Homemade blender mush is the BEST food ever!

[ACBlinky]

Last night I started reading about making my own fish foods, as an alternative to buying frozen at the LFS. I figured I might as well give it a try, the most I had to lose was a few minutes and a few dollars. I bought some frozen seafood mix, nori and scallops, pulled out the blender and went to work. I mixed together:
1/2 cup frozen scallops
2 cups seafood medly (octopus, squid, clam, mussel, shrimp)
1 tablespoon Kent Zoe liquid vitamins
1 teaspoon HBH Super Soft pellets (krill formula)
1 teaspoon HBH Super Soft pellets (spirulina formula)
2 teaspoons freeze-dried Cyclopeeze
2 teaspoons Kent Marine A pellets
4" x 4" square of nori
~1tsp dulce
20 drops Kent Garlic Extreme
and about a cup of water to blend everything together. After pulsing the mix together enough to create a fairly smooth mix with some larger chunks, I ladled it into a couple ziploc freezer bags and placed them flat in the freezer.

Then I tried it out. I took an amount equal to the cube of frozen food I would normally feed, thawed it out, dropped some into the tank and crossed my fingers. The fish went absolutely NUTS! Coral polyps came out, fishes' bellies got round, it was an absolute hit. The best part is that there's loads of scallops and seafood left over, and the two together, combined with nori from the health food store, cost about as much as a single pack of frozen mysis at the LFS.

I absolutely recommend making your own food to anyone with a blender and a little time. Seriously. Stop reading this and go shopping right now!

 

[catdoc]

I mixed up another batch today myself. I don't really follow a recipe, just grab a little of whatever frozen seafood I have and blend it. It definitely gets the attention of the tank's inhabitants! (Not to mention my cats, who started begging for a taste!)

 

[Lordhelmet]

I second that one! I did the same about 2 weeks ago. I had a tone of store credit so i bought a pack of frozen formula 1 and 2, krill, mysis, some reef prime, and brine shrimp. then i went the the local seafood section of safeway and got some large and small shrimp, clams and squid. mixed it all up with some nori, golden pearls and garlic extract and made it into a fine paste.
one of the best things i have done for my tank in a while. corals expand, my clown even took a chunk and feed the RBTA he hosts in for the first time!
great way to save some money on some top notch fish food.

 

[Agu]

Been making it for years..........I don't bother with most LFS foods except Cyclopeeze.

After you make a find blend add one more portion of seafood, blend for a short time and that ends up as larger chunks for bigger fish.

BTW, Don't do this when your significant other is around, the blender mush really stinks :lol: .

 

[dnguyen1]

THis is such a good read and formula, I'm going to start doing it... just wondering instead of GARLIC drops can I just use a WHOLE GARLIC COVE and just blend it in?

Thanks.

 

[ktownhero]

This is why I buy LRS Fish and Reef Frenzy. It's essentially just a commercial version of exactly what you are talking about doing. It is fresh and has no fillers or extra water. My tank goes nuts for it.

 

[sde1500]

THis is such a good read and formula, I'm going to start doing it... just wondering instead of GARLIC drops can I just use a WHOLE GARLIC COVE and just blend it in?

Thanks.

I would just avoid feeding the garlic all together.

 

[Bpb]

Verify your source of seafood is 100% clean and fresh. Crashed my tank doing this a couple years ago because something in the mush was contaminated. It was absolutely catastrophic. Not only did every acro in the tank RTN, but even softies died in mass. Virtually nothing survived and it took months and months of constant water changes and heavy carbon use before anything would not only survive but grow in the tank


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[jayball]

THis is such a good read and formula, I'm going to start doing it... just wondering instead of GARLIC drops can I just use a WHOLE GARLIC COVE and just blend it in?

Thanks.

Feeding garlic has been proven to cause organ damage in fish, I believe the original research was related to fish farming.

The only reason to include garlic at all, IMO, is to get a wild fish eating a captive diet. Do not feed it if you think it is going to do anything for their immune system or any other BS. Keep in mind that fish food and supplement is an unregulated market, they can say anything they want land will not go against a popular misconception when it can land a few dollars in their pocket.

OP, looks like a good mix but be careful of added phosphates (as preservatives) in your previously frozen stuff. A great addition would be live shellfish, a dozen stew clams and some oysters go a long way and contain no added phosphate.

This is why I buy LRS Fish and Reef Frenzy. It's essentially just a commercial version of exactly what you are talking about doing. It is fresh and has no fillers or extra water. My tank goes nuts for it.

Same here, great stuff.

