Frozen Food - Smelly almost instant ammonia spike

[Okayestaquarist]

I fed some cubes of frozen brine shrimp from a frozen freshwater multipack to my baby ranchus yesterday. They ate it all up pretty quickly like usual, but the water smelled off. I tested it and it had what looked like barely .5 ppm ammonia using a Coop test strip. Has anyone else had this happen before? I guess I am just going to avoid that brand from now on. I have a good sense of smell and it was like the smell of rotten food, nit sharp but like a compost with the balance off a bit.

I did a big water change with Fritx Complete and threw in some more duckweed. All the fish are fine and behaving normally. I have not had this happen with any other food this week. After the water change I added some live brine shrimp from my outside tub and they had an enthusiastic hunt.

The tub has 10 baby ranchus growing out in about six inches of water. I test and change it pretty frequently to encourage growth. I am growing them out and then acclimating them to deeper water to go in a 75. I will have to share a few of them when they are bigger. So far they are eating well, not showing balance issues, and their color is spectacular. They came in great condition from East Coast Ranchu. I am also following all of her directions for growing them out except for 100% daily water changes with aged water.

I used a cycled sponge filter to start the tank, added some stability in with the first water changes, and also have cuttings of hygrophila and duckweed for them to munch on.

[Guppysnail]

I thaw and rinse through a micron filter I use for BBS all frozen items. It washes off the ammonia laden water it was frozen in (I think) So I’ve never had this happen. 

[Okayestaquarist]

On 10/12/2021 at 8:05 AM, Guppysnail said:

I thaw and rinse through a micron filter I use for BBS all frozen items. It washes off the ammonia laden water it was frozen in (I think) So I’ve never had this happen. 

Thanks, washing them off in my baby brine net would be super easy. I bet I would also smell if there was something wrong before I put it in the tank if I did that. 

[T. Payne]

I am not fond of the San Francisco Bay brand either, I only use Hakari.  In my opinion it is much cleaner.

Edited October 13, 2021 by T. Payne

[Kevin F.]

I don't put the frozen cubes in my tank eather.  I put them in a cup of water to unfreeze them rinse them before feeding.