Homemade Oscar Food

[jwh0818]

I'm looking for some people who make their own fish food from scratch. I want to make my Oscars food. What's some things I can put? I wanna do cod, shrimp, and peas as the protein but what else can I add? What holds it together? I've Googled it but I want some of yalls ideas! Please don't post if your gonna say mcdonalds or pizza.

Can I use beef hearts? No fat just pure meat?

 

[Aquariumfish123]

Homemade Oscar food

Hmmmm, how about McDonald's and pizza? LOL! Just messing with you jwh0818! Yes, beef heats would work great, as long as there isn't any fat

 

[Aquariumfish123]

Also salmon and shrimp would be good

 

[Brookster123]

Hotdogs and oreos!!! Sorry J couldn't resist.. I know dragon makes her own food and has had great success in doing so..

 

[jwh0818]

Hotdogs and oreos!!! Sorry J couldn't resist.. I know dragon makes her own food and has had great success in doing so..

Yeah that's who I'm wanting to reply!

 

[DragonFish71]

Waiting for me?

Ok here's my recipe:

2 beef hearts cut up into chunks small enough for a blender or food processor to puree
2 pounds shrimp (head, tail, shell still on is fine)
2 pounds frozen (thawed) peas
1 pound frozen (thawed) broccoli
1 cup spirulina powder (you can use nori sheets)
2 tablespoons minced garlic
1 tablespoon Boyd Vita Chem Freshwater vitamins (any freshwater vitamins will do, Boyd's was what I bought for mine)

For mbuna cichlids no beefheart, extra shrimp, broccoli and nori/spirulina

Blend everything into a paste, mix it all together very well. You can either put it into ice cube trays and freeze it that way, or put it into gallon ziplock freezer bags and freeze it in sheets. I get anywhere from 8-12 gallon bags of mix depending on how full I fill them. You don't want to fill them too much since you want it to break easily.

I don't use gelatin in my food mix because I don't like how it clouds the water.

 

[jwh0818]

Thanks DragonFish! Now how much of that am I gonna feed?

*edit*
Also, if I use nori sheets, how many would I use?

 

[DragonFish71]

I feed the equivalent of a cube of blood worms to fish. Since it will break apart like the blood worms do, I'd say for him still being a juvie, the size of of blood worm cube, for now, would be fine. I'm pretty sure he's a piggy and eats that easily.

As for the nori, you can use as much or as little as you want. I got a 100 sheet pack. For my omnivores I used 25 sheets, for the mbunas I used 45.

 

[GreenLily]

Hotdogs and oreos!!! Sorry J couldn't resist.. I know dragon makes her own food and has had great success in doing so..

Are you pregnant?!

Tagging along, because this is an excellent topic and I may try it out myself!

 

[DragonFish71]

Not to take it off topic from jwh's oscar, but by making your own food, you avoid all the fillers and phosphates in prepared foods.

Lots of foods use preservatives, corn & wheat;
List of fish foods with ingredients and reviews by users.

Also phosphates lead to algae blooms.

 

[GreenLily]

Not to take it off topic from jwh's oscar, but by making your own food, you avoid all the fillers and phosphates in prepared foods.

Lots of foods use preservatives, corn & wheat;
List of fish foods with ingredients and reviews by users.

Also phosphates lead to algae blooms.

Thanks for the info! I will definitely be looking into it. I have been changing over the feed for a lot of my animals recently, to something healthier for them and their environment. Might as well give the fish food a makeover!

 

[jlk]

I make my own foods as well. Slightly different variation on Dragon's but the same basics- protein source and veggies. I do use plain gelatin (some use agar agar) as a binder as I think it's less messy than a cube of the frozen mix. I generally use salmon (whole, bones and all) as a base protein but I also add eggs, spinach, various veggies and fruits, paprika, garlic, spirulina, probiotics, multivitamins and vitamin c. Everything is human grade foods and vitamins. I will use different protein sources or add other variations depending upon what I have available when making food.

The mixture is warmed, heavily puréed and allowed to set until firm. I cut it into cubes and freeze the majority as it only keeps a few days in the fridge. Just some other ideas!