 

[homer1475]

I do basically the same thing with the exception of NO garlic, and I use all fresh seafood(never know whats exactly in the frozen). I freeze it in those gel mini ice cube trays. The trays are like 2 or 3 bucks at walmart and a half a cube is a perfect size for my tank.

 

[alton]

This is why I buy LRS Fish and Reef Frenzy. It's essentially just a commercial version of exactly what you are talking about doing. It is fresh and has no fillers or extra water. My tank goes nuts for it.

X 2
I had a friend who mixed his own bought from the local grocery store until one day it killed all his fish. I think our bodies can handle more impurities than our fishes

 

[DreadCapn]

X 2
I had a friend who mixed his own bought from the local grocery store until one day it killed all his fish. I think our bodies can handle more impurities than our fishes

A) This is horrifying and has scared me off of doing this

B) That may be true, but I also wouldn't be surprised that if a person had eaten that particular batch raw, they'd have gotten sick too

 

[der_wille_zur_macht]

I think it's worth pointing out that the OP is like 11 years old.

For those commenting about home made food killing a tank - what evidence drove that conclusion?

 

[Bpb]

This was before the days of Triton testing, or at least long before I was aware of it. Evidence would be a thriving healthy tank for a few years time, and taking a sharp nose dive into what essentially ended up becoming a FOWLR within 24 hours of feeding my homemade food which was the only change made in any feasible time period


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[alton]

One thing I left out was my friend who lost his fish took the receipt from the store and a receipt from an LFS on what it would cost to replace his fish back to the store where he purchased the seafood and they gave him his replacement cost of his fish. (maybe they knew something?) For me it is still about freshness, eating at a restaurant at the coast that gets there food fresh off the boat daily or buying off the boat going home and cooking it, versus a grocery store inland or a wholesaler makes big difference and you can smell it. And this a good topic to bring back from the past and let people know there are some risk at making your own so they can be extra careful on selecting there ingredients.

 

[jacksonpt]

Commercial, frozen fish food is known to bring phosphates into a tank unless it's thawed and rinsed first. I assume that wouldn't be a concern when making your own?

 

[saf1]

X 2
I had a friend who mixed his own bought from the local grocery store until one day it killed all his fish. I think our bodies can handle more impurities than our fishes

I think this may be a bit blown out of proportion. Especially the bit about our bodies handling more impurities than a animal (fish, dog, bird, or whatever you may keep). I'm talking about buying stuff over the counter at a grocery store in which case the butcher handles, cleans, stores, and adheres to various government standards to include inspections. It doesn't mean something won't happen but it does reduce the chances. At lease in non third world countries...

I had a German Shepherd Dog who sadly started to have seizures. Very hard to control and manage and we tried every human and animal drug our vet and neurologist suggested. And it wasn't cheap by any means. Neurologist suggested I change the diet up and feed only human food. Chicken, rice, vegetables, etc. Interesting enough while it didn't cure or resolve the issue her quality of life went up and time between seizures was increased. Was it food alone, no. Not by any means - but I guess my point is human food with animals, including fish, isn't going to cause harm by feeding so called impurities. Human food is pretty darn safe in most places. We also feed our African Gray parrot human food (vegetables and beans for example) mixed in with her normal food and she is great.

I personally think this is a great solution and one I'll be doing with my 240 gallon here shortly. I don't have enough fish and corals to make the most use of it with by 40 breeder without wasting it but I do plan on this with the next tank. I see it helping by nutrition, multipurpose food, multi fish, coral, and all around ease of feeding while out of town or on vacation. Only difference is that I'll probably add in tang heaven and their coral food from IPSF.

There is always one wart though, right? Smell Oh, and of course I'm highly allergic to shellfish so that means I am wearing gloves while handling the food with my epee pen near me

 

[saf1]

Commercial, frozen fish food is known to bring phosphates into a tank unless it's thawed and rinsed first. I assume that wouldn't be a concern when making your own?

Handle and prepare the food such as you would eat it. You are mixing raw, I get it. There is a possibility but no different that say how the frozen food you buy at the fish store might have. I'd almost wager human quality and fresh will have less but I have nothing to back that up.

Maybe not for everyone I guess.

 

[der_wille_zur_macht]

Commercial, frozen fish food is known to bring phosphates into a tank unless it's thawed and rinsed first. I assume that wouldn't be a concern when making your own?

There was a study in one of the major reef keeping magazines a few years ago that basically showed rinsing doesn't impact phosphate levels in the food. Someone may have the link handy, I can't find it right now.

 

[alton]

We take in Chloramines, chlorine, copper, iron every day, try using your tap water for water changes with out removing them? Why do most of us spend money to purify our water if our fish and corals can handle those things as well as us?