# DIY Fish Food



## CyberSpike

My father is a fisherman so I get to feed my fish fresh seafood sometimes, for example crab. 

I just finished reading somewhere that capelin is also very nutritious seafood for tropical fish, and it comes as good news since its extremely abundant and we harvest it by the tens of thousands of pounds.

I know I could keep some in my freezer to preserve it and feed my fish, but are there any recipes out there I could use to make this a more non-perishable meal, enrich it with more fish needed vitamins, and also to make it more transportable so I could offer some of my good fortune to you guys?


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## Gunnie

Here's one recipe you can try that I borrowed from FishGeeks. They also used to have a sticky with another recipe, but I'm still looking for that one:



Oruboris said:


> Hi fishie8.
> 
> Yep, make all my own food: allows me to conveiniently offer my golds a wide variety of fresh greens and other stuff on a daily basis.
> 
> Here is Cheryl's recipe from thegoldfishnet:
> 
> 1/2 cup of water
> 2 packs of Knox Unflavored cooking gelatine
> Heat in Microwave about a minute until the gelatine and water is clear
> Add
> 1 small Jar of Gerber second stage baby food - A veggie mix one with peas,spinach,potatoes etc are great
> Really Cold water to bring the mixture to 1 cup total
> Add
> 2 Tablespoons of ground pellet food (I use Rick's show gold) grind it to almost a powder
> 3 Tablespoons of your favorite flake food (I use 1 tablespoon of each OSI, OSI Spirunlina, Rick's Seafood)
> You can add a teaspoon of liquid vitamin at this point if you choose, I don't though
> You can also substitute the pellet food for a medicated pellet food if you are feeding a sick fish.
> 
> Pour it into a tupperware sort of container and put in the fridge until set.
> Cut into chunks of appropriate size for your fish. Keeps in the fridge well for about a month.
> Just Drop the chunks into the tank. My guys go completely nuts for this . They push each other out of the way to try and get the most.
> Great Growth, Great Poopy, No Floating or Air Sucking. Plus you can vary it by adding different sorts of dry foods. Have fun. (Time to make: 20 Minutes including prep)
> 
> Me again: I don't use the Gerbers or any commercial food in my mix [except for food grade spirulina, on occasion], just a wide range of vegtables, esp. peas [pretty much anything you can eat, they can: I've used asparagus, broccoli, brussel sprouts, bell pepper, olives, green lettuce, parsely, mushrooms, spinach, zuchini], and a protien food like fish or shrimp or even chicken breast. My guys also love it when I use tomato paste, which is high in vitamins C and A.
> 
> This is just a great way to feed fish: its fresher, closer to what they would get in nature, and the high water content also mimics 'real', not processed food.
> 
> And of course, you can tailor the ingredients to suit the species you are feeding. You could just use the gellatin and soaked, ground krill, for feeding some carnivores, for instance.
> 
> I do wish there were more aquatic vegs available for this: I realize peas aren't exactly a 'natural' part of a fish's diet, but a fresh spinach leaf is much closer to a fresh water plant leaf than ground wheat flour, or most other pre-prepared stuff. I also like that I know just how fresh it is, and don't have to wonder how long its been on the shelf, and how many vitamins its lost.
> 
> Oru


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## Gunnie

Found it!

This is also from FishGeeks. I'm guessing it's for both fresh and saltwater tanks:


Quote:
Basic gel food: 

Just like the foods our fish eat in nature, gel food is mostly water, and has a more 'natural' texture than pellets or flakes. Makes the fish feel 'fuller', avoids some of the potential problems of both hard, compressed sinking foods, and air filled floating foods. 

Remember: if its safe for you to eat, its safe for your fish, at least in reasonable quantities. Tailor your ingredients so suit your fish: for herbivores, try peas, tomato paste, spinach, green beans, carrots, etc; for meat eaters, tuna, shrimp, salmon, FD bloodworms, etc. For omnivores [and most fish are, to some degree], use both veg and meat. Frozen vegitables are actually considered higher in nutritional value than fresh, canned is lower than fresh, according to the FDA. 

If you are in a hurry, you could use pelleted fish food... 

Vegitables should be lightly cooked to make them more digestible, canned meats can be used straight, but fresh or frozen meats should be cooked enough to eliminate the possibility of parasites or bacteria. 

You want 2 to 2 and a half cups, ground fairly fine in a blender or food processor, with enough water to bring them to a 'milkshake' consistency. 

Stir 2 to 3 envelopes of unflavored gelatin [available at any grocery] into a quarter cup of cold water, and microwave till the gelatin is disolved. The liquid will be amber colored but clear-- usually takes around 30 seconds. 

For a floating food, add the gelatin mixture to the food in the blender or processor, and mix for a minute or two: that will incorperate enough air to keep the food on the surface. 

For a slow sinking food, just stir the gelatin mixture into the other ingredients. 

Line an oblong cake pan [9x13? whatever the 'standard' size is] with saran wrap, pour in your food mix, and refrigerate till set. This will give you a slab a little less than a quarter inch thick, great for medium to large fish. For smaller fish, use more than one pan, and shake the pan to distribute the food in an even layer. 

Once set, cut the food into appropriate sized pieces. Try to cut it by pushing the knife blade straight down through the slab, leaving the slab as intact as possible. If the food is sticking to the knife, dip the blade in hot water. 

