Making your own fishfood

[glo]

hi,

Just wondering if you can use a blender or will this turn everything into mush? I understand most people use a mincer to get everything the right size.

i was thinking of using peas and marinara mix (not whitebait due to bones?). Does anyone add say vitamin c powder and if so, does it last in the freezer and do you need to buy any particular type of vitamin c.

[mcsx]

Theres some good Shrimp mixes out there if you can find a recipe, maybe searching on some forums might come up with something.

Cheers Mark~

[Wolfy]

Some good info here: http://www.sydneycichlid.com/cichlid-food-frozen.htm

here: http://www.aquariumlife.net/projects/diy-fish-food/112.asp

and here: http://westerncichlids.com.au/home-made-fish-food-frozen/

We usually use about 25% seafood (shrimp, whitebait, whatever is cheap at the market) and 75% veggies (mostly green: zucchini, bok choy, broccoli, spinach, with a bit of carrot/capsicum thrown in for colour), add some garlic, a spoon or two of sprilina and then enough agar agar to set it all.

If you do it in batches you can use a blender and not pulp it too much - a mincer is good for beef-heart mixes (but know people who use a blender for that too), but our Cichlids are mostly-vegetarian.

We don't really add additional vitamins (mostly becasue we don't have any), but the fish get fed a varied diet including commercial food, so it should not be needed.

[Planted]

i used to make my own discus food and put in snaplock bags flatten and freeze.

i used to use a hand opperated cast iron meat mincer but connect it up to a drill to make it quicker and easier.

first of i start with 3 large fresh beef hearts and trimmed all the fat and sinue and mince it with a hand mincer ended up with 2kg of prime mince.

then minced 1kg of nanagai fillets Skinless and boneless

then minced 1kg of atlantic salmon fillets skinless and boneless

then minced .5kg of scallops with roe on it.

then minced 2kg of prawns de-vained and peeled.

kept the juice from the prawns and added about 1/4 cup water and about 150gms of pro's choice discus bits "pellets"

"my discus dont like floating pellets so good way to use them up"

also added approx 100gms of sera granugreen Vegetable diet "spirinula"

then added 1/4 cup minced garlick

then added 1 cup frozen peas

then added 1 cup cooked peeled carrot

mixed it all up then added it to the beef heart and fish products, then put it all through the mincer again.

then bagged it all up and flattened it out.

main ingredients

finished product

[Topogigio]

Yummy!

[crick13]

i used to make my own discus food and put in snaplock bags flatten and freeze.

i used to use a hand opperated cast iron meat mincer but connect it up to a drill to make it quicker and easier.

first of i start with 3 large fresh beef hearts and trimmed all the fat and sinue and mince it with a hand mincer ended up with 2kg of prime mince.

then minced 1kg of nanagai fillets Skinless and boneless

then minced 1kg of atlantic salmon fillets skinless and boneless

then minced .5kg of scallops with roe on it.

then minced 2kg of prawns de-vained and peeled.

kept the juice from the prawns and added about 1/4 cup water and about 150gms of pro's choice discus bits "pellets"

"my discus dont like floating pellets so good way to use them up"

also added approx 100gms of sera granugreen Vegetable diet "spirinula"

then added 1/4 cup minced garlick

then added 1 cup frozen peas

then added 1 cup cooked peeled carrot

mixed it all up then added it to the beef heart and fish products, then put it all through the mincer again.

then bagged it all up and flattened it out.

main ingredients

finished product

looks great! my recipe is similar to yours but i add eggs to hold it together and put it in the oven on low heat just to set the eggs and then let it cool and cut it into pieces with a knife and then freeze it... i still give my fish the occasional feed of commercial food for a bit of variety. but definately a cheap and healthy way to feed your fish, ingredients are very fresh and unprocessed and you know what your fish are eating.

