұрын

I wouldn't buy more than one lol... I only use them in my tanks with pea puffers or voracious cichlids over 5 inches lol

I’ve also been mispronouncing mysis 😂🤣 thanks

@Fishtory

2 жыл бұрын

Oh I'm sure I do that with half the crap in our hobby haha

@ladydiane6839

2 жыл бұрын

@@Fishtory i hope not, I repeat most of what you say. 😆

My Oscar loves those cichlid gell cubes.

@Fishtory

2 жыл бұрын

Oh great to hear! Thanks for that info

@markhaunert5029

2 жыл бұрын

That's really odd John. I can't get anything to accept them. I thought it was just not being used to them so i got them pretty hungry and still didn't care for them. Obviously fish are eating it or they wouldn't be making it. Literally everything from my Oscars to dithers just don't seem to have a taste for. ✌👋

@John-Ebsen

2 жыл бұрын

@@markhaunert5029 that's why the fish food debate is so circumstantial. My fish won't touch Northfin but some people swear by it. I guess fish are a product of their upbringing like us. Lol.

@markhaunert5029

2 жыл бұрын

@@John-Ebsen i know what you're saying. Mine weren't crazy about northfin either with a very odd exemption. The picky ass discus really go after their bug pro. I know mine are basically spoiled from live and frozen but damn northfin and omega one foods are pretty high quality. After using nightcrawlers my Oscar gotten finicky even with raw shrimp. Go figure . 😄✌

Can you use conditioned tap water for the cubes if u don't want to mix tank waters?

@Fishtory

2 жыл бұрын

100%

Hey brother! You sound better! How's the healing going? Still painful or tolerable? Heard you like the day or so after and you should a million times better. Been worried about ya. Take care of yourself. P.S. my dentures came in today, I have an appointment Wed to bring them home....cant wait..

@Fishtory

2 жыл бұрын

Thanks buddy and congrats on the choppers! I'm feeling better but still feeling very worn out or tired out of the blue...(likely due to a change in some of my lupus medications.) But the mouth pain is all gone!

This is the only option I have where I live. It's not bad on the wallet either 4 to 5 a pack.

I feed my tanks "goodheart" beefheart. Super expensive $44 for like a 5lb frozen brick. I feed that in the evenings pellets in the AM. Trying to fatten up discus

@Fishtory

2 жыл бұрын

Thanks for the tip!

@alecthenice8115

2 жыл бұрын

It's a fatty food, the fish do need more time to pass it

My hands itch after handling blood worms. Took me forever to realize I must be allergic to them. Haha

@Fishtory

2 жыл бұрын

Oh boy! I'm so allergic, I'll get hives all over - it's kind of amazing haha

@ladydiane6839

2 жыл бұрын

I wonder what the chemical is in just blood worms that causes this? Do you have these reactions with freeze dried?

@jimwilliamson5603

2 жыл бұрын

@@ladydiane6839 I've never tried freeze dried so I don't know.

@jimwilliamson5603

2 жыл бұрын

@@Fishtory that's not good. Lol.. my hands just get itchy. No other symptoms

@afterburnerboyz

2 жыл бұрын

I’m glad I’m not the only one! Freeze dried bloodworms have caused me to have a terrible allergic reaction. Both eyes completely closed and eyelids blew up to about 4 times their thickness. Two ER trips until I figured out what caused it. I steer clear of those now.

I know I’m 6 months late to the party but I’ve recently developed a severe allergic reaction to bloodworms. Frozen or freeze dried. It doesn’t seem to matter how careful I get hives and my eyes swell almost shut. It’s not pretty. My fish and frogs love them but my reaction is getting worse. As a result I can no longer be in any type of contact; yes I’ve tried gloves. Anyone know a good alternative? Would really appreciate any suggestions.

@Fishtory

2 жыл бұрын

Daphnia or black worms perhaps? I know what you mean though... I get rashes from the water the blood worms are in, let alone if one touches me. It's so annoying

For the algorithm!

