Making my own food

[bozco]

I was wondering about a few things

I've got alot of omnivores and alot of different kinds of dry foods around. Freeze dried, pellets, and flakes all in an attempt to feed the fish a complete diet. I fed live food for awhile, but someone put the container in the freezer by mistake and when I found it, half of them were dead and they started to rot. Anyways, I feed my dogs and birds alot of cooked food, etc. because it is good for them, and I don't have to buy it, because its leftover groceries from my parents.

Today I went to a thrift shop and found three ice trays that make little 1 cm cubes pretty much the same size as the frozen shrimp cubes I got at the petstore. Could I throw veggitables and meats etc into the blender, make it a goo, mush it in to these trays I bought ($0.19 not a huge loss there) freezer bag it, and put it in the freezer to make my own frozen food cubes? Could I just feed that or am I missing something that the storebought stuff has that I don't? We don't actually eat liver and beefheart, and I have heart bad things about beefheart. Also what about instects and earthworms. Can those be fed to fish?

[Smokey]

I have been making food for my fish for a very long time.

Here are a few suggestions/discoverys I have expierenced:

Determine the size of the finished food particles.

Too fine - a fish may have trouble finding it [ sort of like a dust ].

Too coarse - a fish may have trouble digesting it. [ large pieces / small mouth ].

1st - when using beefheart, [ which I use a lot of];

I keep it cold - around 40 - 45'F. Meat is easier to work on when it is cold, and less messy.

Remove all fat and muscle.

Cut into large sasuage size pieces.

Freeze!

If I feed just the raw beefheart - I use a cheese grater [large opening side ] to "grate" the froozen beefheart [ to a thin/small size]. mouth size pieces.

Throw the frozen pieces into the tank and watch the fish go wild.

If I mix beefheart with veggies and other foods [ flakes, worms, vitiams, etc.] -

I use an electric grinder - the type that has a coarse roating drum style grater. Same surface openings as a flat cheese grater.

I cut everything - to a size that can fit into the grinders opening. Garlic, lettice, zuccie, etc. Insects, etc......

THEN FREEZE EVERHTHING.

I then take the seperate froozen ingredients and put them through the grinder.

MIX everything together in a large bowl - mix well.

I try and keep everhthing as cold as possible, froozen ingredients grind much easier and seem to create less of a mess!!

I then put all the cold/froozen mixed ingredients through the coarse grinding drum again.

[ note = some ingredients are small enough - with only a single pass - in this case I just mix everything together.]

A second pass cuts/shreds everything to a slightly smaller size; and mixes everhthing very well. For fry, I use the fine sized grating drum [ the machince usually comes with two sizes of grating drums]. Experiment.

I then place the finished/mixed ingredients onto a cookie sheet and freeze.

If you have a Frost-Free style freezer - excess moisture will be "evaporated" [ Almost like a poor-mans freeze-dry process.].

OR -

I place the finished ingredients into baggies and freeze!

When I feed - I break off a piece.

come feeding time _ I throw the frozen pieces into the tanks and step back....

hth.

Smokey

[bozco]

Thanks alot Smokey. That helps a ton. While my mother won't let me use a cookie sheet for that, I guess I'll just follow your directions, and instead mash it into the cube trays. That helped alot. But I think I'm going to have to buy my own cheese grater. My brother's are so finiky about that kind of thing. Thanks.

Any further suggestions that will take the pressure off my lawn mowing money would be great.

-Monika

[Pufferpack]

Something you might want to try (just a thought) is line the icecube trays with wax paper (or saran wrap) before adding the food. That way the cubes are easier to remove and you can wrap up the cubes and store them in a ziplock to help reduce the chance of freezer burn.

[Smokey]

bozco;

here is a receipe from my buddy- Rod L.

HIs formula =

beef heart formula:

4 parts trimmed heart

1 part seafood usually prawn meat

some vegetables usually spinach, apple or capsicum

spirulina powder

garlic

These ingredients are mixed in a food processor and then frozen into a block. To feed the block is grated with a cheese grater to a size to suit the size of the discus. The vegetables represent about 5 to 10% volume, the spirulina and garlic are in very small amounts.

That is my standard mix, for variation you can use flakes, pellets, krill, scallop meat and/or roe, mussels, fish flesh, even ant eggs...lol

[rahim101]

http://www.cichlid-forum.com/articles/food_recipes.php

Check out the above link.

Some really good do-it-yourself food ideas.

Good Luck,

[victornguyen]

hey bozco.

this is what i am using and haved been using for about a year now.

Shrimp mix

50% shrimp....i buy a box for like $7.00

50% green peas or mixed frozen vegetables

i stick it all in a blender with some water and blend it into a mushy mushy paste and then i bind it with agar-agar (a buck a pack)

then i just let it become like jello and cut it into squares and freeze it.

fish just love it and breed like crazy.

[bozco]

Well apparently my first attempt was not too successful. They like the food. It has pellets, flakes, egg, garlic, meat, cucumber and a ton of other stuff in it, but it clouds the water really badly. So I'll just have to keep trying until I get it right I guess. All the ideas you have sent are really helpful. Thanks so much guys

[vantgE]

I've heard bad things about beefheart have you guys considered this or is it just a myth, cause from what I read I fish cannot digest mammal fats and this is a major cause of bloat

[true or false]

[Smokey]

VantgE: You have heard bad things about beefheart. So have I!.

Some I have heard is from the personal expierence's of other hobbiests; alot I have heard are the same old rumours that keep on surfacing over and over again; and also, alot of second hand talk. I would venture to say most of the "bad" things about beefheart - has evolved from the ''mis-use'' of beefheart as a food. Same as over feeding of live worms, etc.

Over the years of raising/and breeding different species of fish; two things I have learned: [amoung many other interesting things ]

Food:

First - Beefheart is not for every fish.

Africans, some - cannot process the ''high - protien'' content of beefheart and some other foods.

So - YES - bloat can occur!!

Second - Beefheart mix feedings requires more maintance on the tank's water. More frequent water changes ''may[are]'' required to keep the NO3 levels low!

I recentely did this comparision test. NO3 levels in relation to food types feed.

Same tank, same fish, same filters, etc.

The only deveation was the food, feed to the fish.

I started with the tank's water at low NO3 numbers [ 2ppm]. and tested/measured the NO3 levels 2x daily. A 3 day test.

I did w/c's after every 3 day test to make sure the water was as close as possible to ''Norm'' - before testing the next type of food.

This is not to be considerered to be scientific - but an experiment/test to see if different foods can affect the quality of the tank's water [ in my own tank.]. and I proberly had a bit too muich time on my hands .

So... here goes:

Feeding only flake food:

Spirulina - NO3 levels remained low - 6ppm

Feeding only frozen bloodworms:

- NO3's ended up at 15ppm.

Feeding only beefheart:

- NO3 levels exceeded 25 - 30 ppm.

I did these tests on and off for over a 3 month period [ must have been snowed in ].

This little experiment told ''me'' that I needed to increase the w/c frequency [ more often and larger quantities], if I wished the tank's NO3's to remain low and the water pollution free.

I can now tell when I have used beefheart to feed my fish - the NO3's are much higher, than using other foods.

One note. Reading the Baensch books - there are warnings about feeding beefheart to certain species of fish as a big NO..NO..!

Oh one other note beefheart is not fat. It is a muscle. and proberly cleaned is purer than some ''fractory processed foods".

You want to try a interesting food - ant eggs. Your fish will cobble them up

[Smokey]

bozco - how is your home made food doing? It sounds like a full course meal.