A complete guide to making your own fish food

[RonMidtownStomp]

I'm hoping to get some more advise on DIY fish food. I had mixed results with my first attempt. I took about $20 worth of grocery store items including calamari, scallops, talapia, clams, and shrimp and blended them individually.

In order to get them to blend, I had to add some water (I used tank water) and I had a gloppy mess of blended fish products which I then mixed together, put in zip lock bags, flattened out and refroze.

The fish seem to like the bigger pieces and I figure the smaller bits are being enjoyed by the corals at least to some degree, but I definitely have to mix it with PE mysis, and I'm feeding nori separately.

I talked to Dennis at H2O Exclusive and he mentioned that he's going to start selling fish vitamins which sounds like a perfect idea. I read online about "vitamin drops" but had no idea what ones to use and if I'd be adding something toxic with grocery store vitamins, so I decided to avoid that until I had more info. Dennis's fish vitamins sound like a perfect solution. I would also like to put some nori into the mix, but I'm afraid of it floating away and being ineffective this way.

I would love to reduce my PE Mysis consumption since I'm going through a very considerable amount of it and pound for pound could save a lot increasing the ratio of homemade food to PE Mysis. I don't anticipate ever eliminating my silverside consumption since I make sure my RBTA, trigger and beta get some silverside at least a couple of times a week.

I think better controlling the size of the pieces, perhaps even hand cutting everything with a large knife, may be one solution. I have noticed that calamari is more in demand when fine cut with a knife. Most of the fish will eat some of it when it's small enough.

I figure variety is the spice of sea life, too. Any advice for my next batch of DIY fish food?

Oh, and in case you haven't done this before... it is not a way to work up an appetite. The smell and fish goo are not exactly like watching a TV commercial for your favorite restaurant or watching the Iron Chef.

Ron

 

[Bamm Bamm]

i liked the last batch of food my fish did too. a bigger particle size though I think would be beneficial..add, cycolpeeze, brine, nori, various other dried seaweeds(asain stores sell lots of them), clams oh and krill.. I have some dried krill you can have to add..

 

[RonMidtownStomp]

I had clams in the last batch. I would imagine I'd add brine without any blending. My concern about seaweeds is that they may just float away, jam up the overflow teeth, and never be consumed.

 

[kevin95695]

Turn off your return pump before feeding to avoid jamming overflow. Chop the seaweed fine before adding to the blender.

I also put tons of stuff in there; flake, pellets, shrimp, coralvite, krill, chopped silversides, plankton, whatever. I use the asian market fish and stuff to stretch the mix. Stay away from oily fish like salmon.

Also, I add phyto and rotifer to the mix - side effect is that it adds moisture to keep the blending moving along...

I won't do clams again - someone cautioned against heavy metals. Made sense.

Seems to my that ounce for ounce the price is well worth it when you mix the cubes into the stuff you buy by the pound at the fishmonger.

 

[kevin95695]

Oh, and I put the frozen chunk right on the side of the powerhead. The fish go nuts chasing the bits! Most bits are the size of small mysis.

 

[Bamm Bamm]

I just found out that a friend from high school sells fish food to stores.. Im trying to get his contact info from another friend to find out about a hookup..Doubt it will be anytime soon though

 

[RonMidtownStomp]

I'm always afraid to put frozen bits of anything into the tank for fear of the cold blooded fish not being able to handle eating things that are cold.

Ron

 

[KMP]

i've always thrown in frozen cubes. never a problem.

 

[kevin95695]

What Kenny said, plus by the time the bits are blown off the chunk by the powerhead -- Totally thawed.

 

[Bamm Bamm]

I;'ve done it for years I usually try to thaw a bit first though if I have time

 

[dzhuo]

This might help. Looks reasonable:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xMFDjkKldjo&feature=channel