Some Food Advice Please

[ParadoxOwl]

Ok, so I am going to venture into making my own goldfish food. I have a done a lot of research, but I still have a few concerns.

I was wondering, when it comes to mixing the ingredients together, I plan on using spinach, peas, a little bit of shrimp (very little), carrots, and broccoli.

My question would be this. I have several different types of fish food,( mainly sinking pellets but some floaters and algae tablets), and I was hoping i could crush and mix them into the veggies to not only avoid them going to waste, but hoping it would help get them all the vitamins and what not they need. Would this actually work? Can i effectively mix in the crushed pellets?

Also, when I have the mix all said and done, do I need to cut the food into small bites for them to eat or can they pick a block apart?

 

[jlk]

You can add some crushed food if you want. If your making this for fish with buoyancy issues though, avoid adding any commercial food what so ever. Theres a couple companies that sell liquid fish vitamins but I actually use the human version (omega3/6/9, probiotics and multi-vits). You can also add extras such as garlic, red pepper/paprika (for color), bits of fruit, etc. You will need to experiment a bit so do not get frustrated! Add more binder than suggested in recipes (plain gelatin or agar agar) to make sure the gel is nice and firm. Cut into cubes and toss in. Fish will pick at them until they are gone. Set aside a small amount for feeding over the next few days and freeze the rest in flat sheets spaced apart so you can get cubes as needed for feeding. Good luck!

 

[ParadoxOwl]

All my fish are healthy, they've all been treated for flukes and ick, and get fed peas every other day to help with any possible constipation issues (i lost a fish due to that so I'm a little paranoid).

I'm just hoping making some home made sinking food will be cheaper, or at least healthier than other food. Frozen veggies are so cheap and a bag lasts a long time i figure making some food with those, and gelatin unflavored and sugar free, would be a great way to help improve their over all way of being. (as I've stated in previous posts these fish are my pets not m hobby. They all have names)

 

[jlk]

If they dont have health or buoyancy issues, it's fine to use crushed food as a vitamin supplement. Homemade food is cheaper and a healthier alternative to commercial foods. I use cans of salmon and mackerel (bones, skin and all) in mine.

 

[ParadoxOwl]

Only my one fish seems to have a problem. He swims fine, eats fine, does everything normally, he just looks really, really fat. If i can snap a picture I will.

I think it's a he anyway, unless its a female ready to lay eggs or something. He has no problems making it to the top of the tank to beg for food, nor does he have problems going to the bottom to eat the sinking food. He acts normal. I even went with out feeding them for 3 days then gave them 3 days of peas and he's still fat looking.

 

[jlk]

Can you post a pic of him? Most people think their goldfish are 'fat' when they are perfectly normal or even thin for their breed and body type. It does sound like he has a bit of a buoyancy issue related to food though. I would suggest skipping the commercial food in the gelfood and stick to lots of daily veggies (in addition to normal meals).

 

[ParadoxOwl]

This is Vendetta. I'm not sure if he's just fat or maybe a girl pregnant. But as I mentioned he seems to be ok with being able to go up and down. He never struggles to swim. He's actually the fastest swimmer in that tank.

 

[Sharpchick]

Looks like a calico ryukin to me. The belly is normally large.

 

[jlk]

+1

Yep, its a ryukin and looks normal to me as well. Please take a look through the thread below as I posted pics of some of my ryukins for comparison for another person that thought their fish was 'bloated'.

http://www.aquariumadvice.com/forums/f135/bloatting-of-goldfish-273975.html

 

[ParadoxOwl]

I got Vendetta as a gift. The people who bought him for me never bought a fish before and that had me worried. He started off a little... "thinner" but i guess he/she just grew a little.

Just spooked me. So, he/she would be ok with homemade sinking food that had the pellets crushed into it?

 

[jlk]

Give it a try. If you notice he/she is still having some buoyancy issues associated with food, skip the using the commercial foods altogether.

 

[ParadoxOwl]

Now I'm curious as to what you might mean by buoyancy issue. The only odd swimmer in the tank is my black moor and that's just because he's slow.

