Homemade Fish Food Ideas (DIY)

[Young Frankenstein]

I've made some with another member on here. He went to the local meat market and asked if they had any fish they were going to throw out and he got a whole box of stuff. We had tuna, scallops and all kinds of stuff.

Our local reef club had a bunch of samples of IO cyclopeeze and other things so we added those, garlic and even phytoplankton. It turned out great.

+ ypu will get a crazy population of pods as a bonus

 

[Pkunk35]

Steve you make some gourmet fish food, but little scared to see what you feed your family...

:tongue:

Great recipe! If you brought that nori to my house tho it would not be eaten by fish.

 

[Young Frankenstein]

Steve you make some gourmet fish food, but little scared to see what you feed your family...

:tongue:

Great recipe! If you brought that nori to my house tho it would not be eaten by fish.

 

[jomatty]

I am a chef and just yesterday started taking different fish scraps and making a mix of that in the food processor and then adding pe mysis and the fish seemed to like it a lot. Next time I will definitely throw in some nori. Has anyone ever used salmon? We have so much of it but it is so oily I worry about water quality issues. I have seen it in some commercial mixes though so it may be fine.

 

[Kheebl]

This is a great Idea, I am going to try it once I run out of the store bought cubes I have.

 

[SeymourDuncan]

Who needs to make food? Just leave a window open so the wasps get attracted to the light and free food falls right in the tank. Might even get a seagull or two?

 

[daytripp01]

Great idea on the ice cube trays. Does the frozen food come out of those fairly easily? I had tried the idea of using a section of egg crate placed on a cookie sheet and than frozen. The idea was once the food was frozen it would pop out of the egg crate and have small cubes like the frozen fish food that you buy. That did not work, ended up having to let things thaw out just enough so I could get it out of the egg crate and placed it in ziplock bags, flattened it and placed in the freezer. Not bad but if you get the slabs of food too thick can be a little difficult to break off a smaller piece depending on how much you feed.

I use the ice cube trays with the silicone bottoms so you can just them out like butter !

 

[d0min0]

I didn't have time to read through the whole thread, but a crumbly mix that I made consisted of:
- grounded soy bean
- grounded corn
- whole wheat flour
- garlic powder
- eggs
-dehydrated milk
- azomite

Mix it together, put it in the oven at 180F for 2 or 3 hours, and voila! You've got a delicious crumbly mix that you can feed your lovelies.

 

[Snitter]

Here is a 75g stand build i did.
75 gal stand build

 

[Snitter]

sorry guys to many pages opend and put the last reply on wrong page.

 

[SantaMonica]

Here's a little known trick: You can add sodium alginate powder (from cooking supply sites) to thicken the mixtures if you need to. Keeps everything in suspension for a long time, which is good for auto-feeders. And it only takes a tiny pinch of the powder for a whole container.

 

[leon1972]

Any of you run any of these homemade mixes through an autofeeder? How long does the food stay good for? What method did you use for autofeeding?

 

[Florida Justin]

If I was living in one of the larger cities I would have a better selection there is an Asian market that is about an hour west of me and another one about the same distance south, and than east of me is the metro Detriot area which I am fairly sure is not lacking in asian markets.

You can usually find Nori in the Asian section of your local supermarket...at least I can here in Florida...

 

[Florida Justin]

I've made some with another member on here. He went to the local meat market and asked if they had any fish they were going to throw out and he got a whole box of stuff. We had tuna, scallops and all kinds of stuff.

Our local reef club had a bunch of samples of IO cyclopeeze and other things so we added those, garlic and even phytoplankton. It turned out great.

Did you use real garlic? Or an extract? If it's all going to be puréed and frozen, does the garlic extract make a difference? Real garlic is just so much cheaper.

 

[SloppyJ]

I used real garlic. That's the way to go.

 

[BOWHUNTER4250]

what is the zeo start for and how much of it do you use when making a batch of food ?

 

[Steven@]

I use RODI or Freshly mixed Salt Water – not tank water as it contains both good and bad elements.

Use only Fresh caught fish and shrimp – never farm raised – it will blow up your skimmer with too much bad fat and is not healthy for you or your fish

Salmon will also blow up your skimmer

Limit your squid to no more than 1/3 portion of the mix as it can cause digestive and liver issues with some fish… I use as 1/6 of the mix

I never use the frozen mixed bag as it is not fresh caught, the contents ratio is not good, too much squid and octopus.

Some additives cant freeze as they loose their value if frozen – you may be tossing $ for no value

Fresh garlic is OK but remember it is the garlic oil that provides the value so it needs to be broken down as much as possible

Nori is a good binder but I have found that very little of it is eaten with each feeding as they prefer the meat first – so I save the nori now for the clip

Typical recipe

2lb silver sides
2lb shrimp - shelled
2lb white fish frozen fillets – fresh caught no additives
2lb krill or frozen brine shrimp
2lb squid - cleaned
2lb smelt

½ cup of garlic guard – I add a little to each blender mix
1 TB spoon of vitamin c – add a few drop to each blender mix
1 TB of vitamin d – add a few drops to each blender mix
1 500 mg vitamin E to each blender mix

Blend each item separate to the consistency you want for that item, mix all together and then place in your container preference. I use zip lock bags that have been dated so I know how long they have been in the freezer.

I have tried many different ingredients but this mix does not blow up my skimmer. I defrost the food in RODI water and feed with all pumps off for 30 min. I add reef rods or any other coral food to the cup when I feed. Not in the frozen mix. I spend about $70, I use it for 3 months then make a new batch to keep it fresh.

 

[Aqua Refuge]

For those who want to cut down on the cost, and live relatively near the shore, buy yourself a sabiki rig. These are 4 or 5 little hooks on one rig and you jig it up and down by docks and pillars. You can catch countless amounts of silver sides and small mackerel that are the same size that they sell frozen at your LFS.

 

[mr.reeferman]

regular fish flakes. diced sea weed blended shrimp crab and egg white no yolk blend in blender thouroughly pour onto a sheet of aluminum foil as thin as possible put press another sheet of foil (must be non stick) on top to increase flatness bake on low heat for ten min then remove put out in the sun untill completely dry bend the foil to break up food and bam you got high protien flakes

 

[s2nhle]

Nice. Thank you for sharing.