Fish nutrition: making my own food?

kilofey

kilofey

Member
I bought shrimp, octopus, muscle and squid.... Can I grind these together in the blender with some ro/di water or is this an incomplete meal? I also have some frozen bloodworms, sprinula, brine shrimp, mysis shrimp (and these cubes have a few other things that I cant remember atm) should I grind those up with it as well or feed as a separate meal to add variety? Id like to get some vitamins in there, but I dont have any right now, I can always get it later & soak the food in it. This food will be for 2 oscallaris clowns, a green chromis, and eventually a firefish, royal gramma, a goby, a blenny, and a few other "typical newbie fish"
This is my first time making fish food... So any thing would be helpful. please keep in mind I dont wanna spend like $50 on fish food ingredients, I only have 3 fish lol... So pls dont get too carried away, but a few other ingredients would be helpful. Plus, anything is better than the flake and pellets that even my fish turn their noses up at! Haha
 
flower

flower

Well-Known Member
Quote:
Originally Posted by Kilofey http:///t/388465/fish-nutrition-making-my-own-food#post_3425826
I bought shrimp, octopus, muscle and squid.... Can I grind these together in the blender with some ro/di water or is this an incomplete meal? I also have some frozen bloodworms, sprinula, brine shrimp, mysis shrimp (and these cubes have a few other things that I cant remember atm) should I grind those up with it as well or feed as a separate meal to add variety? Id like to get some vitamins in there, but I dont have any right now, I can always get it later & soak the food in it. This food will be for 2 oscallaris clowns, a green chromis, and eventually a firefish, royal gramma, a goby, a blenny, and a few other "typical newbie fish"
This is my first time making fish food... So any thing would be helpful. please keep in mind I dont wanna spend like $50 on fish food ingredients, I only have 3 fish lol... So pls dont get too carried away, but a few other ingredients would be helpful. Plus, anything is better than the flake and pellets that even my fish turn their noses up at! Haha
LOL...I use a chunk of shrimp once in a while..shrimp is expensive and you are purchasing muscles and squid??? A bag of shrimp is $20.00. You don't need to blend it..just chop it up and give it to the fish once in a while and feed frozen mysis, not pellets or flakes.
I think Cranberry is the expert fish food maker.
 
snakeblitz33

snakeblitz33

Well-Known Member
My personal fish food recipe: Doubles as coral food recipe
1lb peeled shrimp, 2 shrimp unpeeled
1 can clams, drained
1 can oysters, drained
1 can muscles, drained
1 "sheet" of frozen mysis
1 "sheet" of frozen brine
1/2 sheet nori, pre-shredded
6 capfuls DT's Phytoplankton
1 heavy squeeze of super Selcon
If you have the extra money to spend, add:
cyclopeez
golden pearls
Enriched brine
I start blending the shrimp first for the base, then add in the nori. The rest is then added on top of it. Selcon is added absolutely last. Vitamin C in the selcon breaks down if heated (by the blender). I believe about 4 tsp of this feeds about 300g reef tank per night. You can freeze it in small zip lock bags, flat, stacked one on top of each other. This makes it easy to store in the freezer and break into pieces to feed. A very small little bit of it goes a long way in feeding.
I don't recommend doubling up on oysters because of the high fat content. feeding too much fatty foods to fish causes fatty livers. Kind of like in humans. I also leave those two shrimp unpeeled because I believe the chitin has beneficial properties for fish eggs, ... fish that regularly spawn.
Now, if I'm feeling lazy, (which I am most of the time), I'll just feed mysis, enriched brine or flake. But, I'll make a big batch of fish food twice a year if I have a lot of tanks to take care of.
 
kilofey

kilofey

Member
Flower- lol, buying big bags of all that would be pretty expensive! I bought a bag of "seafood medley", the shrimp, octopus, squid, & muscles came mixed together. Its a decent sized bag. $4 for about half of a large freezer storeage ziplock bag.
Snake- thanks for the recipe! Ill try to see if I can get most of if not all of the ingredients & maybe add the things I bought already. Btw, for the brine, would it be totally inhumaine to use live brine? I was reading about gut loading them with things like sweet potatoe & peas baby food & sprinula & some other stuff... Or is the frozen enriched stuff better than how most people gut load?
EDIT: just had an idea, thought id jot it down so I dont forget lol..... Egg crate on cookie sheet (with parchment or wax paper) to make little cubes then transfer cubes to bags after frozen :)
 
jburgi

jburgi

Member
I also buy the fish medley. I chopped it up, added some brine cubes, and crushed up flakes...then I mixed it all together and put it in a ziplock bag, flattened it out and froze it. Now I just break sm pieces when its time to feed. I only have 1 fish right now...my maroon clown. Then I have a couple emerald crabs, couple peppermint shrimp, and a skunk shrimp...all of which go CRAZY for it.
 
kilofey

kilofey

Member
Good to know :) I gave them a squid leg today, they went batty for it trying to tear it up & stuff... When they were done with it, the brittle star attacked it & finished it off lol
 
S

siptang

Guest
That sounds like a good mix to me.
I buy the same thing as you. :)
 
kilofey

kilofey

Member
I like giving frozen food way more than flake. Not just because its better, but because its so much fun to watch them tear it up & get all excited :) btw, are clowns known to eat from ppls hand? One of mine is starting to. The longer I have him (a month now), the more he starts to trust me
 
S

siptang

Guest
I agree the frozen food does seem to have the "excite" factor and it's fun to watch them go at it.
Nice, I have heard of it before but mine is a nasty little bug and he tries to bite my hand. :/
My clown trigger however did eat from my hand.
 
reeferchief

reeferchief

Member
I like to take a clove of garlic cut it up and blend it with about a tbsp of ro water and then i put in cheese cloth or similar and squeez it to strain out the juices and I add that to the food and freeze it.
 
jburgi

jburgi

Member
My clown will eat from my hand.....he is so food motivated I bet I could teach him tricks!:laughing:
 
S

siptang

Guest
do it and show us the video!! that would be awesome!
reef - will try that. Thanks for the idea!
 
S

siptang

Guest
Lol, that's awesome. I had a clown trigger that swam in full vertical circles begging for her food haha.
Get a video capture my friend.
 
kilofey

kilofey

Member
My black & white clown wiggles frantically when he sees me. He gets real close to the tank wall & tries to peck at it to get the food he knows I have.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top