DIY Cichlid Food – plenty of pics – 56k beware!

[GoFast]

It was time for another batch of frozen fish food so I thought I'd document it and take a few pics for people to see.

I don't a have a specific recipe each time but it all follows along the same path. Peas, spinach, raw prawns, marinara mix, white fish fillets, spirulina, vitamin C powder, garlic & gelatine to hold it all together. I tried adding a couple of carrots this time to half of the mix to see how it goes. I'm pretty rough with the measurements but it was something like this:

1 kg of marinara mix
1 kg of frozen peas
250 grams of pre-prepared "finely chopped" spinach
500 grams of raw prawns (usually unpeeled but not this time – none available)
500 grams of white fish fillet
3 or 4 teaspoons of spirulina powder
2 teaspoons of vitamin C powder
1 teaspoon of pre-ground garlic
Plenty of gelatine – maybe 7 teaspoons worth

The following is all added to a large mixing bowl. I mixed this up in 2 halves because I didn't have a mixing bowl big enough.

[img:e1aa0a4f3f]http://members.optusnet.com.au/mattejclarke/fishfood1.jpg[/img:e1aa0a4f3f]

[img:e1aa0a4f3f]http://members.optusnet.com.au/mattejclarke/fishfood2.jpg[/img:e1aa0a4f3f]

[img:e1aa0a4f3f]http://members.optusnet.com.au/mattejclarke/fishfood3.jpg[/img:e1aa0a4f3f]

[img:e1aa0a4f3f]http://members.optusnet.com.au/mattejclarke/fishfood4.jpg[/img:e1aa0a4f3f]

[img:e1aa0a4f3f]http://members.optusnet.com.au/mattejclarke/fishfood16.jpg[/img:e1aa0a4f3f]

[img:e1aa0a4f3f]http://members.optusnet.com.au/mattejclarke/fishfood17.jpg[/img:e1aa0a4f3f]

Added the prawns – these were pre-peeled raw prawns – I usually used regular raw prawns, heads and all

[img:e1aa0a4f3f]http://members.optusnet.com.au/mattejclarke/fishfood5.jpg[/img:e1aa0a4f3f]

Add the fish fillets – try to cut off the sinew as best you can.

[img:e1aa0a4f3f]http://members.optusnet.com.au/mattejclarke/fishfood8.jpg[/img:e1aa0a4f3f]

I mix it up with a hand held electric blender into a paste

[img:e1aa0a4f3f]http://members.optusnet.com.au/mattejclarke/fishfood9.jpg[/img:e1aa0a4f3f]

[img:e1aa0a4f3f]http://members.optusnet.com.au/mattejclarke/fishfood10.jpg[/img:e1aa0a4f3f]

[img:e1aa0a4f3f]http://members.optusnet.com.au/mattejclarke/fishfood11.jpg[/img:e1aa0a4f3f]

I add the following in the amounts listed above

[img:e1aa0a4f3f]http://members.optusnet.com.au/mattejclarke/fishfood12.jpg[/img:e1aa0a4f3f]

[img:e1aa0a4f3f]http://members.optusnet.com.au/mattejclarke/fishfood13.jpg[/img:e1aa0a4f3f]

Continue mixing

Now for the gelatine – I boil up some water, put a few teaspoons of gelatine in a cereal bowl and add the hot water – I give it a good mix before I poor it into the mixing bowl. Then mix it all together with my hands. I add gelatine a few times while continuing to mix

[img:e1aa0a4f3f]http://members.optusnet.com.au/mattejclarke/fishfood15.jpg[/img:e1aa0a4f3f]

[img:e1aa0a4f3f]http://members.optusnet.com.au/mattejclarke/fishfood19.jpg[/img:e1aa0a4f3f]

The mix is now a lot wetter because of the water added with the gelatine – you've got to work relatively quickly here due to the gelatine starting to set. This is what it looks like

[img:e1aa0a4f3f]http://members.optusnet.com.au/mattejclarke/fishfood20.jpg[/img:e1aa0a4f3f]

[img:e1aa0a4f3f]http://members.optusnet.com.au/mattejclarke/fishfood21.jpg[/img:e1aa0a4f3f]

I then put the mix into individual snap lock backs – you could use bigger or smaller bags

[img:e1aa0a4f3f]http://members.optusnet.com.au/mattejclarke/fishfood22.jpg[/img:e1aa0a4f3f]

It works out to be about 3 tablespoons of the goop per bag

[img:e1aa0a4f3f]http://members.optusnet.com.au/mattejclarke/fishfood23.jpg[/img:e1aa0a4f3f]

[img:e1aa0a4f3f]http://members.optusnet.com.au/mattejclarke/fishfood24.jpg[/img:e1aa0a4f3f]

It's then flattened out

[img:e1aa0a4f3f]http://members.optusnet.com.au/mattejclarke/fishfood25.jpg[/img:e1aa0a4f3f]

Not too thick because it has to be snapped off frozen

[img:e1aa0a4f3f]http://members.optusnet.com.au/mattejclarke/fishfood26.jpg[/img:e1aa0a4f3f]

[img:e1aa0a4f3f]http://members.optusnet.com.au/mattejclarke/fishfood27.jpg[/img:e1aa0a4f3f]

This is roughly half the mix ready to go into the freezer.

[img:e1aa0a4f3f]http://members.optusnet.com.au/mattejclarke/fishfood28.jpg[/img:e1aa0a4f3f]

So this is how I make my food. There's plenty of ways to do it and I'm sure other members here add more ingredients. Occasionally I do too but this is what's in most of my DIY food.

I really do recommend blending up some food for your fish. It's inexpensive and the fish seem to love it. My frontosa do particularly well when fed on this stuff.

Let me know if you need more explanation of the steps along the way.

Cheers

Matt

[mudskipper]

good one matt,

thanks for showing us,

great work.

cheers lloyd

[GTR73]

Awesome! Thanks a lot for the recipe guide.

[emiee]

bumpity bump bump bump  :lol:

[step]

Wow, will have to give this a try.

Any tips for American cichs though?

[caryb]

Make lots :lol:

[gasnitro]

just a Note:  Gelatine some is made from animal meat and the other is vegetable.  You can find this at health food stores as well. It's best if you use the vegetable form rather than meat as it's more easily digestible.

[GoFast]

[quote:666f64221f="gasnitro"]just a Note:  Gelatine some is made from animal meat and the other is vegetable.  You can find this at health food stores as well. It's best if you use the vegetable form rather than meat as it's more easily digestible.[/quote:666f64221f]

This is true. The stuff pictured is made from ground up bones, hoofs, etc. I had a look years ago for vegetable based gelatin and couldn't find any. The animal based gelatin is primarily protein (88%) which isn't a bad thing. I've had no issues using this stuff but I'll give the vegetable based gelatine a try if I come across some.

What other ingredients do people put in their DIY food?

[GoFast]

[quote:b1aa9a3195="step"]Any tips for American cichs though?[/quote:b1aa9a3195]

I havn't really kept too many americans. Fed the cichla frozen pilchards when I had them.

I'd be putting more meat - beefheart would go well. Less peas. I'm sure others with americans have more to add.