What's in your freezer?

[neuroslicer]

Topic: reef food: I've been feeding my fish the staple marine flake food combined with frozen brine shrimp for years now. I'm careful to rinse the frozen pellet several times, hopefully eliminating anything in the pellet except for the shrimp themselves. Years ago when I started with marine fish that's all there was in the industry in terms of frozen food. Now there's mysid shrimp, pods, you name it.

Since I've got herbivores in the tank (tang, angel), every couple days I'll put in a piece of seaweed as well. All the fish go for it, not just the herbivores. Of course there are the amphipods and copepods that are always in the tank, along with the polychaetes in the sand that my sand sifter goby enjoys. I've got no idea what percent of the fish diet is made up of the live critters.

I've had a feather duster polychaete for about 4 years now, and I've never given it any direct feeding, though I'm sure it benefits from the algae that I scrape off my glass every couple of days. I've heard that Coco worms may not do so well without direct feedings (cultured phytoplankton???), and I've not fed mine in the 6 months that I've had it.

So what do you feed your critters, and please discuss your choices.

 

[scarson61]

Richard did a homemade recipe at one of the meetings. I used a seafood pack from Wal-MArt (minus the Krab) with brine shrimp, selcon and Nori put it in the food processor then used egg crate on a flat pan and made little cubes. My fish love it and you can make a ton of it for around $7.
Sanford

 

[crpeck]

Re: What's in your freezer?

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8260629#post8260629 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by neuroslicer
So what do you feed your critters, and please discuss your choices.

Can you give us a rubric as to how we'll be graded on this assignment, Professor?

Being an indecisive type, I incorporate as much variety as possible so that I'm bound to hit something good eventually.
My husband complains regularly about all the "fish stuff" in the freezer and refrigerator.

For the Rose BTA and the Serpent Star, I feed 2X/week and alternate between silversides, krill, Formula One frozen cube, and now some new supposed super food by the same maker as Formula foods that they both seem to like quite well.

For the fish, I feed flake 3 or 4X/week, alternating between Formula One, Two and Prime Reef with a heavier emphasis on the Prime Reef as they definitely seem to like it the best. The other days, I make a combo soup of mysis, Cyclopeeze, and Nori and thow in a tiny bit of Oyster Eggs for the corals. If anyone is seeming wimpish in the tank, I soak it all in Kent Zoe which is a Sprirulina/vitamin supplement or maybe Selcon.

I first bought the Selcon when I was raising the baby clowns. It was recommended as something to soak the brine shriimp to boost its nutritional value. The ZOE maybe toxic soup for all I know, but I definitely notice a positive response. I really only use it when I'm trying to coax someone to eat or who needs a boost. The anemone seems to prefer his food not be soaked in the ZOE and is less likely to reject it when it's plain.

I only feed Brine Shrimp as a treat or to coax a reluctant feeder as I have read that Mysis is superior in nutritional value. There is one frozen product called "Emerald Entree", I think by SF Bay Brand or something. I hate it and don't feed it often because it looks like it has a lot of junk and would scum up the tank. But every once in awhile, I give it as a treat because Mama Clown goes absolutely NUTS over it and will travel the farthest from her anemone to grab it than anything. It's got spinach and junk that I'd never put in the tank otherwise, but hey ..... like candy ... it's okay now and then.

I also cut fresh caulerpa and other green algae out of the quarantine tank and put it on a clip for Tang, the Coral Beauty and the Blenny. I also have Algae wafers made by Hikari. I used to feed those regularly when I was weaning the Algae Blenny off of fresh algae when there was no more in the tank. I thought he was going to starve until I tried the algae wafers. Now that he is eating everything, I do the wafers less often. It's fun to watch the Tang and Blenny fight over them.

I don't feed anything special for the dusters or inverts. I do notice that feather dusters I put in the tank the first 6 months it was up died, but after the tank was well established they definitely just get what they need out of the water column. Every time I run the Magnafloat around the tank, they get stuff. Also, I don't drain my mysis or frozen foods. I've heard that you're supposed to, but I've noticed that just the juice off of the frozen mysis will inspire my Seriatopora, in particular, to really polyp up and get fluffy when I feed.

Wow ... seeing all this in writing makes me realize how ridiculous it is that I feed this much different stuff. And I didn't even mention the shrimp pellets I use to chum the Banded Coral Shrimp when he's getting fiesty or when I want to show company how he eats out of my hand.

The make your own idea is probably WAY smarter. But I don't have big tanks and these frozen food packets last me a LONG time. Even my kids know that I prefer easy food to the best food.


Cathy

 

[willember]

I feed 1 frozen cube a day, alternating between Marine Cuisine and Emerald Entree. Both are made by SF Bay. I get them at petco. I also have a auto feeder that dispenses flake (Prime Reef by Ocean Nutrition)

 

[neuroslicer]

Richard, can you post your frozen food recipe? What the heck is a seafood pack from Walmart?

 

[Rendos]

I put all kinds of seafood in it, but have noticed that it breaks down very quickly. It is like mush when it thaws. I have since gone back to using a wide variety of commercially prepared foods.

Marine Cuisine
Emerald Entree
Brine Shrimp
Spirulina Enriched Brine Shrimp
Baby Brine Shrimp
Mysis Shrimp
Cyclopeeze

plus flake and pellets.