unthawed food=hole in the head?

[namasgt]

i used to have an old german printed diesease and treatment book printed in mid 1970s. it was a very usefull book it showed you how to use the scope to determine the deseases or types of worms how to take live fish out of the tank and examin, .....
that time i had parrot fish and i though one of them had hole in the head the authore said hole in the head can be caused by lack of nutrision and [also if you dont let your frozen food unthaw and worm up and feed it to the fish cold it could cause hole in the head? ]
he sujested a feeding of hi vitamin food one of them was liver and spinach mixed to gether feed 2 times a week.
so is this true thats why we have to unthaw the food?

[Don Trinko]

I doubt any relation at all . I know many dealers that throw frozen food into discus tanks. Don T.

[aquagal]

frozen food does not stay so for very long in water that is 84-86F

[GrillMaster]

Many members, hobbiest, and breeders throw frozen beef heart, blood worms, brine shrimp etc... in thier tanks everyday without thawing including myself with no ill effects. :)

tc
Mark

[Ryan]

No thawing here... I toss the chunk in and walk away. The warm water paired with all the tugging and thrashing by hungry discus will quickly dissolve the food.

[kitfoxdrvr]

I feed fbw held in my fingers and the only hole in the head I have is a bunch of big mouths! My wife does call me a knothead sometimes, but I believe that is unrelated to frozen food. :D

[Darrell Ward]

I've been throwing frozen food in all my tanks (saltwater and freshwater) for years without any problems.

[Apistomaster]

There is no relationship to frozen food and HITH syndrome.

I don't know if anyone really knows what causes HITH syndrome. Lots of hypothesis, lots of supposed cures and few cases of cures.
There does seem to be a relationship to poor water quality and nutrition and making corrections has been about as effective as anything else tried so far.

Some fish are more susceptible than others; both reef fish and fresh water fish have this problem. This indicates to me that there isn't a particular disease organism involved.

[RickMay1]

The whole concept sounds fishy to me, another discus urban legend. The book being printed in the 70’s likely has a lot to do with the misconception. Their has been so much advancement done in keeping discus in the past 40 years. I bought a book from the same era on ebay, talk about a bunch of bad information. The book I got said that Discus were nearly imposable to keep and breed.

[brewmaster15]

I think I can see where the Frzn food link could be made if one was to guess based on what one saw...but I think the conconclusions that were drawn are wrong.

Theres many theories and probably several causes of HITH>...

not going to go into them all as everyone has their pet theories..

It is thought that it can come from nutritional deficiencies......and that may be the result of parasites in the fish taking the lion share of whats eaten in some unknown vitamen or mineral...The evidence of this is anecdotal.... many have reported that at least a form of HITH has been cured by changing the diet to include earthworms or vitamen suppliments...so the link was made that it was nutritional.

Then theres the link that fish that have bad HITH often recover with metronidazole treatment... anecdotal evidence again would lead at least this type of HITH being caused by something Metro would cure...that means either a protozoan or one of a small number of bacterias.

Of course theres also the Chance that its water quality...
as usually when you notice a problem like HITH and are trying to treat it...miraculously....your tank hygiene gets more attention as well either directly or indirectly due to needed wc between med doses.;)


now... lets look at the claim that thawed food would cause it.... as seen nearly 40 years ago.... Today we have food that is flash frozen , bioencapsulated with vitamens...shipped overnight and kept stored very well... Theres also a very high turn over of food....because we have such a developed hobby now....Whose to say what the quality of that food was back then? or how many times it was thawed and refrz before the hobbyist got it.... it probably could have easily fouled the water as well.

So....Though I don't think that if you thaw your fish food before you feed it that you can cause HITH...I can see where one might assume it back then ...seeing on how 40 years latter we still assume so much!:D

hth,
al

ps...I never thaw...just pitch it in frzn.:)

[Brian Mc]

I hear it causes ICH... Ice Cream Headache... :D

[pcsb23]

I hear it causes ICH... Ice Cream Headache... :D:D Like that!

I've never had any issues using frozen food without thawing either.

[moik]

I do not have any issues with this as I thaw all my food. I do recall a thread sometime ago.Stating that the frozen food being eaten is a lot colder than the internal temperature of the fish could result in possible sickness, or affect the fish adversely . Like I said earlier that I do not choose to feed frozen food, I just simply thaw the food. Seems like enough people choose to throw the frozen food in with no problems.

[Green Country Discus]

Pull from freezer, break or cut into appropriate chunks (whatever food) drop in tank = feeding frenzy ;). Does not take long to thaw with Discus temps!

[tdr1919]

I dont know how many years I have been feeding them frozen BH,
FBW's & FBS. Never had an issue and no one ever complained....

Tom