Can flake food kill?

[baldtaxguy]

Something strange happening with my fry and CA grow-outs. I have been using a combination flake food that I purchased about a year ago. I usually freeze my food and portion it out periodically. With this flake, its been sitting in a plastic container since I purchased it. This last week, I started losing fry and grow-outs after feeding. I stepped back feedings to once evry day,but the losses persisted. I raised the temp a few degrees, but no change. I then went to non-flake crumble food along with a micro-pellet and the losses slowed immediately and have stopped so far today.

My question - can flake food "go bad", spoil in such a way that it would be determinental to small fish? Anyone else experienced this? I suspect that a stress-related bloat developed for the fry and may have been fatal using the flake but mitigated by the new introduction of food types. Thoughts are welcome.

 

[Jason_S]

well if the deaths stopped after you switched to a different food then yeah I'd say you can pretty much narrow it down to the flakes. I'd throw them out for sure. I have flakes that I've had for over a year but I've had no problems with the platys and variatus I've been feeding the flakes to.

I'd say it would most likely come down to the type and quality of ingredients.

 

[bbortko]

I'd imagine any organic matter can breakdown and become toxic. Never had fry, but I'd imagine like all creatures fish are weakest when very young or very old.