freeze dried food shelf life/storage?

[gagaliya]

didnt know freeze dried food are vacuum packed. how long can you keep them after opening the bottle before they expire/goes bad? Do they need to be fridged?

i bought about 6 bottles of hikari bio-pure freeze dried brine shrimp/bloodworm/daphia and my fish went absoutely NUTS over them. So thinking about putting the FD food in my autofeeders for daily feeding instead of just treats but need to know if they can be kept at room tempature for a month or 2.

thanks,
gaga

 

[YoFishboy]

Sealed and kept dry, fish food lasts quite a while - some flakes claim from 18 months to 4 years. I would imagine freeze dried would last about one year or so, vaccuum packed. However, humidity is the enemy here, and freeze dried food would be more likely to re-absorb atmospheric moisture faster(particularly in a feeder hanging on a tank) then flake food would. In my opinion, a week might be ok, but when you are considering several weeks, it could be problematic.

 

[gagaliya]

wow that's it? only several weeks at max after opening? i have eheim autofeeders it has this little fan that keeps the food dry. Guess i have to manually feed them when i get home.

 

[YoFishboy]

Well, if there is a little fan in the feeder, it might be ok for a little longer. Sealed tight in the container, the freeze dried food will last quite a while. It's just that, exposed to moist air, it's like a sponge. Do you have time to experiment before you go on vacation? You can see if it "sours" or gets moldy in the feeder.