DIY Fish food, a how too.

[enderg60]

DIY fish food, or an alternate way to make your wife gag for a morning.

So this is how I make my fish food. It varies every single time but this should give you some ideas.

Step one, buy fish food and leave it in the sun!

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This is 100% not needed, but I like to include regular foods for the times I run out of my stuff, I know the fish will still eat it. Plus I like mysis and bloodworms A LOT as foods.

This round I got 4x 16oz flats of blood worms, 1x 40 oz flat of mysis, 2x 16 oz flats of sprialina brine and 1x 16 oz flat of calanus. Total cost around $150.

Step 2. you take a trip to the farmers market while the sun does its work. The selection today wasnt that great so I got 2lbs of head on capplin(look like big silversides) for $4, 3lbs of head on shrimp for $12, 2lbs of octopus for $8, 200 sheets of nori for $14 and 3lbs of flying fish eggs for $27.

FYI this is the best place to get nori, and this is the best kind. $6.99 for a 100 sheets. There are others that are just as good but just make sure you get dryed not roasted and not seasoned.

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Ok, back home its time to get to work. Step 3. Now that the retail food is thawed, dump it into a bucket. MMMM 2 gallons of fine aroma.

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Step 4, place bucket under the grinder. FYI, I used to use a blender and it works ok but be sure to add water or it will gum up the motor BAD. Fish and shrimp make a THICK paste. If you do blend a food processor works better. Try to get decent size chunks so dont go too fast. When youre done blend the hell out of about 5% of it. Makes good coral food.

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Step 5, Put on your best Dexter shirt and get grinding! Ready to go for a ride little buddy?

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See ya Shrimpy

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Bye, Bye Doc Oct

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Doesnt it just look delicious?

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Step 6 Chop/cut up some nori. I went with about 30 sheets.

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Step 7, dump in 3lbs of fish eggs. Been using this stuff for over a decade and man do they love it.

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Step 8. Almost done! Now you just have to get in there and mix it. WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE.

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Step 9. Bag that vomit.

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I got 10 bags with about 30-40 oz in each bag, each bag lasts me roughly a month.

Step 10, lay them in the freezer and let them sit overnight. Be sure to separate the bags with paper towels or youre gonna have a bad time in the morning.

This is an average feeding, and also what I scrapped off the sides of the bucket when I was done bagging. Its about 2 table spoons of yack.

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And here is what that amount does to a 300 gallon tank.

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Final cost is $215 for around 360 oz of food which will last me a year.

Other stuff. I would not make more than a years worth at a time because even frozen stuff goes bad. If you dont bother with retail foods(which you dont need at all) a single 40oz bag could be done for under $5.

Other fun ingredients, squid, pretty much any kind of fish, clams, muscles....no kidding, if you can blend or grind it and it lives in the ocean its fair game.

This mix has been great for growing ANYTHING. Corals love it, gorgonians love it, even feather dusters!

Have fun and good eating.

 

[sewer urchin]

DIY fish food, or an alternate way to make your wife gag for a morning.

Yes, could be one way to do it

Great post! I've been reading about adding Selco (Liquid HUFA) and I might add some to my mix the next time I do it, Selcon seems so watery, have you any experience with it?

On a side note, I remember that there is a popular recipe by Eric Borneman that piqued my interest because it advocated the use of brightly colored vegetables for their pigments as well as antioxidants. I've added carrots and eggplants, seemed cool but don't know it did anything for fish and corals.

But I gotta ask .....where's the garlic, we all know that fish won't touch it if it doesn't have garlic in it ;-)

 

[enderg60]

After over 20 years in this hobby, all that extra stuff is just that. Extra stuff. Ive tried so many different things in the food and at the end of they day, simple works and I have never had issues with ANY fish or coral eating this food.

 

[enderg60]

ah finally got the video to upload.

http://i964.photobucket.com/albums/ae126/Enderg60/20170304_143815.mp4">[IMG]http://i964.photobucket.com/albums/ae126/Enderg60/th_20170304_143815.mp4" alt="" /></a>


Granted this is after the food was in there for a few minutes, but do any of them look like they need be to convinced to eat? Do they look faded and in need of vitamins? Or just see if you can find a fish that isnt obese.:D

 

[k3nnyp]

Very cool.

Any concerns over the "Sugar, Salt, Seasoning" in the Masago?

I don't have a meat grinder, any thoughts on using a stick blender? Might need some up front hand chopping of the large pieces.

When feeding do you just open one of the bags and scrape some out with a spoon or break a piece off? Same with larger bags of prepackaged food. I feed with a mix of frozen cubes and like the ease and simplicity but no where the variety you are feeding your tank. I also like when I'm out of town, it's easy for family members to feed and ensure portion control.

Anyone have any good/bad things to say about San Francisco Bay Brand cubes? I'm been using them for years and don't know of any issues but often wonder what all I'm putting into my tank.

 

[walterp1982]

this was an awesome how to, I've been wanting to do something similar for quite a while

 

[enderg60]

If you read what the seasoning is, its just that. Soy, sugar and salt, basically a chloride and some carbon dosing nothing harmful or questionable. Now there are other colors of these with different seasoning, dont use those as they have other stuff in them.

Any kind of blender, processor, grinder or "make it smaller" machine will work. Blenders just tend to be a puree to a fine liquid or nothing which is why its harder to use them to get small but not fine bits. Short bursts work alright, and it tends to be easier to have everything frozen when using a blender as they dont like sticky meats.

For feeding, I just take a whole flat out and beat the hell out of it with a hammer till its usable sizes, throw it in a new bag and just spoon out what I want. I looked into gel ice cube forms and its just not worth the effort and mess. When I need to leave food for someone else to feed, I just use small tupperware containers and measure out a feeding in each.

Ive used SFB foods and like them, but its hard to find that brand in larger flats so I use hikari and everyone seems to like it. Its a huge PITA having to pop out hundreds of cubes to defrost and mix in.

 

[k3nnyp]

Thanks for the reply and article. Not yet ready to make my own but when I do I'll use this as a reference.

Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk

 

[bcavalli]

Fantastic Thread Sir!

If I can offer a little advice. I like most of us, will only have a blender to use (don't tell the wife). Lol.

Dice or atleast chop the calamari. It will wrap around the blender blade and burn your motor out. I've done it several times. Lol. The best option (takes the longest) is to use a small food processor.