Making your own frozen foods: what ingredients are must haves?

[i cant think]

So I’ve been thinking tonight and after watching some of my fish I wanted to try fatten them up a bit more. The diet I have for them is already fairly varied but I wanted to start going into making my own foods for the fish.

The fish I have (over 2 tanks) are;
Regal Angel (Py. diacanthus flavescens)
Majestic Angel (Po. navarchus)
TT Coral Beauty (Ce. bispinosus)
Copperband (Ch. rostratus)
Foxface Rabbit (Si. magnificus)
Black Photon Clown (Am. occelaris x percula)
Twin Spot Tang (Ct. binotatus)
Yellow Watchman Goby (Cr. cinctus)
Naoko’s Fairy Wrasse (Ci. naokoae)
Ruby Veiled Fairy Wrasse (Ci. finifenmaa)
Yellowfin Fairy Wrasse (Ci. flavidorsalis)
Jade Wrasse (Ha. chloropterus)
Iridis Wrasse (Ha. iridis)
Gold Nugget Wrasse (Xe. margaritaceus)
Blue Star Leopard Wrasse (Ma. bipartitus)
Pink Streak Wrasse (Ps. ataenia) x2
Black Clown Goby (Go. acicularis)
Griessinger Goby (Di. griessingeri)
Yasha Goby (St. yasha)
Spotted Mandarin Dragonet (Sy. picturatus)

Currently my plans for this food is to have a variety of veggies (Spinach, Broccoli, Carrot, Lettuce) as a substitute for algae. And also a mix of brine and possibly cockel and muscle. This is what I know I want in the mix for now but I’d love to know what you guys use! Ideally I want this to go over all of the fish’s diets I keep. I’d love some input from anyone who feeds frozen to their fish. And I’d also love to know if you use this to feed coral as I have a couple Chili coral that may enjoy feedings from the makeshift foods.
But anyway, tell me what you absolutely have to have in your frozen!

 

[EricR]

My goto staples are just live clams/mussels from the grocery store (with random dry algae and Selcon mixed in),,, but I know others use much more variety than the small, infrequent batches that I make.
*following out of interest

 

[exnisstech]

Just curious why you want to include land based veggies rather than something like nori or spiralina? Especially carrots. I put carrots in my dogs raw diet once and they did not even digest. They came out looking just like they went in.

EDIT : I use a varied mix depending on what is available at the time. I like to use muscles clams shrimp scallops and some fish like cod or what's not $25 a lb. I also add some nori, spiralina powder and PE mysis along with selcon and vitachem and maybe a drop or two of garlic power to entice finicky eaters. I've been feeding this as staple for a bit more than 6 months and fish all look good and everything gets eaten.

 

[Miami Reef]

I agree. Why terrestrial vegetables? It’s not natural in the fish’s environment. Seaweed is the best IMO.

 

[i cant think]

Just curious why you want to include land based veggies rather than something like nori or spiralina? Especially carrots. I put carrots in my dogs raw diet once and they did not even digest. They came out looking just like they went in.

EDIT : I use a varied mix depending on what is available at the time. I like to use muscles clams shrimp scallops and some fish like cod or what's not $25 a lb. I also add some nori, spiralina powder and PE mysis along with selcon and vitachem and maybe a drop or two of garlic power to entice finicky eaters. I've been feeding this as staple for a bit more than 6 months and fish all look good and everything gets eaten.

I agree. Why terrestrial vegetables? It’s not natural in the fish’s environment. Seaweed is the best IMO.

Honestly, seaweed (especially spirulina) is a pain to get hold of over here whilst vegetables seem to be a good alternative as they’re a lot of the time filled with similar nutrients to Algae.

 

[Big E]

You should be able to get some nori at a grocery store, usually in the asian section............ I just cut it up into small pieces for my mix.

Scallops, shrimp make up the bulk and then I add a few filets of salmon along with clams and mussels. You may be be able to find frozen medley packs that have a mixture at the grocery store as well.

 

[Doctorgori]

Shrimp scallops mussels and salmon ,,,maybe squid and or octopus …. in that order… about 30% -20 -20 -20 -ish

I used to add ulva and nori but noticed too much went uneaten and seemed best fed separately
I also used to add rehydrated mysis soaked in selecon but that jacked my phosphates up too much

Added: Asian food stores are excellent places for seafood

 

[JoJosReef]

I've been thinking of doing the same with mussels/clams/shrimp. How are you prepping it? Blender? How fine a chop?

I have a liquid dosing system, so I'd likely need this to be supplemental, but I've been thinking of putting in a doser larger tubing that could handle mysis sized food. Would need to stay unspoiled for a least 7 days though in a mini fridge...

 

[CoralB]

Honestly, seaweed (especially spirulina) is a pain to get hold of over here whilst vegetables seem to be a good alternative as they’re a lot of the time filled with similar nutrients to Algae.

Years back when I was breeding discus I would include spinach and peas in my beef heart mix . If I were to make fish food for saltwater today I would still include it . I would also include clams as it’s a magnet for my fish . It almost creates a frenzy when I feed it to my corals

 

[Rmckoy]

I buy the seafood medley from
The seafood counter frozen section
The only problem with that particular package none of the fish eat the mussels ( later found out everything in the package is raw except for the mussels which are cooked

I’ve added pieces of nori and vitachem .
Blend all together and freeze in small silicone trays .

 

[Bj’s Reef]

I would leave the land based vegetable’s out. Stick with what your fish would find in there environment.