 

[jlk]

Moors are more typically slow and visually impaired so this is of no concern. Buoyancy issues (you did not mention any) are a fish that sinks, bottom sits, gets floaty or floats at the top, will swim nose below the horizon or above (ie, swims nose down or head in the air) and more obvious issues such as summersaulting or being completely upside down. Some fancies will only exhibit these symptoms after eating commercial foods so gelfoods are then recommended and are usually an effective means of treatment for minor buoyancy issues (when its related to food issues, not all cases are the result of food). Hope this helps a bit!

 

[Sharpchick]

Take a look at the photo of my male calico ryukin, Gypsy, in this thread before I moved him out to the pond.

I treated with prazi and about a month later, my bog filter was ready on my pond, so I moved him and Blondie out there.

No more problems with bouyancy - or as I call it in Gypsy's case, floatiness.

 

[Fishfur]

It makes sense that food may be related to some bouyancy issues. I read an interesting article about swim bladder problems. One thing mentioned was that if there is any constipation, for example, the distended intestines put pressure on the swim bladder which compromises it's ability to function. If the constipation is remedied, any bladder issues associated with it would also be remedied.

Constipation is by no means the only cause for swim bladder issues, but since these short bodied gold fish don't have a normal stomach, any intestinal problem is going to be harder on them than many other fish.

 

[ParadoxOwl]

Well, i'm happy that none of my fish have issues with that. My one Oranda, Mutant, has always swam a little stupid... like sometimes he does a weird little wiggle or maybe a flip type thing, but he was treated for flukes, ich as i do with all new fish, and fed peas... but to my understanding it's nothing to worry about cause he doesn't do it all the time.

I'm now having a an odd problem with ammonia. A weird and severe spike, so they have been transferred and are not being fed for a couple days. Anyway, would homemade food help not affect the water? or is it like commercial food and can cause spikes?

Is there also anything i could add to help my Oranda's wen grow? I have 2. Mutant and Toxic.

 

[jlk]

Did you change something recently that may have caused an ammonia spike such as a filter media, water conditioner, slacking on gravel vacs? Homemade food usually is better digested as it does not contain fillers and useless stuff but it can make a bit of mess in a tank. If feeding your fish normally is behind the ammonia spikes, then it sounds like you may need to up your filtration/add more real estate for bacteria grow on to handle ammonia and/or upgrade the tank size. A well cycled tank should be able to handle routine fish feeding without even a hesitation- if its not, it indicates something is amiss.

 

[ParadoxOwl]

They have a 750 gph filter with bio pad and floss. I changed the floss and insed the bio pad in tank water i gravel vacuumed out. I have to do a 80-90% water removal because the stand broke so for now they are in the random tank with my other goldies until i can get my stand replaced.

I went 3 days with out feeding them to lower ammonia so no idea what happened aside from the floss pad change.

As for the mess made by homemade food that's alright. I have 3 snails in the tank so it just means they will get a little more to eat. If anything I'll just have to do more gravel vacuums which for some reason my fish love. They love the tube that comes down cause they swim around it, in it before i start, and inspect the tubing every time

 

[Fishfur]

Changing the floss pad could have resulted in too few bacteria left to handle the load. I prefer loose floss, which I can replace in bits at a time, rather than all at once. You might want to add a sponge, perhaps, as extra biomedia, to help maintain BB numbers if the floss has to be changed out entirely.

I rinse mine, squeeze it out hard, then use it again and again, until it begins to fall into little raggedy bits. At that point, I replace some of it, but not all of it at one time. Even those little bits I often wrap inside a chunk of new floss for awhile until I'm sure it's had a chance to establish a BB load, before I toss the raggedy bits.

 

[ParadoxOwl]

The bio-pad is a sponge type thing that says it's designed to control ammonia and nitrates and nitrites and it was doing well, but maybe the floss pads hurt that. After i refill the tank I'll drop API Stresszyme in there and let it run for a day before re-adding the fish (the filter is attach to the other tank running so theres 2 750 gph filters running on it).

Any advice for Oranda food though? I want my Orandas to have nice big wens and i read carbs, fat, some say veggies, so I'm slightly confused. Cause i know fish are mainly veggie eaters