Going to give gel food a try!

Just researched it out a little- gelatin is made from collagen, and is further broken down, and doesn't have as stable of a molecular structure. I couldn't find anything that stated fish have a difficult time digesting gelatin, and it is in the recipe of most of the gel foods I looked at. Agar agar is another potential, which I also use to make my vegetarian "jello", but I don't use it because agar agar contains copper, and I don't want my snails eating that.
 
StarSapphire22 said:
Holy cow! That sounds like a lot of work. And I'm a 20 year old in my second apartment...haven't invested in a blender yet, haha! You have me sold though, now I want to try gel.
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I just bought a Hamilton beach immersion (stick) blender to use exclusively for making food. It works well on small batches, and was on sale for $8.
good heads up on the copier in agar. I was just about to point that out.
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Here are a bunch of recipes for gel food, that I have seen on a goldfish forum I belong to. One advantage of gel food is to keep goldfish from floating after eating, which some fancies do. Another is the quality of foods.

http://www.kokosgoldfish.invisionzo...760-share-your-gel-food-recipes-for-floaters/

Msjinkzd here sells Repashy at the best price I've seen, the next time I order fish from her I'm going to buy some. There are several different formulas for different fish and inverts.

http://www.aquariacentral.com/forums/showthread.php?258803-Repashy-Super-Foods-Discussion-thread!
 
Semilla said:
I just bought a Hamilton beach immersion (stick) blender to use exclusively for making food. It works well on small batches, and was on sale for $8.
good heads up on the copier in agar. I was just about to point that out.
Sent from my SCH-R930 using MonsterAquariaNetwork App
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Immersion blenders rock! Mine broke, so, I have just been using he normal blender. They will definitely work for making the food, and are a lot cheaper than a quality blender, that would be able to handle mixing more than just liquids. Yep- the agar agar is great for vegetarians who want to make themselves "jello" (like me), or for a gel food base for a tank that doesn't have inverts... not so great for snails or shrimp, though. I don't know how much copper it contains, but, I'd rather just steer clear from it for them, to be on the safe side. ;) Thanks, Semilla!
 
finsNfur said:
Here are a bunch of recipes for gel food, that I have seen on a goldfish forum I belong to. One advantage of gel food is to keep goldfish from floating after eating, which some fancies do. Another is the quality of foods.

http://www.kokosgoldfish.invisionzo...760-share-your-gel-food-recipes-for-floaters/

Msjinkzd here sells Repashy at the best price I've seen, the next time I order fish from her I'm going to buy some. There are several different formulas for different fish and inverts.

http://www.aquariacentral.com/forums/showthread.php?258803-Repashy-Super-Foods-Discussion-thread!
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Thanks, FinsNfur! I will definitely check all of these things out. So far, my goldies are LOVING the gel food! The formula I used is working out really well, but, I think I will try a few different ones with the next batches, as well. It definitely seems worth the effort! (and much cheaper, in the long run, than just using the pellets- which is kind of surprising!)
 
Well, after this I have had gel food on the brain the last couple days!!! And I've been thinking...I could substitute baby food for veggies, until I find a blender I want (I'm fussy about things like that, lol...drives my fiancee nuts!). I have API pellets right now...I'm thinking those, with some daphnia for added protein, peas, carrots, and I have some algae sheets that they love that I can break up and put in...and gelatin of course (no agar agar, I'm getting snails soon from Jamie!) These are all things I normally feed them, minus the carrots which I added for color enhancement (and who knows maybe they'll improve Batman's eyesight so he stops swimming into walls, lol), but balanced out to one easy daily feeding, instead of peas once a week, algae once a week, yadda yadda yadda. Any other ideas on what I could/should put in? Vitamins, etc. they may be lacking? I saw some recipes that called for putting people vitamins in. I don't want a super complex recipe but I feel like there should be a few more things, and I'm not sure what my proportions should be.
 
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I would be careful with the people vitamins, personally. #1, they usually contain copper, and you want to have snails, so, that's not a good idea. You could do baby food, sure- just read the labels to make sure you're getting one that is only veggies and water. Some of them have a bunch of other stuff in them. If you couldn't find peas & carrots in baby food, you can do pea baby food and canned pumpkin for the beta carotene- which are both also pureed. I use the frozen bags of veggies because they are much cheaper, and I tend to have them in the house for me to eat the rest of the bags, anyways. (LOL) You can still use the pre-soaked API pellets for a protein/vitamin base and bulk it up with the added ingredients. You really don't have to worry about it being less protein from the added veggies. Gelatin is an incomplete protein, that only lacks tryptophan to complete the amino acid chain make it a full, complete protein. Add spinach, garlic, broccoli, or a bunch of other veggies that contain tryptophan and you have a complete protein once again- so your gelatin and veggie combo added to the pellets do make a fully useable protein source, as well. So, if they sell spinach baby food- that would be a good one to add! Your other additions sound good, too!
 
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