Making your own food

[littlefish72]

So I tried to make my own food today..........not good.........it turned out to be a shrimp, squid, and scallop smoothie:eek2:...........barely any chunks at all, more of a pudding consistency..........absolutely disgusting

So anyway, can anyone give pointers on preparing broodstock food? My previous experiences with a blender involve milkshakes and margaritas and that failed to give me the knowledge needed to blend seafood......should i put it in the blender frozen or thawed, with water or without? Any advice will be appreciated....so until then the cheese grater will have to continue to suffice

Thanks

 

[adtravels]

shrimp squid scallops, then I chop finely, put in a small guage ice cube tray (possibly so lime juice for preservation)
Freeze and than grate a cube at a time, soak infresh water to remove some of phosphates, drain, and only then mix with selcon, other vitamins and or some freshly grated garlic juice (grate the garlic into the net and squeeze the juice comes out feed immediatly)

 

[littlefish72]

so you cut it up, freeze it, and then grate it? I think i'll try that until I perfect my blender skills

anybody else?

 

[adtravels]

yep works for me squid and prawns always turn into mush in any blender.

 

[Eklikewhoa]

I blend shrimp, krill, mysis, NewLifeSpectrum, Cyclopeeze and whatever else I can find to a slurpee consistency then I freeze in a grid of eggcrate/light diffuser.

Comes out spongy when thawed and everyone loves it!

 

[littlefish72]

does it naturally stick together or do you use gelatin?

 

[tpdpercula]

Littlefish72, the first time I started making my own food, I blended everything and it to turned into a "Smoothie". Just freeze the mush and it will actually make a pretty good food source after freezing. I was surprised how well something so liquidy could turn into a somewhat solid form of food.

 

[GSMguy]

chop the chunky meaty stuff with a knife
then use a blender to mix algae sheets, frozen cyclopeze, and selcon,.

make a paste mix it with the chunky stuff, then freeze it, dont need to blend the chunky just chop it

a mini chopper would work if you dont have knife skills

 

[GSMguy]

turning the fish into a paste turns it into Pappone almost, that would work great for feeding SPS corals but fish are going to benifit more from chunky food.

 

[Eklikewhoa]

After I blend it all together and freeze it it turns to little sponge like cubes....has the consistency of a sponge too.

 

[littlefish72]

yeah i really didn't like the smoothie result........so i'm trying to avoid that........the cheese grater gives me the size i like but I can't grate the whole shrimp...........so is there a magic way to get the nice chunky result?

 

[Eklikewhoa]

Mine will form a spongy but solid cube and not break up at all....I pinch off bits for my small fish and just feed the whole cube to my Nem with no problems.

 

[GSMguy]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11276844#post11276844 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by littlefish72
yeah i really didn't like the smoothie result........so i'm trying to avoid that........the cheese grater gives me the size i like but I can't grate the whole shrimp...........so is there a magic way to get the nice chunky result?

'

You might get bettter cheese grater results by freezing the shrimp hard before grating?

 

[MarinaP]

What are you trying to achieve by making fish food?

I always used commercial, works well for my multiple breeding pairs, babies, juvs. I do not think you will get any cost savings by making your own fish food or achieve proper nutritional value.

There are some commercial brands that are better than others, though. Everybody agrees that PE mysis is superior food for clowns. Cyclopeeze has a proven success rating. I like OSI spirulina, which has great nutritional value.

 

[littlefish72]

GSMguy, my grater is new and the shrimp are frozen solid buy by the time I grate up one the last inch (which also happens to be about how much i need to hang on) has thawed out. Which isn't that big of a deal but after a few feedings I have a few one inch shrimp pieces in the freezer and that bugs me.

MarinaP, what I am trying to achieve an initial spawn from a pair of black ocellaris that I've had a year and a half along with beefing up other pairs for the same purpose. Wilkerson's and Wittenrich's book both suggest feeding table shrimp, squid, clams, scallops, etc., etc. that one could make yourself. So basically I was just experimenting with good results. Everyone ate the grated shrimp and scallops with gusto so I wanted to try the blender thing next (at my wife's dismay ). But from most of the posts the smoothie result isn't that uncommon. It just grossed me out.

And who is the PE in PE mysis?

 

[MarinaP]

PE Mysis stands for

http://www.mysis.com/

Your initial spawn will not depend on feeding "home chow" or commercial.

Wilckerson's book is great, but it is getting outdated with the influx of new foods, etc.

Check out FAQ at the top of this forum for more info.

 

[gojicraig]

When you blend it put you blender on grind or chop instead of bend and pulse it and make sure that the shrimp or scallops are frozen or mostly frozen then you can keep it in chunks.

 

[tgfrench]

I just made a batch up this afternoon with fish, shrimp, clam and scallops. The wife bought one of them tiny food choppers which i have found to work great. I try to leave it in a lil chunky form but i grate it with a knife before serving. My purpose is to fill the tank with small bits for my lps as much as for the fish.

 

[AD87]

Now when you use seafood (shrimp) is that uncooked or cooked?Someone said table shrimp thats cooked, just want to clarify.

 

[tgfrench]

fresh uncooked everything.