Fish Food

[benpoole28]

I have 10 large fish now (6-10") and cant see buying larrys anymore because of the amount I now have to feed. $20 per bag at a bag a week would add up quickly! I made my first batch of homemade food the other day out of cod, bay scallops, and shrimp. I made 5 bags for around $12. I added Garlic Guard to it but I am wondering what other type of things I can supplement in it to make it as beneficial as possible to my fish. I was considering fish oil to add omega3 fatty acids. What else should I be putting in it?

 

[lsu_fishfan]

You could add squid, and seaweed if you have tangs or other herbavoirs

 

[enderg60]

farmers market is the best.

If available I get the following. Squid, Octopus, scallops, shrimp(with head and shell), sardines(or any small whole fish), cheap fillets of fish or anything else that looks interesting.

Depending on the size and kind of fish you have you may want to leave some whole bits, but I take all that and put it through my grinder give it a rinse and freeze it in pallets.

If you have small fish, I would add a few types of fish eggs and nori as well. I also add some store foods as well like mysis, silversides and blood worms.

If you have corals I would skip the rinse as they love the small bits.

I usually end up with about 4-5 gallons of food each time and without the store bought foods mixed in I usually only spend about $70. With its about $140 and that lasts me about a year.

 

[civics14]

What Ender said, but I got a pro tip on the freezing by using ice trays that have small cubes, instead of freezer bag flat packs. easier for feeding.

 

[benpoole28]

I forgot to mention i also put nori in it. My first batch was just what Kroger had on sale. I've since found a local fish house so my next will contain allot more different things.

I didn't consider a meat grinder, I thought it would make it too small, I just did a rough chop with my chef knife. I'll look into a cheap grinder for next one.

So you guys don't add any supplements? I add metroplex and selcon to a gelatin type food I make called hpd, but it's too expensive to dump into a big batch like this.


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[hiimsean]

You could get roe as well. I believe you can get caplin roe at some Asian markets around town. They also seem like a good place to source seafood.

 

[curtismaximus]

Be careful using store brand frozen seafood. They are covered in a preservative call tribetaphosphate or something like that. It's supposed to dump loads of phosphates in your tank when it is broken down. I remember having a long discussion about that with someone more knowledgeable than me. He seemed pretty adamant about not using the food that is covered with that stuff.

 

[jrhunter0000]

civics14;1082715 wrote: What Ender said, but I got a pro tip on the freezing by using ice trays that have small cubes, instead of freezer bag flat packs. easier for feeding.

Awesome idea with ice cubes

 

[picoreefguy]

Or if you don't have an ice cube tray with small cubes then get yourself some egg crate, cut to size, cover one side with cling wrap, pour your mix in the other side and freeze. It helps to have it on a flat baking pan or something so that once you pour you don't have to lift the egg crate without something under it for support

 

[b_x_two]

I picked up a bunch of the small silicone ice cube trays on ebay for under $3. Some of the Asian supermarkets have a seafood mix that has basically all you need other than Nori for like $4 a lb.

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[Reefplumber13]

EnderG60;1082710 wrote: farmers market is the best.

If available I get the following. Squid, Octopus, scallops, shrimp(with head and shell), sardines(or any small whole fish), cheap fillets of fish or anything else that looks interesting.

Depending on the size and kind of fish you have you may want to leave some whole bits, but I take all that and put it through my grinder give it a rinse and freeze it in pallets.

If you have small fish, I would add a few types of fish eggs and nori as well. I also add some store foods as well like mysis, silversides and blood worms.

If you have corals I would skip the rinse as they love the small bits.

I usually end up with about 4-5 gallons of food each time and without the store bought foods mixed in I usually only spend about $70. With its about $140 and that lasts me about a year.

Where is this farmers market you speak of

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[enderg60]

If youre feeding as much as me doing cubes is a waste of time and its amazingly messy since the mix is more slush than liquid.

I just use a gallon size freezer bag, put about 4-6 cups in there and freeze it as a pallet. I go through about one a month and I just beat the pallet with a hammer till its usable size and dump that into a new bag for use.

And its the buford hwy farmers market on buford hwy just outside the perimeter.

PS. they have amazing candy there too.

 

[Reefplumber13]

EnderG60;1086121 wrote: If youre feeding as much as me doing cubes is a waste of time and its amazingly messy since the mix is more slush than liquid.

I just use a gallon size freezer bag, put about 4-6 cups in there and freeze it as a pallet. I go through about one a month and I just beat the pallet with a hammer till its usable size and dump that into a new bag for use.

And its the buford hwy farmers market on buford hwy just outside the perimeter.

PS. they have amazing candy there too.

Thanks buddy

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[benpoole28]

Seems like for more trouble to make into cubes than just breaking a pieces off as needed.

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[morganatlanta]

Cubes make it easy to track of how much you feed, and you can tell your kids exactly how much to put in when you are out of town. EnderG60 is in a different class than most of us, so I can see where it would be easier for him to just break off chunks.

Trader Joe's sells a mix of scallops, squid and shrimp with no phosphates for around $8/lb.

 

[arbaugh]

Today is my lucky day! I was just about to post a thread on here about this topic to get others opinions!

I'm totally checking out that farmers market!

I'm using the ice cub method. I put it in a small blender and this is what I'm using currently.
2 Scallops
3 shrimp (I don't use the tale I cut it off, why would use throw it in there?)
RO water blend for a few seconds
I use frozen Mysis, rinse with RO then strain. I drop a little bit in each ice cub. I tried blending it also but gets too small.
Freeze- then I cut each cube into 4ths and provides food for a few months.

I recently started using the reef nutrition ROE and my fish eat that up fast. So when I thaw my food each night I do squirt of this in the shot glass. Any opinions on it?

I also use the oyster feast for corals when I target feed or just give it to the tank.

 

[johnqx4]

Hey,

You are exited. You are motivated. You are not doing anything wrong. Keep it up as long as you like.

However, after a while (PERHAPS YEARS) you may grow a little weary of the effort...

Just about any seafood would be fine for your mix. I think we (humans) are something like 98+ percent genetically equivalent to a fruit fly. So don't get wrapped around the axel about the mixture. It really is not that big of a deal. Also, go ahead and throw in the shrimp shells (they're are almost pure calcium), they won't hurt.

Remember, something like 95 + percent of all aquarium inhabitants are killed by over feeding. The mix is almost never the cause.

When/if you get tired... a frozen mix from the store will work great and you can pick off a dollup (my highly technical term) and toss it in a shot glass and go for broke. a pack (for a few bucks) will probably last you months and you will never have to break out the blender for anything that doesn't have rum or tequila in it.

Side note: If you go on vacation. DON't have anyone feed your fish. I use to travel a LOT. I could be gone as much as two weeks at a time. I never set up a feeder or had anyone feed the fish. I NEVER lost a fish or coral during those travels. There may be some specialized instances, but they are rare.

Just my $.02 worth

johnny