[Link2Hell]

I'm not a fan of beef heart but it has been an established part of Discus culture

and feed to large American piscavores for many years and as stated you must

remove all sinue and fat no half jobs here

Beef heart is not recommended as part of the diet for Rift Lake Africans or any

species that is vegetarian

having said this you can modify your mix to suit your fish

as a binding agent use agar instead of gelatine

I used Pentavite child vitamins and ascorbic acid (vit C) but if you heat the mix

it will breakdown any added vitamins

Planted you can send the salmon over here

Chris

[Gombe]

in regards to vitamins.. use one for birds. already liquid and no stuffing round ,will last you ages

[Citypainter]

Ni disrespect intended

BUT

Is it really worth the hassle and mess????

I am sure that its good for them but really I wouldn't be bothered.

Do you really see any diference in your fish that prepared food cannot offer.

[Planted]

Planted you can send the salmon over here

haha , yep was very tempted to eat some of the mix lol

even after the beefheart was trimmed it looked very edible

i never really worried about binding agents as i didn't feel the need to add it.

have read banana is another good Additive

and also womens vitamins are supposed to be the go too.

Is it really worth the hassle and mess????

imo yes, as you know exactly what your feeding your fish and that it's also nice and fresh. not been sitting in some freezer for months and months.

i also love my fish so don't mind going to a bit of effort to try to keep them in top shape and keep them happy.

[Citypainter]

Is it really worth the hassle and mess????

imo yes, as you know exactly what your feeding your fish and that it's also nice and fresh. not been sitting in some freezer for months and months.

Thats fair enough.

BUT

How long will it sit in your freezer??

Also how is the fat content effecting your water?

I am not trying to be negative here, just playing the devils advocate

[Planted]

Thats fair enough.

BUT

How long will it sit in your freezer??

Also how is the fat content effecting your water?

I am not trying to be negative here, just playing the devils advocate

wouldn't have been i my freezer for any longer than approx 3 mths as i sold quite a bit of it too.

never had any problems with it affecting the water as i didn't feed it every day either, i like to feed a wide variety of foods and the above was just part of it.

also when i was keeping my discus i used to do at least 2 x 30-40% water changes weekly.

[CThompson]

Ni disrespect intended

BUT

Is it really worth the hassle and mess????

When I wasn't so lazy, I would make my own frozen food.

Advantages;

I KNEW what was in it.

It was better than the normal commercial dry foods.

I got the house to myself (the family fled due to the fish smell)

I now "own" the blender (wife still refuses to use it)

Disadvantages;

It takes time to make and is a hassle (messy)

Can't think of any other cons.

I haven't made it for some years as NLS has made me lazy, still would be a great addition though even with NLS as the only food source.

I guess it comes down to available time and keenness. If you've got both, go for it. It would keep for months and months in the freezer. I would put it in plastic bags, and flatten thin to make snapping off pieces easier. In the freezer I would lay bag on bag on bag with the open ends folded up under the upper bag to hold it closed, especially while the mix was runny.

Did I see a difference when I used it? Can’t say I did, but then you wouldn’t, that’s part of the reason why fish foods can be so controversial. However, the simple fact that the food you make actually has whole salmon (if you used it) and not some no name fish’s head/scales/bones (no meat). And whole prawns (if you used them), and not just the shells etc, makes the whole time consuming messy (the secret here is to be really well ordered and to have lots of containers) process worthwhile.

I used agar agar as a binding agent as others have mentioned. For meat eaters I used 3/4 meat, 1/4 vegie, and 3/4 vegie and 1/4 meat for vegetarians. The only meat I used came from the ocean, fish, squid, prawns etc, and vegies were carrots, whole peas, garlic, bananas, corn (those mixed chopped frozen vegies fron the super market were great), sushi nori and so on.

[glo]

guys,

thanks for the great replies. i think i will try and go to the effort and make some food.

where do you guys buy your nls from? if this is the best manufactured food then i will probably get some more, though i have found at least one of my peruvian angels is not keen on the growth formula and my catties seem to prefer hikari and osi pellets to nls. keen to improve the quality of food i am feeding.