Making Your Own Fish Food

[fishboyt]

How many of you make your own fish/coral food, and what do you put into it?

Currently, I'm making mine with: salmon, gulf shrimp, brine shrimp, mysis shrimp, nori, gralic and squid. I blend it up, freeze it and thaw it out before each use.

Is there anything else you guys recommend I add to my recipe?

 

[revhtree]

How much of each do you put in the mixture?

 

[fishboyt]

I use about: 1 clove of garlic, 2 sheets of nori, 2 Tbs. of salmon, 10 cubes of mysis and brine shrimp, 12 1" Gulf shrimp, 1/8 cup (blended) squid.

 

[Ericm1205]

JEHMCO Main sells bulk foods like mysis and cyclops. i get my mysis in a 5lb brick. hehe but i am also breeding clowns.
my own recipe consists of
mysis, cyclops, yellowfin tuna, wild salmon (farm raised is not nutritious enough) clams, mussels, squid, octopus ( if i can find it) spiralina powder, red and green nori, kelp, selcon.

 

[Aquaph8]

I use pretty much whatever I can find at the grocery store. Usually consists of 3 types of shrimp, scallops, mussels, clams, whatever frozen fish foods I have in the freezer at the time and some Nori/Selcon. I just buy about a half pound of each, wash it, run it through a food processor and thats it. Smear the mix thinly into freezer bags and freeze. It lasts a couple months and the fish love it.

 

[bige]

If you make your own, do you still rinse it? I think making your own is the way to go just not confident enough yet. How long have you done it? Why did you choose the ingredients you did?

 

[KSzegi]

Mine has gulf scallops, shrimp, grouper (and sometimes other fish), cyclopeeze, sometimes squid and/or oysters, variety of chopped algae and some larval diet. I'm fortunate in having gulf access and can stock up on most of what I use in the food fresh from the water to the freezer!

I will also somtimes throw in some mysis .... but lately I have been feeding that seperately so I can rinse the mysis - I never rinse the homemade food. Most days I don't even thaw the homemade stuff - just break off a piece and throw it in the feed bag/clip. Pretty much the only time I thaw it is when I do a target feeding of the anemones and lps.

 

[fishboyt]

If you make your own, do you still rinse it? I think making your own is the way to go just not confident enough yet. How long have you done it? Why did you choose the ingredients you did?

I don't rinse it; I think of the juices as food for the SPS and zoas.

I've been using my own food for about 3 months now.

I looked up food recepies and people were throwing out all kinds of ingredients. I chose garlic because its an immunity system booster, salmon because of its oils, nori so they get some veggies, and the rest are really just fillers, compared to the nutrients the others give.

 

[fishboyt]

How hard is it to make coral food out of oysters? I imagine you'd have to blend it up very well and it might go bad after a few days?

 

[cdness]

I use the following to make about 9 months supply:

1 16 oz flat of Hikari krill
1 16 oz flat of Hikari Mysis
1 8oz flat of Silversides
2 2lb bags of assorted seafood from asian market (frozen section, bag contains shrimp, squid, mussels, octopus, crab, fish, and a few other things
** Blend all this up to the size your fish will eat then rinse about 5 times (3 freshwater, 2 RODI) .

Then add the following:
1/4 jar reef chilli
1/4 jar dried cyclopeez
1/4 container selcon or other vitamins
1/4 container garlic extreme
1 chopped, smashed, mutilated garlic clove (get it to a mushy substance so the oils are flowing. Get a garlic press, they are awesome!)

** Mix all this together. Add RODI water if needed to make the blend mixable. Put the mix into zip lock bags. Flatten to 1/8 to 3/16" and freeze for future use (thicker is harder to break apart).

Sometimes I'll add nori or other dried seaweed as well, but the fish like to graze the nori anyway so last time I just left it out and added it to the clip.

 

[fishboyt]

How much does all of that cost you?

 

[ca2or]

when I make mine it costs me around $15 for pound or more of food.

 

[KSzegi]

How hard is it to make coral food out of oysters? I imagine you'd have to blend it up very well and it might go bad after a few days?

I use a food processor - I like the variety of sizes from puree to chunks that I get with it. The oysters seem to process as well as everything else - but probably easier since they are pretty fresh. I don't know as they would go bad any quicker than any other seafood .... but I don't know.... I freeze in large batches and normally break a fresh chunk off each day ..... and anything that I thaw I use up within two days.

 

[Crooks]

I use the following to make about 9 months supply:

1 16 oz flat of Hikari krill
1 16 oz flat of Hikari Mysis
1 8oz flat of Silversides
2 2lb bags of assorted seafood from asian market (frozen section, bag contains shrimp, squid, mussels, octopus, crab, fish, and a few other things
** Blend all this up to the size your fish will eat then rinse about 5 times (3 freshwater, 2 RODI) .

Then add the following:
1/4 jar reef chilli
1/4 jar dried cyclopeez
1/4 container selcon or other vitamins
1/4 container garlic extreme
1 chopped, smashed, mutilated garlic clove (get it to a mushy substance so the oils are flowing. Get a garlic press, they are awesome!)

** Mix all this together. Add RODI water if needed to make the blend mixable. Put the mix into zip lock bags. Flatten to 1/8 to 3/16" and freeze for future use (thicker is harder to break apart).

Sometimes I'll add nori or other dried seaweed as well, but the fish like to graze the nori anyway so last time I just left it out and added it to the clip.

Look close at the mixed bags from the Asian market. The crab is usually imitation and there are some other flour products I throw out of mine before making fish food.