Does anyone make there own food mix?

[fishycat]

I suppliment my useage of ocean nutrition food with market shrimp, I just rip it into pieces and then sqaush it so the fibers of the shrimp sort of seperate and put that in the tank and the fish go to town. I also fine cube wild pacific salmon and drop that in the tank same result the fish go nuts for it. A easy veggie thing to use is nori, the dried seaweed they sell in the grocery store.

Can I eat in your tanks? Yum!

A small caution re: nori/seaweed sheets. Check the ingredient list. Lots of nori have added salt and/or flavoring (ajitsuke=teriyaki flavor). Sushi nori, which comes in large square or rectangular sheets, is usually a safe bet.

 

[fishycat]

Having it in stick form is great for me, because I can put a tray of small stones in the oven at 200º just to heat them up, and I press the sticks onto the stones, like a wax stamp or craypa. I pretty much paint on the algae, until it gets too sticky to add more. Then back in the oven for 10 minutes, or until the algae is completely crusted over. Bottom feeders and shrimp go nuts over the rocks. A lot of the smaller fish also seem to love the debris that float off the rocks into the water column. It usually takes about 4 hours for a rock to be completely dissolved, but it's usually eaten much faster than that.

So, I pretty much make food every 2 months or so, and bake rocks once a week. If I run out of rocks, I will cut off a 3/4" chunk of the frozen stick, and wedge it into a tiny candle stick holder, which sinks. Sometimes I think this is their favorite way to eat, the gobies pretty much bathe themselves in food when I do this.

I'd love to try this!! What if you just painted the mixture onto rocks before baking? I recall seeing something where spirulina powder was mixed with egg yolk and painted onto a rock for algae eaters...?

 

[RDTigger]

loving these ideas...

the rocks sound like a great feeding plan.

 

[xVitox]

I love the rock idea that will deff be one i try
Fishycat- i do add them raw my blender purverized most of them just one of the large ends did not go very quietly. I added them raw because it was kind of a last minute idea. This stuff is so rich and protein heavy that i am going to keep it to two days a week or so

 

[cichlidcichlid]

So would you end up re-coating the rocks every time you feed them?

 

[BOLTSFAN]

Ok u have really caught my attention as some spoke above can we get recipie's and directions for same

 

[slackline]

Make sure you check with your spouse on using the food processor before you begin...I made my own fish food one time and only one time. Squid paste is tough to clean if you let it set too long...end of my food making.

 

[captmicha]

I really like the coating rocks idea. It's really hard to get my otos to eat anything I put in their tank.

About these recipes, one thing to keep in mind is thiaminase. Shrimp, most shell fish, and some fish contain thiaminase and feeding too much of those things can cause thiamine deficiency. Feeding those things should only be limited to a couple of times a week, even less often for some species that are prone to thiamine deficiency.

Also, there's a lot of debate about feeding mammalian meat/organs to animals that don't eat it in nature. This is regarding the liver that recipes call for.

 

[fishycat]

These types of food are rich, and should only be fed once or twice a week.

I believe originally it was beef heart - which is extremely low in fat and I think also marketed by Hikari. Again, this should not be used as a primary food source.

I need to whip up a new batch... When I do, I'll try to note portions. There's a very famous "European Shrimp Mix" which I think was popular for cichlids.

 

[Leginess]

RD, just read ur recipe, great idea, i want to try it sometime