Making my own food

Last night I learned a valuable lesson in feeding. I currently live in Brunei and the only food I can get aside from flake, is frozen brine.

Last night my LN Butterfly died for no reason, when another member suggested I look at his belly, I realised I could see his rib cage, and that obviously wasn't right. I learned at that time that brine wasn't a sustaining food, unfortunately I learned the hard way.

So today I went out and bought a food processor, and the one thing they do sell, is packs of mix fish, like squid, octopus, shrimp, clam etc.

So what I need help with is how to prepare it. Do I blend it to a paste, or should it be slightly lumpy?

If anybody mixes their own food, any advice would be great

Thanks

 

sorry for your loss.

here a frozen version

How to Make Frozen Fish Food | eHow.com

i have never tried making my own food mix (my fish eat flakes), what i AM trying to do is feed my new hatched brine a mixture of Phyto and grinded shrimp to fatten them up, once to adult hood i will then feed them to my fish (assuming the reach adulthood :s).

this is just an experiment so far though. if anyone has a tip to throw at me while you answer this thread, please do

 

I buy as many different fresh marine food items as I can e.g. fish fillets, mussels, shrimp, baby octopus, squid etc. Rinse everything well with RODI water and and cut them up finely (to make sure there are no large chunks after blending). I blend it into a lumpy soup with some RODI water and mix in some minced garlic and spirulina powder.
In a cup I mix some agar or gelatin (depending on what I can find) with some boiling water and mix it through the fish soup. I then pour a thin layer into a plastic tray and freeze.

When it comes to feeding, I break off a small piece so that the majority remains frozen. My fish go crazy for it, and the agar/gelatin stops the food from spreading through the water once thawed.

It's not a glamorous process to make the food but if you make enough, you only have to do it once every few months.

Hope that helps!

 

intresting, wouldnt you want it to spread abit as well so the corals can omnomnom on it 2?

 

You can do as above, then you can thin it a bit more with ro/di water, then suck it up with a turkey baster, then shoot it a little at a time into ice water. It will clump into little pea sized balls which can be frozen and its just a little bit easier to prep and feed the tank with the small balls. If you get some practice you can make some pretty uniform sizes which is easier to feed the same amount everytime.

 

Cool, thanks for all the tips. Coylee, that's interesting. So just a jug of iced water, then fire in a bit at a time, then scoop it out and freeze?

 

OK, it's done, followed the instructions above and ended up with a smoothie type mixture brown in colour. Now in the freezer until tomorrow, when I can test them out. I didn't have any gelatin in the house, so I will have to see how it goes.

Meantime I have told the kids they are chocolate ice cubes

So do I just put a cube or piece of cube into the tank and let the fish peck? if it came out of solution as it I would imagine ending up with a brown liquid.

 

;D wondering what kid will sneak a chocolate ice cube first. lmao

 

I prefer to target feed the corals - I find the fish are a little aggressive towards the frozen food and cause it to just explode without a binding agent. This way I know the food is being eaten rather than removed by the skimmer, and my corals get fed at other times.

 

I use a garlic press or baby food grinder since they leave the fish/seafood mix in small chunks, then add brine, bloodworms, Formula 1 & 2 flakes, Selcon and fresh garlic juice & freeze.

Your's looks quite tastey....if you're a fish