Remove what you think your fish will eat in a week, and freeze the rest of the pan. This stuff tends to freezer burn easily, so once its frozen remove it from the pan and wrap it tightly. The frozen slab will break readily along the lines you've cut. Several days worth can be removed from the freezer at once, and thawed in the refrigerator. 

The food must be kept frozen or refrigerated: it will re-liquify at room temps. Should last a week or two in the frige, 3 months in the freezer. 

Using more gelatin results in a tougher food, but one that leaves fewer particles in the water. Less gelatin makes the food softer and messier, but allows even very small fish to nibble away. 

I store the refrigerated portion in small ziploc bags: keeps it from drying out, lessens the chance your bloodworm potion will end up in the chocolate pudding. 


Medicated Gel Food: 

Anti-biotics delivered via the food not only saturate the fish's body in a way water bourne anti-biotics don't, they require much smaller amounts of medicine, and lessen the chances of damaging the bio-filter. 

To do it right, you really need a kitchen scale that measures in metric. If it also allows you to deduct the weight of your container, so much the better. 

Tetra's medicated food contains 10,000 mgs of tetracycline for each kilogram of food. Since a kilogram of food would be a BIG supply, maintian this ratio while decreasing the overall amount of product. 

Since most tetracycline [should be available at any lfs or via the web at major retailers like drfostersmith.com] comes in 250 mg capsules, a convenient amount for most hobbiests is to mix 4 capsules [you have to open the capsule and pour out the powder] with a little water in a small container [the powder doesn't dissolve easily], and add the resulting 1,000 mgs of med to 100 grams of liquid food [if you have gel food on hand thats already set up, it can be re-liquified by placing it in a bowl over hot water. It should re-gel when refrigerated.] The meds need to be well mixed in, so as every bite has the same amount of medicine. 

My best guess is that 100 grams will be roughly equal to half a cup, but I'd urge anyone with an interest in trying this to get hold of a kitchen scale. They aren't expensive, and available at kitchen supply stores, and stores like walmart. 

I dye the medicated with a few drops of food coloring so I know at a glance what I'm feeding. I'm not certain the tetracycline remains effective if the medicated food is frozen. 

All anti-biotic foods should be fed for a minimum of 10 days to lower the chance of an anti-biotic resistant strain of bacteria from appearing. I write the beginning date on the ziploc, just to keep things straight. To insure the fish get an adequate dose, its better not to offer other foods until the 10 days are up. 

As with all new foods, it may take a couple of trys before your fish accept it eagerly. If you've chosen your ingredients well, they'll come to love it. 

BOL 
Oru


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## RockabillyChick

*Frozen vegitables are actually considered higher in nutritional value than fresh, canned is lower than fresh, according to the FDA.*

that's a load of crap, btw. any processing of vegetables, including freezing, kills many micronutrients and beneficial enzymes.


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## Fishfirst

I'd have to agree


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## joe kool

RockabillyChick said:


> *Frozen vegitables are actually considered higher in nutritional value than fresh, canned is lower than fresh, according to the FDA.*
> 
> that's a load of crap, btw. any processing of vegetables, including freezing, kills many micronutrients and beneficial enzymes.


Maybe instead of spewing out "crap loads" one should do a little reading. I'll post an excerpt below BUT freshly picked, flash frozen veggies often have a much higher nutritional value than the 2 to 4 week old "fresh" veggies that you have the opportunity to "pick" at your local grocery store. The fresh frozen is usually flash frozen within an hour or so of being picked where transportation of a "freshly picked" veggie to the packing plant to the shipping yard to the wholesaler to the distribution center to the loading dock to the storage area to the shelf can take as many as 4 weeks depending on location and accessibility. 

here's the experpt:
"Your concerns are certainly valid ones but we have to be realistic. If we want to attract more people to a plant-based diet—and I do—then we had better find ways to make it easy for them. Fortunately, there are a lot of ways to make vegan meal planning and preparation easy without sacrificing nutrition. There is nothing wrong with using frozen vegetables. They are perfectly nutritious. Their main shortcoming, of course, is that they don’t taste as good as fresh, but sometimes their nutritional value is actually better than fresh. And stir-fried in olive oil, with the addition of a dash of garlic-infused oil, they really aren’t bad. I love to cook, but I don’t always have time for much food preparation. When time is tight, I’m happy to use frozen veggies."


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## RockabillyChick

i tried makeing my own fish food yesterday, turned out really well.

i took a bunch of FRESH veggies (zuchinni, carrot, green beans, tomato, broccoli, and watercress out of our pond because it was taking over) and several shrimp (about 10) shells and all, and steamed them very lightly in a skillet just until the shrimp was cooked and the veggies were tender. then i took the hot water that i steamed the veggies in left in the bottom of the pan and dissolved the geletain in it. i did this because many good nutrients and minerals are leached out of the veggies into the water, so i used to cooking water in the finished thing. i put the veggies and shrimp in the blender with about a half cup of straight water and the half cup of geletain and water, and blended it really well, then poured it into a long flat baking dish lined with plastic wrap and let it cool in the fridge and cut it into squares, then froze it really well and broke the squares appart.

the fishies still aren't entierly sure what it is, but they went after it right away and several of them followed it around the tank nibbling on the chunk.


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## Gourami Swami

I feed my fish the flowers of frozen brocoli (thawed in a microwave) and my fish love it. My neons go after the small dark flowers while the glassfish and guppies gulp down the stems. they eat every bit and not a peice is left behind


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