Impacts of feeding rotten food?

[Treefer32]

So a smell has been building up in my fish room. It smelled like something dead. I couldn't figure it out. Tonight I went to feed and noticed food piled up in my avast plank auto feeder. I decided to turn it upside down to figure out what was going on. And a massive clump of rotten food fell into the tank and dispersed. I had used it to dispense frozen food and every time it shot the thawing food out just fine.

The tank was filled with a combo of fresh and rotting food. Will fish get sick from it? I'm confident my filtration can handle it. It's a 6 year old 340 gallon tank with 24 fish. More afraid of all my fish getting food poisoning eating rotten food? Or will they avoid the putrid smell of rot? Anything I should be worried about?

My fingers still smell from trying to figure out what was going on. I thing the feed pump stopped working or plugged up with bacteria. It seriously made the entire furnace room reek of rotten egg smell. Uggg.

 

[Pistondog]

rotting food is a fine dining experience for most fish. Doesnt it make up the diets of fish in the ocean?

 

[RSNJReef]

the fish should be ok, if they don’t like the taste of it, they’ll spit it out, and if they ingest a bit of it, it might give them a bit of the runs, which is easier food for your corals anyway.

The biggest thing to watch out for is a bacteria bloom which could happen if enough of the rotten food is fed at once, but in an established 340 with a good bacterial population and a good skimmer you shouldn’t have a problem, just look for cloudy water over the next couple of days and if you want to be on the safe side turn your skimmer up a little for the next week.

 

[VintageReefer]

you use your plank for frozen food? I just got a plank. Do people do this?

 

[Treefer32]

you use your plank for frozen food? I just got a plank. Do people do this?

It's not auto feeding. I have to place the food in it. But yeah, my fish love it. My blue tang is a monster sized fish and he sits at the bottom of the pipe and as quickly as possible grabs the frozen food as it shoots out the bottom. I find adding the cubes at the top they stay melt rapidly and when they're fully saturated in the water the pump shoots the mysis, krill, and brine pieces out the bottom. It's an easy way to rapid melt frozen. Downside is maybe it needs to be cleaned more.

Plus side, is I found the culprit for why my feeder stopped feeding. A snail had somehow made his way inside the pump shaft. It was in heaven with food... The snail however, went down the drain. Opportunistic snails that somehow found their way out of the water column and then into the top of the feeder and into the pump... Not a snail I'm keeping! I give him credit for ambitiousness.

That said it works great to dispense cubes so you don't have to pre-thaw them. Just toss them in the top of the pipe and the warm water and pump do the rest.

 

[Treefer32]

the fish should be ok, if they don’t like the taste of it, they’ll spit it out, and if they ingest a bit of it, it might give them a bit of the runs, which is easier food for your corals anyway.

The biggest thing to watch out for is a bacteria bloom which could happen if enough of the rotten food is fed at once, but in an established 340 with a good bacterial population and a good skimmer you shouldn’t have a problem, just look for cloudy water over the next couple of days and if you want to be on the safe side turn your skimmer up a little for the next week.

You were right. Fish were all fine and still are. No signs of distress. The only result was a few bunches of hair algae grew on my return fittings. Nothing I couldn't remove and my ATS has brighter greener hair algae growing on it faster than ever. Heh.

Dispensing extra Phosphate-e to combat the extra phosphates.