If you want fat happy fish, make your own food.

[Gregcoyote]

This has been covered before, so for the newbies;

As Chef Ramsey points out, it is cheaper, tastes better and is healthier to make your own foods. This includes fish foods. I have been doing it for a while now and I can tell you it works. No disease, much less fighting and pretty fat fish. My tangs are all very meaty.

Buy nori sheets from a Chinese food store or on Amazon. Used for sushi, it is cheap and they love it. You can even grind some of this up and add to the below;

Make the following, feel free to use alternate ingredients, as long as its seafood. No chicken, or roast beef...

Can of oysters, drain
Some white fish, or salmon even can work, no bones
Some prawns
Some shrimp, cooked or uncooked.
Scallops
Add vitamins and some garlic extract and some RO/DI water

Let sit in refrigerator overnight to absorb the vitamins and garlic.

Then put into food processor, or mince with knife into a mash. Put the mash in some cheese cloth, or clean dish towel and squeeze as much water as you can to make a kind of fish dough. Divide this up into freezer bags and smash into flat sheets before freezing.

The fish will try to kill each other to get to this mixture.

 

[obscurereef]

Thanks for the info. Been meaning to do this, but never got to it yet. Is it fine to get the seafood from an Asian market or is somewhere else better b/c it probably has less of a nutritional value when it's so cheap. Or does it not matter since it will be soaked in vitamins anyway?

 

[Gregcoyote]

Just get the freshest things you can that haven't had any seasonings or anything added. Pure is what you're looking for. Asian markets are really good, because they have fresh stuff generally.

 

[Maxkolbe]

Do you know if you can do something like this for FW?

 

[Phranque]

Do you know if you can do something like this for FW?

You can do this exact thing for FW.... every once in a while, I'll make up a little extra concoction of mysis, brine, blood worms, & chopped krill and feed some to my FW fish as well, and they go absolutely bonkers when it hits the water......

 

[Beengirl]

I did this once, think I added too much nori and not enough water or something. I had bought some ice cube trays at $1 store, used a spoon to put in there and then freeze it. I used clams, raw shrimp, mussels, silversides, nori, cod, garlic extract. The fish seem to love it, but like I said, I put too much nori, so it ends up floating around. All the meat was gone, though. Getting the cube out of the tray wasn't as easy as an ice cube, probably easier if I'd add more water. And then i didn't need a whole cube and the frozen cube was very difficult to cut; much more difficult than the store-bought cubes. Next time I'm gonna try the ziplock bag idea, then I can just break a piece off. That sounds better. Thanks for the info!

 

[Grizz]

When you put the food in the freezer bag score lines in it making small cubes before freezing, makes it easier to break off pieces

 

[Mr. Crabs]

I think I'll give it a try. I'm kind of sick of having 5 different frozen packs and multiple cans of different dried foods.

I hope the wife doesn't kick up a fit over the smell. It has to stink like all get out when you're playing chef.

Good idear.

 

[Gregcoyote]

It isn't bad...kind of fishy. Making sushi is worse!

 

[CorallineAlgae]

It isn't bad...kind of fishy. Making sushi is worse!

No way! It smells yummy when i make sushi. lol

I used to buy bags of frozen mixed seafood that had clams, muscles, shrimp, scallops, octopus and squid.. then just pop everything into a blender with a few tablespoons of fish vitamins and whirl away. Similar principal and I can back you up on your claim. It really worked amazingly for everything in the tank. I'd thaw and strain the liquid out in a shot glass of water with a Lee's Worm Feeder cone as the strainer. Then just dump it in. Hysteria ensues.

 

[dlsrks]

This has been covered before, so for the newbies;

As Chef Ramsey points out, it is cheaper, tastes better and is healthier to make your own foods. This includes fish foods. I have been doing it for a while now and I can tell you it works. No disease, much less fighting and pretty fat fish. My tangs are all very meaty.

Buy nori sheets from a Chinese food store or on Amazon. Used for sushi, it is cheap and they love it. You can even grind some of this up and add to the below;

Make the following, feel free to use alternate ingredients, as long as its seafood. No chicken, or roast beef...

