# Planted Tanks > Beginners' Corner >  !!Check your unused fish food Regularly!!!!

## roxs

Terrible!! Have been keeping fishes for almost 2 years. 

and this was the worst shocking experience i had.

a mistake on my part for putting aside my used container of Tetraflakes for many months. (nothing wrong with the brand, its a good brand )


my larger 1000ml container was also stale, and decolorized. with thousands of those things crawling around it. did not dare open it again.


*Lesson learnt:
Check your fish food often, if you have a number of them sitting in the corner of your cabinet!*

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## Entichers

oh my goodness! I had a similar experience. I bought a tub of pellets but I hardly used it as I had another tub. When I opened it, all these white tiny little crawlies came out. uugh!

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## cdckjn

Are these things edible by the fishes?

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## roxs

> Are these things edible by the fishes?


haha that thought crossed my mind afterwards, maybe someone can give that a try. probably could be a substitute for bloodworms.

but when i opened the 1000ml container these tiny bugs just start crawling out and onto my hands.. was a terrible mess

harder to managed than bloodworms i guess, where you can just pour the worms in and let them sink..

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## ranmasatome

i think the fishes would love these!

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## hck

Uhh! I had the same problem recently and its not like a big can that I kept for a long time, its just a small pack of hikari algae wafer that I hv been feeding daily, that is why I was surprised when I see these crawlies. I guess I must have been feeding the pleco these wafer with the crawlies without even knowing. I'm not sure if eating this wafer with crawlies causes the pleco to have such huge belly. 

Now, I take out just a few pieces and keep the rest in the refrigerator.

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## ok32115

my food had white bugs just yesterday

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## aquarius

Usually even before the food have these bugs, my fishes would have shown signs of the food being not in good condition. Usually when i feed my small fishes like boraras, clown killies etc one or two of them would have dropsey from eating the soon to be spoilt food. From there i'll look inside the container or in my case the zip-lock bag of Hikari Miro food for these bugs and usually they haven't even show any signs of these bugs yet but i'll know that the food is not very good already cos the food will look a bit clumpy.

Usually the bigger fishes don't have dropsey problems even when there're a little of these bugs but they normally will have "ichy body" when comsuming food about to spoil and also they won't eat the food as readily as in they'll tend to spit out the food regularly as compared to eating it without much spitting. These are some of the tell-tale signs of food not in good condition. 

I'm not sure whether these bugs can be fed to the fishes a not but i'll advice against it cos these bugs feed on the spoilt food, which means you're indirectly feeding your fishes spoilt food.

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## roxs

great tips on spotting the food before turning bad!

i realize you also gave more advice on fish food on another thread couple years ago
http://www.aquaticquotient.com/forum...food-turns-bad


guess i shouldn't have bought a 1000ml container..

maybe transferring to air-tight container could preserve it a little longer ^^

anyway thanks for the tips!!

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## hck

Yes, great tips, thanks for sharing.

What I do now is, take out a small portion of the food and leave the rest in the refrigerator until the next refilling.

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## aquarius

> Yes, great tips, thanks for sharing.
> 
> What I do now is, take out a small portion of the food and leave the rest in the refrigerator until the next refilling.


Not a good idea cos if you refill from the main one that is kept in the fridge to another container, the food in the refilled container that is left outside will spoil even faster due to condensation. Maybe it's better to take out the refrigerated amount to be fed to the fishes and feed from there instead of having a refill. Another option will be to keep the refill container and the main one in a dry place away from the tanks which is what i've been doing.

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## stormhawk

If you do use an air-tight container to house the dry food tubs etc, please make sure you have a bag of desiccant in there to aid in absorbing moisture. In our climate, dry food spoils really fast. I usually have a smell of the food before I feed the fish. If it is discolored and has a weird smell, or the food, especially flake food, clump together... don't use it anymore. In many cases, what kills our fish is not diseases, but negligence in terms of ensuring that they get fresh food. 

@roxs:

Ok now that is just gross.  :Shocked:  They seem to be larvae of some sort, probably from eggs laid during post-production and packing of the food. Good thing you took pictures.

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## roxs

ah bag of desiccant! Good point, well noted!  :Well done: 

@stormhawk
*yes so true. The importance of fresh fish food, is rarely stressed.* 

Found a nice site that concisely states the basic important points in storing dried food. (cool, dark, dry and airtight)

wow, never would have thought my mini transparent container could suffer photodegration. http://www.answerbag.com/q_view/649015

Must faster use blacktape!  :Grin:

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## hck

Anybody know where to buy dessicants? Hv been looking around, but can't find any, search website, also to no avail.

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## tropic

I had experience same thing before . On my tetrabits...Gross.Just open it, and straight away dump it out.

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## Navanod

Looks like grain/flour mites to me. Very common to find in dried food stuff as they usually mix in some starch or flour and these things ALWAYS have dorment eggs in there somewhere. The only condition they need is a wet and humid one, similar to the dust mites on our beds.

I once saw a grain store, where we keep rodent food for the lab mice and rats, very badly infested with these things as the aircon was faulty and drawing in wet air. The entire room was fully covered with these things...wall to wall, floor to ceiling and I can see waves and waves dropping off the edges of the grainbags like lemmings jumping off the cliff

Lets just say we all took a very long shower after coming out...

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## hck

Any idea if it is safe to use silica gel bought from camera shop, in fish food? I was thinking of adding some silica gel into ziplock bag, prick a few hole, but is it safe? since I can't find dessicant. I am not a chemist person, not sure if got any adverse chemical problem.




> If you do use an air-tight container to house the dry food tubs etc, please make sure you have a bag of desiccant in there to aid in absorbing moisture. In our climate, dry food spoils really fast. I usually have a smell of the food before I feed the fish. If it is discolored and has a weird smell, or the food, especially flake food, clump together... don't use it anymore. In many cases, what kills our fish is not diseases, but negligence in terms of ensuring that they get fresh food. 
> 
> @roxs:
> 
> Ok now that is just gross.  They seem to be larvae of some sort, probably from eggs laid during post-production and packing of the food. Good thing you took pictures.

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## yice

Silica gel is a dessicant...

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## hck

But I understand there's something like food grade dessicant, so it is still safe to use silica gel from camera shop? If so, then it will be so convenient.

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## benjidog

> Any idea if it is safe to use silica gel bought from camera shop, in fish food? I was thinking of adding some silica gel into ziplock bag, prick a few hole, but is it safe? since I can't find dessicant. I am not a chemist person, not sure if got any adverse chemical problem.


I think your idea is workable. 

As long there is no contact between the silca gel and the fish food,it will be okay. Alternately, anyone tried the age old method of sunning / airing the fish food on a tray and then returning to the container?

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## hck

Thanks benjidog, maybe I should just try 1st so long as I make sure there is no contact with the fish food since it is so easily available. The excess I can use in my camera box.

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