Trick for feeding frozen bloodworms??

[neekis]

Alright, decided to get the frozen blood worms instead of giving Neekis the freeze-dried ones. So I get home and try to get a few out...end up with about 10. Trying to feed him with these are a bit crazy. Only fed him 3 and threw out the rest since I probably have enough for the rest of his life! But, when I put them in, they like to sink. I don't like to leave food in the tank, so I took a straw and after many attempts, I got it back up. Neekis ate it, but then had to get the other back up...what a pain!

Anyway, I suppose some of you are thinking I'm a bit crazy, but is there a trick to feeding them these things without going through all that trouble? Would he find it if I left it on the bottom for awhile? Any suggestions would be great.

P.S. Maybe I'm just being too anal about this whole "keeping leftover food in the tank" thing!

[Romad]

Mine all get so excited they miss half of them. Give him 1/2 hour and I'll bet you won't find any left in the tank.

[1fish2fish]

I have used chopsticks (didn't work so well) and forceps (blunt tweezers) to feed frozen food. The forceps work really well. I would just hand feed them but I'm too spazzy to do that.

You can also try feeding them slower. No matter what I'm feeding I feed one at a time so I know the fish got it. Especially my older guy who's not as quick as he once was.

[neekis]

Thanks! I was thinking about a tweezers...but all I have are extremely pointy ones or the ones I use on my eyebrows! I tried feeding one at a time which worked for the first one, but not the second. Of course, Freddy (my 3 yr old son) wants to feed him....oh boy, I've really created some chaos now!

I guess I will invest in some forceps...wow, my fish supplies are adding up! (But Neekis is SO worth it!)

thanks again!

[1fish2fish]

if your three year old doesn't mind why not let him hand feed the fish? I think that would be a great bonding exercise and a great way to teach him more about fish and animal care in general :)

[kelly528]

A pipette is a VERY useful tool. A mini turkey-baster for lack of a better turn. My betta slurps the BW right out of it!

[1fish2fish]

Thats a good idea... I'll have to steal.. ahem.. I mean "borrow" some from the bio dept

[jeaninel]

I also use a eyedropper like Kelly528. I'll thaw them in a cup of tank water then use the eyedropper to drop one or two at a time into the bettas tanks. They'll also hunt along the bottom of the tank if any fall to the bottom before they get them.

[truthequalslies]

I feed thisbe froze brine shrimp but wat I do is use a cheap submersible sponge filter cheap on ebay mine is jebo it keeps a currant that makes them look alive so its funto watch her hunt them down an also gives her plenty of exercise ( thisbe likes currants but som bettas don't )

[neekis]

Originally Posted by 1fish2fish

if your three year old doesn't mind why not let him hand feed the fish? I think that would be a great bonding exercise and a great way to teach him more about fish and animal care in general :)

Actually thats what added to all the chaos . (I guess I should have added that in my original post.) He does all the feeding and you should see the fun when we change the water! We all have a good time - including Neekis! And I think Neekis bonded with Freddy immediately. As soon as Freddy is even near the tank, Neekis starts to get excited. I"m just sooo glad we got this fish!