Will it do any harm if i just thaw the shrimp or tilapia in a cup of tap water? I've always used tank water to thaw but I figured tap water is easier. Would it do any harm?
Using tap water to thaw frozen food
- Thread starter Jacob Briggs
- Start date
alright awesome I just didn’t know If it would like absorb the chlorine or what
The chlorine will react with any bacteria, and shouldn't have a negative impact on the frozen food. When dealing with frozen food in the past I would simply thaw my frozen seafood in a covered bowl in the fridge for several hours, then feed. A few times a week I would use that time to pre-soak them in a liquid vitamin, such as Boyd Vitachem.
Sounds almost like a positive thing, then?
I've used freeze dried, not frozen for years. But when I used frozen I thawed both ways, sometimes city tap water, sometimes just put it in the tank, typically in a feeder cone. I saw no discernible issues either way.
I never really thought about this till I got a puffer and was defrosting more and more food. Tilapia is usually vac sealed so it never is actually in the tap water but shrimp and most other things aren't. I dont know if there are any negative aspects of doing it in tap water but it most likely it a better idea to do it in tank water so you know there isnt an issue with taste or anything else to the fish
I don't feed tilapia but for frozen Mysis and krill (the tubes and the whole krill that I bought accidentally) I just put them in the tank frozen.
By the time they can actually eat the food, it's defrosted. I probably would be worried about a big piece if the fish could swallow it whole right away.
Again, I don't know about feeding tilapia so I defer to others and RD knows his stuff so listen to him. I'm just saying for smaller frozen food, I've had no issues just feeding them straight from the freezer. (Well, Canadian Mysis makes the surface water oily so I only feed it the day I'm going to do a water change )
For mbu puffers, Cory from Aquarium Coop just feeds them frozen and bc Murphy gobbles it up frozen.
By the time they can actually eat the food, it's defrosted. I probably would be worried about a big piece if the fish could swallow it whole right away.
Again, I don't know about feeding tilapia so I defer to others and RD knows his stuff so listen to him. I'm just saying for smaller frozen food, I've had no issues just feeding them straight from the freezer. (Well, Canadian Mysis makes the surface water oily so I only feed it the day I'm going to do a water change )
For mbu puffers, Cory from Aquarium Coop just feeds them frozen and bc Murphy gobbles it up frozen.
The directions that I gave above, was from yrs back when I was feeding a Mbu puffer frozen mussels in the shell. I understand feeding small frozen items directly, they thaw out very quickly once hitting the tank water, but it doesn't take any extra effort to thaw larger sized portions of frozen food, prior to feeding. Perhaps there's no difference, but I always felt better about the fish eating 100% thawed food, and not gulping back something that was still partially frozen.