Can you keep rams in a planted tank

@Fishtory

8 ай бұрын

100% they prefer plants

Big fan of frozen myself. Only one you mentioned that i found was not liked by almost any of my fish was the soft omega one foods. Very odd considering the ingredients. Also any idea why frozen black worms are not made frozen like bloodworms. Thanks Alex. ✌

@Fishtory

2 жыл бұрын

Thanks for the feedback...I totally agree with you on black worms...and the cichlid Cubes....fish other than my puffers and big haplochromis, seem to hate the texture lol... so I have to mash them up like I did in this video...and if I do that, they usually will pick away at it

Just wondering, if some fish choke themselves by eating some food, do they choke themselves on food in the wild as well?

@Fishtory

2 жыл бұрын

That is a reallly good question...I would have to assume so? But I really don't know

@marynatimmylucyelsaleonie1031

2 жыл бұрын

@@Fishtory thank you for the reply, especially since u posted this vid so long ago and i only came across recently

😁👍

@Fishtory

2 жыл бұрын

😃

ALEX, mysis shrimp are freshwater shrimp from a hard alkaline lake in Canada.

@Dracobear13

2 жыл бұрын

Also, there is no such thing as a 100% carnivore, even carnivores eat their herbivore prey's intestines and stomach 1st along with other organs and that's to get the herbaceous things into their diet.

@Dracobear13

2 жыл бұрын

Alex, did you ever keep Egyptian Mouth brooders? Used to be (45 to 50 yrs ago) a popular easy to breed fish. The males looked a lot like those lake Victoria cichlids you have.

@Fishtory

2 жыл бұрын

I mentioned that same thing about "carnivores" in the video :) also the mysis shrimp were marketed as "for marine fish" so if I worded it oddly, I apologize, but I was trying to say that they're not just for saltwater fish, they can be fed to freshwater fish

@Fishtory

2 жыл бұрын

I have kept Egyptian mouth brooders... they're a cool fish

@Dracobear13

2 жыл бұрын

I swear I'm getting deaf. Sorry I missed you saying both of those things.

How long can frozen foods be kept in the deep freezer and still be safe to feed your fish?

@Fishtory

2 жыл бұрын

Deep freezer... probably like 5 Years lol. I can't say any longer than the manufacturer recommends, but it's similar to human foods... it could be kept forever in a freezer if it stays the same temp and never thaws at all etc. (Scientists in Russia ate wooly mammoth meat out of a glacier once...no one got sick either

@Sue.5776

2 жыл бұрын

@@Fishtory wow, thanks very much for the information Alex, I get so much out of watching your videos

@Fishtory

2 жыл бұрын

@@Sue.5776 no problem. And I'm so glad these videos are of use for you. Have a great weekend. Cheers!

I heard you

I noticed that your floating plants have long roots, seems like soon as I added snails to my tank my floating plants have become less healthy do the Ramshorn snails eat my plants

@checkthefishbox8556

2 жыл бұрын

Yes they will strip my live stem plants and floaters down to nothing. Get some assassin snail

@Fishtory

2 жыл бұрын

Yes, as a general rule, rams horn snails don't eat adult plant tissue...but buds or roots are definitely not safe from those buggers

@Dna_Geckos

2 жыл бұрын

@@Fishtory what will clean algae as good as the snails would

@ladydiane6839

2 жыл бұрын

@@checkthefishbox8556 ugh, pest snails.... pukes ....😆 I find it's the slimy egg case hatching that destroy my plants... healthy tissue, but when they first emerge, they don't move much and eat like pigs. My experience... being retired, I spend far too much time gawking at my tanks. 😆

My peas don’t even want frozen blood worms

@Fishtory

2 жыл бұрын

Oh strange! (Even warmed up to tank temp prior?)

@GrandMasterPeep

2 жыл бұрын

@@Fishtory yep I’ve tried wiggling them and all. They’re still babies so I’ll give it some time before I stop tryinf

Did you say two inch blood worms???

@Fishtory

2 жыл бұрын

Yes indeed