Homemade Fish Food

system · June 24, 2008, 12:35am

Well its that time again; I need to make more fish Food.
Figure I will repost an earlier article for making the mush.

I have been trying to mix up the food I give my fish. Sometimes I am just lazy and give them something easy for me. Thanks to ken I got motivated to make my own mix of frozen foods. I remembered link to Melevs Reef . What great site. And the after a trip to the local Asian market I was ready. Or was I? First I recommend buying your wife a new blender before you start. As I didn’t, and my wife came home early from work, you can imagine the trouble I was in. Then there is the unique smell. NOTE THIS WILL NOT TURN YOUR WIFE ON.

I bought these from the Asian Market

These I had purchased from a LFS and were using already.

Also Frozen Cyclop-Eeze.

2 types of seaweed, red and green, free when a fellow reefer tore his tank down

Free from DRC meeting

added a little garlic juice and this is what I got.

Total cost was pretty cheap (about 4/6 months worth) Old Batch

Mixed seafood 12oz $2.79 $2.79
Baby Clam 16oz $6.99 4oz used $1.75
Nori 50 sheets $6.59 5 sheets used $0.66
Seachem Vitamins Free $0
Garlic Free $0
Various Sea weed Free $0
Silversides 16oz $7.99 6oz used $4.00
Cyclop-Eeze 12oz $9.99 4oz used $3.33
Mysis 12oz $6.99 $6.99
Brine shrimp 12oz $6.99 6oz used $3.50

$23.02

The next time will be cheaper still. I used the Mysis and the Brine shrimp because I had them already but wont in the next batch. I will continue with the silversides because the are always a hit with all the fish. I have plenty of clam, seaweed, vitamins, garlic and nori left

[hr]

[color=blue]This time I will add lots more nori. It soaks up the vitamins and clam juice and my tangs love it. Everybody in my tank loves this stuff. The leftover small peices will be food for your mushrooms and zoas.

ronert · June 25, 2008, 4:09pm

Did you use the frozen Cyclop-Eeze or the dry? I never thought of putting that in. I have some Golden Pearl I could throw in next time too. Forgot about that …

My mix was made up of:
Mixed seafood (from an Asian market)
Fish roe (from an Asian market)
Clams (already in the freezer)
Scallops (already in the freezer)
Silversides (already in the freezer)
Mysis (already in the freezer)
Purple Seaweed (Sprungs, I think - also already on hand)

icy1155 · September 25, 2008, 8:19pm

Hmm… I want to make some of this soon. Do you guys think that oyster meats would be a good addition to this? I have quite a few books that have different recipes… tonight I’ll post a bunch of things that are in the different recipes and see what everyone thinks. I’m just trying to decide what would be good additions to this.

ronert · September 25, 2008, 8:47pm

It’s been a while since I made my last batch. If I remember correctly, the frozen seafood mix I got @ the asian mkt had oyster in it. I could be wrong, though. My BIG goal at the time was to consolidate the amout of “items” taking up space in the freezer.

But, to answer your question — yes, I think oyster would be good. Looking forward to seeing the recipe(s).

system · September 25, 2008, 11:06pm

oyster, squid what ever just make sure its not seasoned or that oil has not been added

icy1155 · September 25, 2008, 11:47pm

[quote=“a1amap, post:5, topic:577”]
oyster, squid what ever just make sure its not seasoned or that oil has not been added[/quote]

The oyster wouldnt be seasoned… it would be raw and I would have to shuck them. I have access to quite a bit of them (bushells) and figured I could shuck a bunch and freeze them untill I am ready to add them to the fish food. Figure its free so why not add some.

icy1155 · September 26, 2008, 3:34am

List of possible ingredients in DIY fish food:

Fresh Foods
Peeled Shrimp
Non-peeled shrimp - the exoskeletons of the shrimp can provide imprtant chitin that breeding fishes need for healthy eggs.
Squid
Octopus
Musslels
Clams
Oyster
Marine fish flesh - (non oily fish such as cod, mahi-mahi or sole)
Crab meat
Caulerpa sp. of macros
Gracilaria sp. macros
Uvla sp. macros (sea lettuce)

Frozen Aquarium Foods
Siversides
Mysis shrimp
Brine shrimp
Frozen fish roe
Baby brine shrimp
Decapsulated brine shrimp eggs
Frozen sea urchin
Krill
Cyclopeeze
Other frozen foods as avalible (ie. Reef plankton, different commercial frozen mixes)

Dried Aquarium Foods
Spirulina flakes
Nori or other seaweeds
Krill
Other flake foods are optional but not really necessary as the ingredients mainly consist of other ingredients listed.

Other Fresh Foods
Note: Some of these can be useful for adding roughage to fishes diets as well as nutrient supplementation.
Spinach
Peas
Broccoli
Leafy Lettuce (not iceberg)

Other Possible Supplements
Selcon
Vitimin C (lemon juice or pure vitimin C powder found at health food supply stores)
Commercial powdered sea greens (again, found at health food stores)
Phytoplankton
Fish oil (health food stores)
Garlic oil (pet food stores for fish, or health food stores for 1/10th the price)
Other vitimins are possible additives as long as there are no additives.

