Homemade Fish Food Vs. Commercial

[YHSublime]

Hello All!

For about a decade I've always bought fish food, from pellets, to flakes and frozen. About 6 years ago I got turned onto LRS, back when if I recall correctly, Larry was eating his frozen food at shows to prove how fresh and good it was!

I've worked from home for the past 3 years, and pretty much swapped to feeding entirely frozen, which is great and my fish love it. I'm starting up a much larger tank, and I currently have a collection of angelfish who have also become entirely acclimated to a steady diet of frozen 3 times a day.

That being said, I'm starting to notice that I'm spending quite a bit of money on frozen, and I've seen a lot of reefers out there make their own blends of frozen at home. My question for those of you who do this, are you comfortable posting up your ingredients and process, AND do you think your homemade blend is effective as a commercial brand? Worth the savings? Worth the time?

TL;DR
Do you make your own frozen? will you share ingredients and process?
Pro's & Con's if any?

 

[tehmadreefer]

I do shrimp, squid and clams in a blender then bought gel ice cube trays to freeze.

I still buy Mysis or brine as well as feed pellets.

 

[Jet915]

Making your own is so much cheaper. I make a batch, lasts me a year and costs probably 20-30 bucks. I go to asian supermarket. I get a fresh fish (whatever is cheap, last time I got a mackerel), shrimp, clams, mussels, squid, fish eggs (if they have them). I filet the fish and add the meat and the intestines/liver etc in a bowl.
I keep the clams/squid/shrimp/mussels frozen as it is easier to dice through food processor blender. I then add it to fish, i dump a bottle of selcon along with some nori you can crush. Once its mixed I put it in large ziplock and mold as a sheet. Once frozen, you can chop it into cubes.
Ive been doing this for 2 years, fish love it.

 

[fishface NJ]

-fresh clams, oysters and mussels - remove from shell
-fish guts - if you are gutting your fish for dinner, use it for this; if you don't eat fish then go to the fish market and ask for -it. they will give it to you for free.
-whole sardines - bones and all

place items in food processor. blend well and place in mini icecube trays and freeze

 

[YHSublime]

I do shrimp, squid and clams in a blender then bought gel ice cube trays to freeze.

I still buy Mysis or brine as well as feed pellets.

Making your own is so much cheaper. I make a batch, lasts me a year and costs probably 20-30 bucks. I go to asian supermarket. I get a fresh fish (whatever is cheap, last time I got a mackerel), shrimp, clams, mussels, squid, fish eggs (if they have them). I filet the fish and add the meat and the intestines/liver etc in a bowl.
I keep the clams/squid/shrimp/mussels frozen as it is easier to dice through food processor blender. I then add it to fish, i dump a bottle of selcon along with some nori you can crush. Once its mixed I put it in large ziplock and mold as a sheet. Once frozen, you can chop it into cubes.
Ive been doing this for 2 years, fish love it.

-fresh clams, oysters and mussels - remove from shell
-fish guts - if you are gutting your fish for dinner, use it for this; if you don't eat fish then go to the fish market and ask for -it. they will give it to you for free.
-whole sardines - bones and all

place items in food processor. blend well and place in mini icecube trays and freeze

What does your stock list look like?!

 

[tehmadreefer]

What does your stock list look like?!

Niger Trigger
Copperband
Clown
Couple anthias
Powder blue
Foxface
Mandarin
Clown
Canary blenny
Filefish in sump

 

[Jet915]

What does your stock list look like?!

Blue Tang
Yellow tang
Melanarus wrasse
Blue damsel
Mating clown pair (lay eggs every 3 weeks)
Royal Gamma
Goby

 

[Reeftown5]

Sooooooooooo easy...

 

[vanpire]

Be careful to use wild seafood and not farmed ones. The farmed products can include chemicals you might not want. This might not always be the case, but I fed a piece of farmed shrimp to my rainbow BTA once, and it shriveled up and died. Now, I use all wild caught seafood. Whole sardines are great and I always use squid in addition to those listed above. Make sure to removed the mouth and "cartilage" spine in the squids.

I also add steamed organic spinach and broccoli for my tangs. I don't add nori into the food mix as 1/2 of them disintegrate when I feed. So I feed nori separately.

I use a meat grinder because it is easier to control the food particle than a food processor or blender. Grind each ingredient separately and then mix them together.

It is easy and even if you use high quality ingredients, cost should be about 25% of commercially bought food.

Pros: Cheaper option
Cons: Takes work and effort - excluding shopping, it should be you about 4 hours for all the cleaning, cutting, mixing, grinding and packaging.

 

[ReeferWarrant]

The work is worth it though, I spent $30 at the local Asian Market and have barely made a dent on it. As above mentions say, I get fish, octopus, clams, mussels, and shrimp. Then blend it in a $5 blender I got on FB Marketplace, but the meat grinder sounds like a better option. I say this because it just ends up being a slurry of guts polluting the tank, I think my corals probably like it though. At the end, I have 2 small silicone ice cube makers and have individual cubes to feed daily. But as I said, well worth the hassle in the long run and you arent paying extra for some branding saying its fish rated.

 

[d2mini]

For me, it's worth buying.
1) I don't have a lot of extra time.
2) Larry has perfected his mixes and add some good stuff in there that maybe I couldn't get myself.
3) I find everything about seafood to be disgusting. I don't even like walking by the seafood counter due to the smell.
4) I don't go through a whole lot on a sub 200g tank.
5) Did i mention it's disgusting? ;Vomit

In a nutshell, 20 bucks every month or two is cheap to me considering all the above.

 

[vanpire]

For me, it's worth buying.
1) I don't have a lot of extra time.
2) Larry has perfected his mixes and add some good stuff in there that maybe I couldn't get myself.
3) I find everything about seafood to be disgusting. I don't even like walking by the seafood counter due to the smell.
4) I don't go through a whole lot on a sub 200g tank.
5) Did i mention it's disgusting? ;Vomit

In a nutshell, 20 bucks every month or two is cheap to me considering all the above.

If it were only $20/mo, I would do the same....I have a stocked 300 gallon and it is a lot more than $20/mo in LRS food. I have used LRS when I run out and didn't have time...

 

[sharpimage]

I tried it once. I found it to be more expensive than frozen, but I don't do LRS. and the biggest kicker.... It is soo gross. Gagging through the whole thing. ewwwwww

 

[Jet915]

I spend probably 30 bucks at the asian market and make food that lasts almost a year. Totally worth it.

 

[csb123]

For my DIY food, making a years worth comes out to $6.75 per flat, compared to LRS at $20+.
Mine has less water and plenty of extras, roids, chili, selcom, aminos...

 

[Fezbearer]

From the supermarket:
smallish salmon steak
frozen "scraps" from the fish I've been eating. (I tend to trip off a little bit before cooking to save as food.)
pound of scallops
pound of oysters/clams
small bottle of roti-feast
small bottle of R.O.E.
pack of freeze dried mess shrimp
small bottle of selcon.

All the fish get frozen and then run through the food processor with the grater attachment. The wet and dry foods get mixed together and then mixed in with the grated frozen fish. place the mix in a ziplock bag and break off as needed.