Fish food

[Bradc]

Does anyone on here make their own food for their cichlids.. i have a tank thats mixed mbuna peacocks and haps but will be changing soon and was after some recipes for mbuna and for peacocks and haps if anyone does their own.. be interesting to see how much they improve.

[Ageofaquariums]

If you google european shrimp mix, it should give you a good starting recipe. From there you can add any of the super ingredients.

We sell straight astax here at AOA for turning DIY food into colour food.

 

Other popular things to add include, garlic, egg, spirulina, vitamins, paprika, astax, pepper skins etc

[Bradc]

Gave it a go .. have used carrots peas zucchini broccoli spinach and a clove of garlic .. freezing it now will see how it goes

[Buccal]

Did you put agar or gelatine in it ??

[Bradc]

No i didnt .. should i have? I just put ot in the freezer

[Ageofaquariums]

Without agar or geletine it will melt into a snow storm.

What did you use for protein?

Without raw fish or prawn added your fish may not be so interested.

I have used whole earthworms added to cubes (I make in icecube trays) so that the fish get to fight over a treat in the middle lol

[Bradc]

Got the missus getting me some tomorrow. And didn't add any protein as i have a few mbuna and mainly as i didnt have any prawns lol. How much protein is "safe" say 1 or 2 prawns in a bag that big ? Have mbuna in the tank as well as peacocks and haps

[Ageofaquariums]

50% veggies and 50% raw seafood seems to be the usual blend.

Mbuna can handle quite a lot of protein as long as they also get their fibre daily.

[Bradc]

Cheers mate 

[Buccal]

When you make your food,, make one batch 50/50 for predator fish or fish closer to predator class.

the vegos and omnivores closer to vege, is 25% seafood mix and rest vege ingredient.

seafood shops sell marinara mixes at very affordable prices and has a mix of everything you'd want.

google up main vitamins needed by cichlids, you can roughly for fill this by adding human grade vitamin pills from a health shop.

from the health shop you can also get spirallina powder, which is Definetely recommended.

using 20% peas in mix, canned deshelled, will give you powerful fiber input which will make your food safer for your fish (constipation or bloating wise)

its best to use agar as its plant derivative, seaweed,,, you need to google to get proportional values correct or it will go pear shaped,, it basically sets as jelly cubes.

i use to use a 2cm deep baking tray lightly sprayed with olive oil in a can, I then spread the mix out into tray and put in fridge for two hours and flip tray upside down and cut into 2cm x 2cm cubes and use a wide putty knife to scoop up flat clusters into zip lock bags then into freezer.

one hour before feed time, I use to put the ziplock bags of frozen food on tank lids, then follow through once defrosted and drop the jelly cubes in.

if you don't combine it with agar or gelatins, the loose raw food will instantly foul your tank and you'll be put of by it.

 

so you know, a waisted two massive batches to begin with till I got it right,, I should have trailed and learned of smaller batches to begin with.

[Bradc]

Cheers bucal i think ive gone pretty close to the 25% mark that big bag i added 3 deshelled prawns and vegge wise its mostly broccoli and zucchini with about 1/4 cup of frozen peas .. i messed up abit though as i blended to fine i think and yeah i tryed before adding gelatin and made a mess in my tank haha .. but ive got some gelatin now and ive blended the prawns into the mix i didnt add any vitamins as every 2nd day ill still feed some nls pellets so wasnt to fussed as they reckon they have it covered .. cheers for the help people .. learn alot from this forum its great

[Link2Hell]

Brad use Agar not Gelatine, Agar is vegie based refer Buccal's post earlier

[Buccal]

The way I use to do it, was get all ingredients to total purée, it would be warm on the stove and as thick as porridge, but not lumpy.

The agar instructions shows a certain amount of liters water per certain amount of agar,,,, just replace that the liters of water with your actual whole mix,,,, get your calculated agar amount together in a cup, and pour very warm water in it and stir agar till fully disovled.