If you have other possabilities then feel free to post them.

icy1155 · September 26, 2008, 3:49am

From one of my books on food and nutrition in an aquarium… will be at the meeting in Oct for people to read if they feel like.

Common sources of vitimins in aquarium foods…

Vitamin A - Crustacens, algae, lettuce, spinach, broccoli, green peas, sweet corn, cod-liver oil, some seaweeds, yeast, bivalves, beef heart, Spirulina, and fish flesh

Vitamin B2 - Romaine lettuce, broccoli, green peas, seaweeds, and fish flesh

Vitamin B3 - Brewers yeast, broccoli, Romaine lettuce, spinach, green peas, fish/crustacean flesh, and seaweeds.

Vitamin B5 - Liver and other organ meats, fish flesh, and broccoli

Vitamin B6 - Green peas, broccoli, spinach, Romaine lettuce, fish flesh, and seaweeds.

Vitamin B12 - green algae, lettuce, seaweeds, spinach, bivalves, shrimp flesh, and tubifex worms.

Vitamin C - found in seaweeds, green peas, lettuce, broccoli, spinach, some other dark green leafy vegtables (dont ask im quoting it from a book…)

Vitamin D - earthworms, mealworms, tubifex worms, fatty fish such as salmon and mackerel, fish liver, cod-liver oil, and crustacean flesh.

Vitamin E - green algae, lettuce, spinach, seaweeds, and broccoli.

Vitamin K - Found in fish meal, green peas, broccoli, spinach and some other leafy green vegetables.

This is taken from, “The Marine Fish: Health & Feeding Handbook” by Bob Goemans and Lance Ichinotsubo.

system · September 26, 2008, 4:27am

Some of the fresh vegetables need to be par boiled or frozen first to soften. As quoted here from

[quote=“Jocephus”]
…Second, a variety of food is very important to the immune systems of the fish that we keep. Brine shrimp have a very low nutritional value, and from what you told me you were feeding primarily a freeze dried mysis treat. If you intend to add fish back to the tank, invest in some quality frozen, pellet, flake, and natural foods. My clown and wrasse love banana, the tangs will eat broccolli, or romaine leaves (freeze first to soften). Even a clam from the grocery on occasion wouldn’t hurt. Just give a variety. Lastly, try not to wait until you have a problem before you check your nitrates, pH etc. The people on RC who check theirs only occasionally have tanks with stable chemistry that have been going for a while…
Joe[/quote]

http://www.melevsreef.com/food.html

See I quote smart people

rbu1 · October 3, 2008, 9:49am

Funny, I just made my food last weekend. Here is what I use…

Mussels - I steam them to make sure I kill the basteria
Clams - Also Steamed
Whitting
Shrimp
Scallops
Sardines - In spring water
Krill
Purple Seaweed
Frozen chopped Broccoli
Frozen Chopped Spinach
vitamins
garlic
I wanted to use fish roe but my ACME did not have it. or I could not find it at least…
I blend them all up and use snack size bags to store them in. It makes it easier to have a smaller size bag. I then put them in a seal-a-meal bag and seal them so they stay good longer in the freezer.

icy1155 · October 3, 2008, 5:04pm

Something that I’ve been thinking of… what if you pressed these baggies of food between say a cookie sheet and a piece of eggcrate when they were freezing. Once they are hard, remove the eggcrate and cookie sheet and you have nice little squares that you can break off easily to get a better idea of how much you are feeding each time, instead of just breaking off a random sized chunk. Am I missing something here or do you guys think this would work?

system · October 3, 2008, 6:24pm

it works. i posted the idea in the previous DIY fish food thread. no my idea. several people on RC have used this method. the consistency of the food should be thick enough so that all you would need is the eggcrate and two pieces of was paper to keep from making a method. when the food freezes, the wax paper wont stick.

rbu1 · October 6, 2008, 10:04am

In my opinion it is just easier to put it in snack size bags. No big deal in my opinion about the breaking off of pieces. The eggcrate just adds another step and alot more mess in my opinion.

icy1155 · October 6, 2008, 1:30pm

[quote=“rbu1, post:13, topic:577”]
In my opinion it is just easier to put it in snack size bags. No big deal in my opinion about the breaking off of pieces. The eggcrate just adds another step and alot more mess in my opinion.[/quote]

My idea was one it was in the bags to press it between eggcrate and something flat when its in the freezer. That way no mess and handy little squares.

system · October 6, 2008, 3:21pm

I am going to try that with the next batch. Even though if you use bags and leave it very flat it breaks off very easy.

houndsbayman · February 23, 2009, 1:50pm

I am in need of having to buy new bulbs for my 180 gal, so I have the following frags for sale.They will be local pickup only. I do realize that members are from Delaware and would consider meeting in Dover, perhaps at a LFS. All the corals are frags from mother colonies in my main tank. They are bug free and very healthy. All frags are on plugs, except the Flourescent green cup coral.
Thanks for looking.