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Lessons Learned "Quick Hits"
We are soliciting short lessons-learned from hobbyists: events that possibly left you sadder, but measurably wiser. Have a good one? Please send it to the .
Do you buy bulk bags of fish pellets or make your own gel food? Here are two "zip-lock" hints for long term storage. For the pelleted foods, many of the 1 kg and up sizes come in nitrogen purged bags with resealable openings. This is great, since the food keeps well until opened and then once opened it can be resealed and stored in the freezer. The typical approach is to transfer 2 weeks worth of food from the main bag to a smaller air tight container that is kept at room temperature and used for daily feeding. Here is the tip: when you take the big bag from the freezer, before you open it, use the palms of your hands to warm both sides of the zip lock closure. The plastic used for the closure seal can become very stiff in a deep freeze and may actually break or separate from the bag if you try pull it open before warming it a bit. Also, when you retrieve the daily food container supply from the big bag, don't leave the big bag sitting out open. Squeeze out the extra air, seal it up and get it back in the freezer before significant condensation starts collecting on the cold pellets.
For homemade gel food, typically you want to cool the mixture and then freeze it in 1/4 inch (6 mm) thick pieces for easy feeding when defrosted. Rob Crosby pointed out to me that you could just measure the appropriate amount of warm gel food mixture into a Ziplock-style bag, squeeze out the air, seal it up and then lay it flat in the freezer. It will flatten out and freeze. The bag can be opened and chunks broken off to use (but follow the recommendation above on warming the seal). Using this approach results in much less freezer burn from long-term storage.