You then slowly stir your warm food mix on the stove, and slowly pour your disovled agar mix into the food mix and keep slow stirring constantly for another 3 minutes.

spray your cooking trays with olive oil, and pour in mix at 2cm deep per tray.

stick in fridge till next day,,,, if done correctly, you'll have solid little jelly food cubes,,, gelatine breaks fast in water and messy,, agar stays together better and it's plant protein rather than animal protein being ground hooves as gelatine is.

cut into cubes, into zip locks and filed of in flat stack style into freezer.    ?

[Bradc]

Yeah ill get some agar ive butchered this batch so will have another go using it.

[Buccal]

Took me three goes to get it right,, 

[Bradc]

Used agar got it to set using your process and the fish dont like it lol cant win .. i think i may need more or a different source of protein might used brine shrimp instead of prawns or a fish like hoki or basa fillets

[Ageofaquariums]

Fish will be more excited if you make 50% of the mix raw chopped seafood. I blend prawns, shells and all + fish fillets.

DIY food ends up being more expensive than bought food after all the bits and pieces I add. But it has the added advantage of really helping them poop. Only reason I bother supplementing the NLS pellets with the DIY stuff. If it wasnt for the roughage effect I wouldn't bother as dang is it messy!

[Bradc]

Yeah well ive tryed it out lol i dunno if ill keep doing it .. maybe once i get a fry set up i might but dunno. Thanks for all your help guys made the experience a fair bit easier

[fishdance]

I find agar too expensive and less palatable than gelatine. If you use gelatine, make sure you dissolve it in hot water first, don't just sprinkle it in dry or it won't bind. 

Use more gelatine if you want to make wafers for L numbers. 

[Bradc]

Thanks for the advice i got a batch of gelatin that i got to work last night well hold and they do nibble it but aren't crazed about it .. but in saying that they were never real fussed with zucchini until i feed it to them a few times.

Save opening up a new thread ill just ask here .. any websites you can suggest that supply bulk cichlids that are sexed and have a good range (good price to if thats possible) ive been on live fish and a few others and all they sell is assorted peacocks and i dont really wont half bred stock and the rest or juvies.

[Buccal]

I'd say, your making it to jelly like with agar.

When blocks are frozen and defrosted, they should be jelly set, but a few seconds under water, you push them and they just crumble.

Gelatin doesn't set as well as agar, but because agar sets well it's actually harder to use and get it right,,, it is controversial that the cow hooves ground down to make gelatine being raw terrestrial, causes bloat.

If you decide to still get agar right,, make yourself up 5 runs of tests with various agar doses,,,,,, you'll know when you finally get it right,, you grab the block and it stays together, you drop it in tank as it sinks it stays together, the fish smash it, and bight size portions fly everywhere.

Its very important to get consistency of every processed ingredient correct,, this is another trial and error in its self. (A good processor really makes a difference,, and prepared marinara bought actually whips up nice and consistent.

Feeding your fish these, is like feeding any other new food, and this is even more different,,, took about a week, for my fish to get use to,, slowly integrate with normal feed.

Its more hassel than it's worth,, good quality pellet has everything in it, and pellets are concentrated in nutrition which amounts to less food needing to be fed and less excretion, so less pollution, better water,,,,,,,.   If you have fun doing it, then no one can argue with that...  ?

[Ageofaquariums]

I have never had trouble using geletin even with tropheus.

[Buccal]

Yeah, I know heaps of people with no probs gelatine,, I preferred agar because it was much more stronger, which meant I could use a higher percentage of food in the mix,,, also just prefer its characteristics with the way agar holds together well then breaks up easy to,,, and gives many mini bits rather than clouding.

Ken Harvey used gelatine in his for many years, no probs there either,,,, 

[fishdance]

Another option is to run your wet mix through a mincer and break the strands every few centimeters. Quite time consuming if you do large batches. Then sun dry (big batches) or low oven bake (small batches) to create dry pellets. Adding wheat or rice flour can help to harden. I did this once successfully after watching african aquaculture videos  (may be available on you tube?) but time and labour intensive. For smaller quantuties, buying dry pellet is easier. For larger quantities a pellet machine is only $2500. This gives you better quality control as well as price savings. Just make sure your food storage is good as fungus in food can wipe out your fish room overnight.