Homemade fish food

[Gtinnel]

I've not tried this for many years, as said, but I do cook a lot at home, and as far as the smell, it should only be *bad* when you're preparing your raw ingredients, and even then it should smell more or less "fresh" like a beach. If your seafood stinks worse than that, throw it out, in my opinion.

Mine doesn’t have a “bad” seafood smell. It’s just that my wife absolutely hates all seafood and is super picky about the smell. Once I have the mix frozen to feed the fish there is no smell unless you smell directly in the cup I defrost it in.

I always rinsed the food processor and run it through the dishwasher a few times and never noticed a residual smell. I agree though that something like a food processor or blender to chop it up is definitely worth buying one just for that job over cutting it all up with a knife.

 

[Fish Fan]

I am sorry to be posting so much here, without definitive knowledge, but this is an interesting thread to me. You guys can tell me to go away whenever you want ;-)

RODI water is extremely pure, and pure water doesn't exist in nature (at least not for very long). It's a powerful solvent, and free of *most all* solutes, so if you soak or rinse your raw materials in RODI, I think it will both pull nutrients out of the ingredients, and start to physically break down the protein.

But, the water in the tissue of a marine fish isn't the same salinity as the salt water that surrounds the fish. I would think, if you soak your raw ingredients in full saltwater, you would be forcing salt into the fish food (just guessing here). This to me is sort of like salt-curing meats in a a kitchen, and, just guessing again, this isn't the best for our fish.

I have a very, very rusty BS in Bio, but I think what you are looking for here is an "isotonic solution". This means that you rinse (or soak, as I'm reading from you guys) your starting ingredients in water that closely matches the salinity/solutes in the seafood you're trying to process.

I hope that makes sense and helps!

Mine doesn’t have a “bad” seafood smell. It’s just that my wife absolutely hates all seafood and is super picky about the smell. Once I have the mix frozen to feed the fish there is no smell unless you smell directly in the cup I defrost it in.

^This!

Seafood should not "stink". If it does, throw it out! After freezing it, you won't even notice.

And - in case you guys didn't hear it before, lol! I'm a home-cook, who loves seafood, but my wife hates it, and does not like the smell at all.

I always rinsed the food processor and run it through the dishwasher a few times and never noticed a residual smell. I agree though that something like a food processor or blender to chop it up is definitely worth buying one just for that job over cutting it all up with a knife.

Maybe you've had better luck than I have had, but I have a wife that won't even consider a margarita from a blender that has seen a piece of fish previously lol!

 

[Fish Fan]

 

[UtahReefer]

I run a UNLS so I can feed a lot. Used to feed LRS which are great foods then began to make my own. You can get a bag of mixed frozen seafood from Walmart for ten bucks. It has shrimp, squid, muscles and scallops. I partially defrost the bag the chop up into tiny pieces. I then add Fauna Marin MinS (plankton mix), Fauna Marin Food Energizer (vitamins), and then some RODI water. Mix the whole thing up the take a big spoon full and put it into -a zip lock freezer bag, flatten it out and freeze it. I get two 1 gallon zip locks full from one bag of mixed seafood. I pull a few small chunks out into a tiny Tupperware to thaw every three days. I add a squirt of Fauna Marin Ocean Plankton and a squirt of Reef Nutrition Tiger Pods to the Tupperware and mix it up. Feeds the whole system fish and corals. Basically I get almost 4x's the amount of food for what I would pay for one package of LRS Reef Frenzy. Best part is I know what's in the food, no preservatives or anything else.

 

[Jayden K]

Im just not sure if doing the rinse in rodi vs rodi + salt is better. When i filet fish i caught i rinse them off in ocean water as opposed to freshwater so the fish doesnt get mushy by absorbing the freshwater. It also probably adds extra water weight/volume to the food. Probably doesnt effect storage though but not sure

If you think about it scientifically, the water will want to go from high to low, so if you soak in freshwater you are more likely to get stuff out than salt water, because of osmosis. But I don't know if that will get just the things you want, it may pull other things out of the meat as well.

 

[Jayden K]

I am sorry to be posting so much here, without definitive knowledge, but this is an interesting thread to me. You guys can tell me to go away whenever you want ;-)

RODI water is extremely pure, and pure water doesn't exist in nature (at least not for very long). It's a powerful solvent, and free of *most all* solutes, so if you soak or rinse your raw materials in RODI, I think it will both pull nutrients out of the ingredients, and start to physically break down the protein.

But, the water in the tissue of a marine fish isn't the same salinity as the salt water that surrounds the fish. I would think, if you soak your raw ingredients in full saltwater, you would be forcing salt into the fish food (just guessing here). This to me is sort of like salt-curing meats in a a kitchen, and, just guessing again, this isn't the best for our fish.

I have a very, very rusty BS in Bio, but I think what you are looking for here is an "isotonic solution". This means that you rinse (or soak, as I'm reading from you guys) your starting ingredients in water that closely matches the salinity/solutes in the seafood you're trying to process.

I hope that makes sense and helps!


^This!

Seafood should not "stink". If it does, throw it out! After freezing it, you won't even notice.

And - in case you guys didn't hear it before, lol! I'm a home-cook, who loves seafood, but my wife hates it, and does not like the smell at all.


Maybe you've had better luck than I have had, but I have a wife that won't even consider a margarita from a blender that has seen a piece of fish previously lol!

sorry, i just saw this afte i posted this:

If you think about it scientifically, the water will want to go from high to low, so if you soak in freshwater you are more likely to get stuff out than salt water, because of osmosis. But I don't know if that will get just the things you want, it may pull other things out of the meat as well.

you already explained this pretty well, I do think that the meat would have to be isotonic but if the water is isotonic to every mineral you want in the fish you would only be able to extract ((soakingwater volume/volume of soaking liquid +fish volume)x 100 to get percent) the amount of stuff you want out. That was probably very confusing. Sorry

 

[divewsharks]

I also use extra fish that i have caught (currently Striped Bass and Halibut). In addition to nori flakes and Benereef/Reef Roids/Mr Chili (i use interchangeably) I also add calanus, freeze-dried krill and mysis shrimp to the mix which soak up any residual liquid plus the added Selcon (or other vitamin additive). Helps all the dry mix with the frozen/wet and then create flat packs and store in the fridge. A batch easily lasts a year and way more economical than buying frozen foods. I only add some RODI water at the point I am thawing some food out as it makes it easier to serve the multiple daily feedings.