DIY Fishfood.

[mjscookie]

With the recent "challenge" i'd be interesting in developing my own fish food.

I only collect mbuna.

I get Spirulina discs cheaply.
Vegies are obviouly easy to source.
Raw prawns..
What about vitamins?


Basically. I'm thinkning: Algae discs, peas, cuccumbber, vucchini, carrots, prawns garlic and some sorta vitamin supplements?

Anyone got any other ideas/suggestion/approximate quantities:

I can across these articles;
http://www.gcca.net/howto/fish_food.htm
http://www.sydneycichlid.com/content/?page_id=19
http://www.gregwatson.com/HowToMakeHomemadeFishFood.htm
http://www.fishlore.com/Articles/FishFoodForDummies.htm
http://www.cichlid-forum.com/articles/food_recipes.php


Cheers MItch

[zoezealand]

I tried making my own food, it was beefheart, prawns, white fish and veggies, but it didnt really work,
either the geletine didnt work, or I blended everything to finely,
I also didnt know how to feed it,
I took a cube from the freezer, let it defrost in a seperate tub (otherwise the huge chunk just sunk to the bottom, and no one eat it) and transfered some food to the tank, but it basically desintegrated on contact with water, my platties managed to pick a few of the larger chunks, but otherwise it just clouded the water

I think somehow I have to shave frozen bits off, but I have had limited success.

However I have recently discovered that it makes a great fry food, I put  1/2 a cube in a worm feeder, and it slowly breaks up, some bits are still the wrong size for fry, so I only feed this just before a water change.

Sorry I cant help you,
I looks like you've done lots of reseach tho

cheers
Kathryn

[dammwoman]

Mitch leave out the cucumber. It doesn't freeze well. I use for Africans
Peas, Spinach & Raw Prawns.
Add to that Garlic, Spirulina Powder and Agar (or gelatine). You must have the Agar or gelatine or the whole mix falls to bits as Kathryn experienced.
I use an Electric Mincer on med grade blade, make sure you add a little water too if its too dry so the agar can be mixed evenly through it.
Then freeze it in Zip Lock Bages but roll very thin with rolling pin as if the frozen block is too thick you can't break the amounts you want off accuratly.
Give it a go and play around with the ingredients. You'll find its a great food and works out very economical.
Cheers Linda

[RJ_Archer]

heres my african Mix
1kg Shrimp/prawns
250g Spinich
500g Peas
1/2 Large capsicum(bright coloured)
2 large carrotts
100g pumpkin
150g spriulina powder
10-15 cubes of misis/brine shrimp
1/2cup wheat germ
1 clove garlic

And heres my American Mix
3kg beefheart (all fat and sinus removed)
1kg liver(with sinew removed)
1kg fresh prawn meat/with tail
3/4 cup Lecithin
1cup wheat germ
4cups blanced baby spinich
150g spirulina powder
2T paprika

For both respies(spellin) mix well though a mincer/food processer and frezze in zip lock bags.

[cosmotiger1]

wow rj im comin to your place for dinner lol
now im hungry.

but  [quote:8a2409e8f9]150g spriulina powder [/quote:8a2409e8f9]  thats a lot man. are you sure your using 150 gm not 15gm??

[zoezealand]

I still dont get how the fish are supposed to eat it,
do they pick bits of a cube?, or should the bits in the food be bite sized?
does anyone know how much gelatine to put in?
(i have the davis unflavoured stuff, and am roughly following this recipe:
http://www.gcca.net/howto/fish_food.htm, but it just says a packet of knox)

thanks
kathryn

[Alan Caboolture]

I have been making and using a "Home Brew" for more than 20 years.

The formula has changed a little over the years, and the blend of ingredients varies with the type of fish being fed.

But all my mixtures contain liver and raw eggs. I have never used gelatine or agar as these products are water soluble, break up in the tank if not quickly eaten and can polute.

After everything has been minced and blended the mix is cooked,,,,just bake or microwave till heated thru and the eggs and liver juices set and bind the rest of the mix. Bring the mix to 100*C for 10 minutes is ample.

When cooled the mix is like moist cake.    I then roll the mix in gladwrap, making 5cm dia sausages and freeze.

To feed, the still frozen sausages are cut, chopped, slices, or shaved depending on the corseness or grade of food required from fry to large adults.

Alan.

[Ronin]

many years ago I made a mix similar to Allans except I cooked it longer till it was like a biscut, that could then be crushed or broken into what ever size needed. Live bearers, american cichlids and goldfish/koi seemed to like it.

[zoezealand]

thanks, I have never heard of that way before,
so do you shave of bite sized pieces? (most of the fish i keep are small, and I only got mush when I used a cheese grater for beefheart)

are there any advantages of liver over beefheart? (I have beefheart in from my last attempt)

thanks, thats really interesting
kathryn

[emiee]

i just wanna bump the post as im gunna give this a try in the next day or two...

looking at making something along the lines of linda's or gofast's who showed us the pics in another thread...

i have purchased
spirulina, ultra c, gelatine, a few raw prawns, a small amount of marina mix, frozen peas, frozen spinach, two carrots, small piece of brocoli, zucchini, and frozen vegi mix and the snap lock bags....

i am wanting to feed bristlenose, acei, e yellows, e blues, crimsons and hongi...

my questions are....
should i make different batches, some without the seafood for the acei and the b/n or just mix the lot altogether and feed to everything?

are these type of foods used as an everyday feed or alternated with commerical foods?

also i am keen to find out more about the raw eggs recipe. i would love it if you would share it. the few that i have found on the net all contain the gelatine not eggs

thanks all
any advice before i mess the kitchen would be great
maryanne

[Flikkitty11]

what ingredients should be included for guppies, platties and zebra danios.
i really have acess to prawns (personally i think they are horrible to eat) or paprika, garlic etc. any ideas?
 i was thinking of making the "cookies" mentioned above.
would normal beef steak/lamb chops be ok cause then i can just use (pinch :wink: ) stuff already in the fridge
cheers
 Flik

[Savage_roo]

When feeding malawies
The idear is to use the leanest cuts of meat if any beef stuff at all

Malawies have a hard time coping with beef fat

Andrew

[zoezealand]

hey flik,
the fish you've got were raised in-part on a beefheart/shrimp mix (I got over the problems mentioned before, I wasn't adding enough geletine)
go
<50% vege
~50% meat, beefheart and liver is normally used because it is cheaper, ($3 for a big pack from woollies), I don't know how chops would work, prawns are typically used for vegerian fish, also fine for yours, but I have found beefheart to work better

Kathryn

[Flikkitty11]

oki doki
thanx kathryn
i dont think i will use gelitine. i will just cook it because gelitine and i have had problems in the past eg. knocking over bowl onto cat (that was one sticky cat)
 what sort of veggies are the best?

[zoezealand]

anything you can find!
I personally like peas :lol: