Food- what are by best options?

[ZoWhat]

Best food for the fish's health?
I think Spectrum pellets are reeeeeeally hard to top

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[happyhourhero]

That is awesome!
Thanks for the recipe and ideas.

I was thinking maybe instead of buying frozen shrimp I can get some live fresh shrimp from a bait shop. Freeze them myself and use those in the recipe.
I would go out with a cast net and try to catch the shrimp but I’m afraid that I wouldn’t get any as I suck with a cast net.

I also wonder if anyone has ever used sand fleas in their food mixture.
The beaches near me have tons of them and they are really easy to catch.

I’ve been wanting to feed sand flea eggs but never got around to harvesting any.

 

[Sink_or_Swim]

I have a few of those mini ice cube trays. It never worked out too well for me. I always over filled and they never came out so nice.
I’ll try the bag trick.

Good to know - I'm determined to figure out how to make cubes though! Wondering if I used the bags, but then opened them up and slid a piece of egg crate in and used it like a cookie cutter of sorts when they were just about fully frozen, that it would accomplish that. I think I'll experiment and I'll report back! I like a challenge, lol.

 

[Sink_or_Swim]

Yep. I also tried the mini cube trays, while they seem like they would be the ticket, in practice it is WAY easier to do the bag method and chop them up into cubes after. And then you can store it for a while without it getting freezer burn. Trays were pretty messy and took forever to fill properly, but, they do work.

Good to know - I'm determined to figure out how to make cubes though! Wondering if I used the bags, but then opened them up and slid a piece of egg crate in and used it like a cookie cutter of sorts when they were just about fully frozen, that it would accomplish that. (Or like you said, just chopping into cubes after frozen and putting back in the bags). I think I'll experiment and I'll report back! I like a challenge, lol.

 

[Brian24540]

If you are most concerned with fish nutrition and availability, i would recommend the DIY method. I have been doing that for over a year and my fish are all fat, happy, and colorful.

Clams and mussels are some of the best things you can feed your fish. My frozen DIY is usually fresh little neck clams and mussels from the sea-food counter at the grocery. A bag of raw frozen shrimp, without the sodium phosphate they spray on them "for freshness", squid, a dash of selcon, and if i feel like it, some fish of some kind or other. After it is shelled and frozen for a day, it all goes into the blender bit by bit and is blended until chunky enough to be still chunks but small enough the fish can eat it. I have a restaurant trey (if you have an Asian store nearby they have them for cheap usually) i dump it in after that and mix it all together so it is fairly homogenous with a spoon or whatever, then i pack it into a freezer gallon bag until it is about 1/2 inch ish thick (i close it all but a corner and use a rolling pin to flatten it) throughout the whole bag and place it in a flat spot in the freezer for a couple days. I usually get 4 or 5 gallon bags full like that. Once they are frozen solid you can move them to where-ever for longer-term storage. Then when i am ready for more, i pull out a bag, open it up with a knife and, using a butcher's knife chop the whole thing into cubes. That goes into a new bag and is kept on-hand for daily use until it is empty, then rinse repeat with another flat bag.

Doing this, I usually have to make food ONCE per year and have high quality food on hand, for about 30 - 40 bucks. It may seem a little intimidating, but once you've done it, it is super easy! HTH

Love this idea. Maybe you could pour the blitzed mix into silicone ice trays and bag them when solid - avoid the final chopping stage?

 

[Red_Beard]

Love this idea. Maybe you could pour the blitzed mix into silicone ice trays and bag them when solid - avoid the final chopping stage?

Tried that, way more time consuming and it makes a mess. But, your mileage may vary.

 

[afrokobe]

I've tried a lot of different foods, but the two that are always loved in my tank are Reef Nutrition Roe and TDO B2 pellets. Frozen mysis is always a hit, but the fish go crazy for the two above.

 

[Brian24540]

Tried that, way more time consuming and it makes a mess. But, your mileage may vary.

Good to know.