Can of oysters, drain
Some white fish, or salmon even can work, no bones
Some prawns
Some shrimp, cooked or uncooked.
Scallops
Add vitamins and some garlic extract and some RO/DI water

Let sit in refrigerator overnight to absorb the vitamins and garlic.

Then put into food processor, or mince with knife into a mash. Put the mash in some cheese cloth, or clean dish towel and squeeze as much water as you can to make a kind of fish dough. Divide this up into freezer bags and smash into flat sheets before freezing.

The fish will try to kill each other to get to this mixture.

What kind of vitamins do you use?

 

[Gregcoyote]

Vitachem, but there are several brands.

 

[CorallineAlgae]

Vitachem, but there are several brands.

Same here. I trust VitaChem. I can't say if it's better than brand X Y or Z but it definitely doesn't suck.

 

[dlsrks]

Ok I'll try it. Should be better than store bought.

 

[Gboy66]

Hey greg! Thanks so much for posting this. I was wondering,

How much of each to get an even mix? Just eyeball it?

Where can i buy "vitachem" and how much do i use?

Could i add mysis cubes to the mix?

 

[Gregcoyote]

You can make up you're own concoction as long as its primarily sea foods.

The vitachem is available on Amazon.com or at any LFS.

 

[Gboy66]

You can make up you're own concoction as long as its primarily sea foods.

The vitachem is available on Amazon.com or at any LFS.

My fish and I thank you Greg!

 

[Gregcoyote]

Here's a couple of feeding tips I have found...many of you may find this old hat.

I use to feed by thawing my frozen foods, removing the water and dumping it in the tank where it flew everywhere. The fish loved it and the frenzy was fun to watch, but I also saw a lot of food going into cracks and crevices that might or might not be found by the CUC. I had the same problem when feeding flake foods, it would spread all over the surface, then fly all over the tank as it sank. So I now do the following to control food. I don't like to turn off flow during feeding.

With frozen, I leave it frozen and wrap it with a fold of 1/4" square plastic mesh. I then use a magnetic lettuce clip to place it wherever I want the fish to eat. It holds the food together and teaches the fish to come to one spot to get fed. Enough gets scattered so fish that don't come to the feeding station also get fed.

With flake, I built a "feeding ring." It is a 6" circle of 1/2" vinyl tubing that is spliced together with a small section of tubing that will slide into the 1/2" tubing. I tether this to the spot I want with some fishing line. Then you just throw the flakes into the ring, where they stay put. Many fish will hit them on the surface causing a steady rain of sinking flakes for the fish below. Works like a charm and I don't see food wasting.

 

[Beengirl]

Here's a couple of feeding tips I have found...many of you may find this old hat.

I use to feed by thawing my frozen foods, removing the water and dumping it in the tank where it flew everywhere. The fish loved it and the frenzy was fun to watch, but I also saw a lot of food going into cracks and crevices that might or might not be found by the CUC. I had the same problem when feeding flake foods, it would spread all over the surface, then fly all over the tank as it sank. So I now do the following to control food. I don't like to turn off flow during feeding.

With frozen, I leave it frozen and wrap it with a fold of 1/4" square plastic mesh. I then use a magnetic lettuce clip to place it wherever I want the fish to eat. It holds the food together and teaches the fish to come to one spot to get fed. Enough gets scattered so fish that don't come to the feeding station also get fed.

With flake, I built a "feeding ring." It is a 6" circle of 1/2" vinyl tubing that is spliced together with a small section of tubing that will slide into the 1/2" tubing. I tether this to the spot I want with some fishing line. Then you just throw the flakes into the ring, where they stay put. Many fish will hit them on the surface causing a steady rain of sinking flakes for the fish below. Works like a charm and I don't see food wasting.

Cool ideas! I get the mesh bag with the frozen. I'm not quite getting the ring, though. Its a ring of tubing with another small section inserted to keep it as a ring, right? So are there small openings cut along the ring for the food to come out? Or where does the food come out when the fish come hit it?

 

[Gregcoyote]

Cool ideas! I get the mesh bag with the frozen. I'm not quite getting the ring, though. Its a ring of tubing with another small section inserted to keep it as a ring, right? So are there small openings cut along the ring for the food to come out? Or where does the food come out when the fish come hit it?

No, the ring just floats like a life preserver. Because it projects below and above the surface it corrals the flake food while it is floating.