Making your own food?

[RobW]

I know there are quite a few people out there that like to make their own food. What are your recipes and do you fortify your foods with any additives/vitamins, etc? I was thinking about giving it a try. Right now, I feed a combination of LRS reef and herbivore frenzy with some mysis and brine.

 

[tamanning]

I was entertaining the idea of blending my own food if for nothing else I like to know what is going in my tank.I would love to read any ideas as well.

 

[Johnd651]

Following along. I'm always curious about the additives? I've done stuff before with spirulana, garlic, fish, shrimp, seaweed... but really that's about it. Oh... and sometimes peas.

 

[badluckman]

I make my own from whatever fresh seafood crustaceans and squid I can find in the deli. One chunky and one fine with a little garlic added. Mostly because I want to know what I put in the tank, but also because it's way cheaper. I actually fried a hamburgersized chunk and ate it myself - was really nice! ;Woot

 

[RobW]

I was entertaining the idea of blending my own food if for nothing else I like to know what is going in my tank.I would love to read any ideas as well.

yeah, thats basically it. just want to be able to control first hand what is going into my tank. want it to be a healthy stable diet as well.

 

[BeMoto]

Don't use your wife's food processor/blender!

 

[RobW]

I make my own from whatever fresh seafood crustaceans and squid I can find in the deli. One chunky and one fine with a little garlic added. Mostly because I want to know what I put in the tank, but also because it's way cheaper. I actually fried a hamburgersized chunk and ate it myself - was really nice! ;Woot

So if I went and purchased mussels, clams, shrimp, squid and blended that with some nori and spirulina and froze it into cubes that should suffice.

 

[RobW]

Don't use your wife's food processor/blender!

lol! the kitchen is mine! i do all the cooking.... well, most of the time. my wife can cook well but I rather enjoy it and am pretty good.

 

[RobW]

I make my own from whatever fresh seafood crustaceans and squid I can find in the deli. One chunky and one fine with a little garlic added. Mostly because I want to know what I put in the tank, but also because it's way cheaper. I actually fried a hamburgersized chunk and ate it myself - was really nice! ;Woot

garlic as in the additive you get at the lfs? not fresh garlic?

 

[ShawnSaucier]

Just started over a month ago with my own food. I was an LRS fan, still am. But wanted to take on the project. I had all kinds of food in the freezer besides the LRS, ROE, Krill, Mysis, herbivore mix, etc. So I combine all of them into a bowl to semi thaw. I bought a few Tuna steaks (frozen), shrimp (frozen, peeled and raw), a few scallops (Frozen) and ran them through a food processor. Keep it frozen as best as you can, and add to the mix. In the meantime I had some krill that was Freeze Dried that I ground up and mixed with some reef roids and reef chili. This was set to soak in a bowl with selcon, and a small bit of garlic, for about 15 minutes. Hand mixing all of the semi thawed frozen stuff, I add the selcon mixture, 1 bag of Hikari Herbivore pellets and some thin sliced nori (green, red and purple). Again mix with your hand, wear gloves. Bag and freeze. when bagging, don't make you bags thick than 1/4", hard to break.
My fish go nuts for it, it broadcast feeds the tank as a whole. I thaw chunks in a small Tupperware, but not in water. Then add globs to the tank, the fish break its up just fine. I find that if I shake it in water, most of it breaks up into fines.

 

[badluckman]

So if I went and purchased mussels, clams, shrimp, squid and blended that with some nori and spirulina and froze it into cubes that should suffice.

I'd think so, yes! I have the Ocean Nutrition pellets going in the autofeeder as well - might even have added a little in one of the blends if I remember correctly. I'd love to be able to grind the shells down from clams as well but my mixer isn't "shellgrade" ;Facepalm

I've thought about adding spinach too since it should give about the same nutrition as spirulina and is mountains cheaper in the long run.

garlic as in the additive you get at the lfs? not fresh garlic?

I was unsure about the garlic, but I ended up squeezing my own fresh ones. I don't add much, about 1 clove/200grams of meat. The fish seems to really like it so I might add more in a later batch and see if they will go even crazier for it!

 

[Fishingandreefing]

I made a few batches, didn’t like them as too much fine particles floating around.

 

[RedSea500MaxS]

I made a few batches, didn’t like them as too much fine particles floating around.

But will not the fine particles feed our corals...SPS and Zoas etc.?

 

[RedSea500MaxS]

I was reminded to "wash" my frozen food to keep MO3 and PO3 issues down...great advice I forgot.

After washing a cube just now....there was SO VERY LITTLE left. And as we know these foods are not cheap.

So making food will be way cheaper right? As long as I get everything my fish need in the mix.

Does anyone know what our reef fish need, and not? Thank you.

Tangs need some algae, and yes I use NORI daily. Anything else?

I have tangs, anthias, damsels and inverts (shrimp, snails, crabs).

THANK YOU.

 

[jd371]

Just finished making a batch a few days ago. Mostly chopped up clams with some roe, freeze dried mysis, pellets, and nori. I add some vitamins to the mix as well. I feed once daily and start off with live black worms with the pumps off, once done with those I turn on the pumps and feed some of the clam mixture with a cube of either mysis or brine shrimp.

 

[RedSea500MaxS]

Just finished making a batch a few days ago. Mostly chopped up clams with some roe, freeze dried mysis, pellets, and nori. I add some vitamins to the mix as well. I feed once daily and start off with live black worms with the pumps off, once done with those I turn on the pumps and feed some of the clam mixture with a cube of either mysis or brine shrimp.

thank you. That bag in frozen cubes would be huge $ cost!

Couple questions please, when you have a. Inure to spare:

Yikes live black worms? Never. Heard that. Great protein or? Necessary or a treat.
I imagine you put all that in food processor or?
vitamins? Por favor?
No garlic extract?

Ever just added brine to it?

Ever used Coral Amino?

THANK YOU.

 

[William Norman]

I have been making my own for a while. Much cheaper less issues. One thing to be careful of is you can feed a lot less depending on what you were feeding them. BRS has a good video. I modify it a bit from theirs.

 

[Johnd651]

garlic as in the additive you get at the lfs? not fresh garlic?

I've used fresh... didn't know there was anything else

 

[RobW]

I've used fresh... didn't know there was anything else

i meant like garlic extreme or some product like that

 

[jd371]

thank you. That bag in frozen cubes would be huge $ cost!

Couple questions please, when you have a. Inure to spare:

Yikes live black worms? Never. Heard that. Great protein or? Necessary or a treat.
I imagine you put all that in food processor or?
vitamins? Por favor?
No garlic extract?

Ever just added brine to it?

Ever used Coral Amino?

THANK YOU.

I used live black worms to get my Copperband to eat when it was in QT. Wouldn't eat anything else but those. When I moved it to the main tank I continued feeding black worms and the other fish went crazy for them too. The wiggling really gets the fish in a frenzy to eat. Now the Copperband eats everything .

Yes, I bought one of those small processors just for making the fish food.

I add drops of either Selcon or Vita Chem. Right now I have a bottle of Vita Chem that I add to the mixture.

No garlic or coral food. Coral food I spot feed once and a while but they do get small bits from the food mixture.

By brine do you mean brine shrimp? I do add a cube of either regular brine shrimp or spirulina or mysis. I change them up each day.