Homemade African Cichlid Food Recipe - An Experiment

[darkdep]

Thought I would share an experiment I performed last night.

Background
I recently started reading a lot about fish food, mainly because I have a new load of fry to feed and the research roamed into adult fish nutrition.  I wanted to supplement the BBS I'm feeding to the fry with a good crushed flake, so I went looking (as my old can was empty).  I started reading labels and got a little confused, then distrustful.  I was having a hard time understanding why a can of "goldfish spirulina food" had 'spirulina' listed as the 14th of 16 ingredients.  Why did a "veggie" based flake have an identical or higher protein rating compared to a "shrimp" based flake?  What's this "10% ash" nonsense?  I ended up buying a generic spirulina flake that is horrible.  Nothing will eat it.

When in doubt, I can always trust the marketing of the good old New Life Spectrum to make me feed better.  So I came home, and read my NLS labels, expecting to be calmed and sure I could trust a fish food manufacturer again.  But, even the NLS has a "10% ash" listing.  Ash is the "non-food" stuff such as bones, scales, etc that is in a fish food.  Some is always going to be there, but the lower the better.  I guess I expected my super-expensive NLS to have better numbers on the label.  Plus, they claim that your fish will look "night and day" better with their food.  I have never noticed any change in my fish when they were put on NLS.

So, with my NLS running low anyway, I had to make a decision.  I decided that because there are NO controls in place for fish food in north america, and because I have not been overwhelmed by any recent food I've fed my fish, I decided to see what I could do on my own.


The Recipe
I decided to make a variation of a cichlid food recipe known as the European Shrimp Mix.  I wanted to prepare a balanced, complete staple food for all of my cichlids, and this looked promising.  I varied it slightly, so I will post my recipe and exactly where I obtained and used each item:


1 lb (454g) Whole Shrimp - You ideally want complete shrimp with the heads, shells, and legs.  "Cheap" shrimp is better, as long as they are full grown.  Don't spend money on "large" shrimp, it won't matter for our application.  I picked up a bag of Whole Prawns for $4.99 at Sobeys.

1 lb (454g) Frozen Green Peas - I used a bag of Green Giant peas I had in the freezer.

2 Big handfuls of Frozen Broccoli - Again, I used some from a bag of Green Giant I had in the freezer.

2 tsp Pure Spirulina Powder - I picked up a bottle of 100% Spirulina Powder from Granny's Health Food Emporium in the Hazeldean Mall, 100g for $17 after tax.  A bit pricey, but this is enough to last you forever, or to share.  Get the powder, not the capsules.  You should be able to find this at any health food store.

Unflavoured Gelatin Powder - I used 5 packets of "Knox" brand gelatin, available in the baking section of your grocery store for about $2 a box (4 packs in a box, unfortunately...)

5ml (one capful) Liquid Multivitamins - I used Kent Zoe Freshwater vitamin/mineral supplement that I picked up from Big Als Kanata (~ $14 after OVAS discount).  The original recipe calls for only a few drops of this stuff, but since the labels suggests SOAKING food in it, I decided to use a bit more.  One capful looked right.


The Procedure

- Thaw the Shrimp, Peas, and Broccoli so they are just slightly frozen.

- Use a Blender or food processor to grind up the above.  My blender is a bit small for all of this, so I did it in two batches and poured the results into a large bowl.  You might find your blender has trouble with the solid nature of the ingredients; if you do, just add a little water to the blender and it will help.  (Don't go overboard, but enough to get things blending is fine).  The final consistancy should be a fine paste.  Tiny lumps are ok.

- With the mix in a bowl, add the Spirulina Powder and the Liquid Vitamins.  Stir the heck out of it with a big spoon.  The final result will be a dark green liquidy paste.

- Now it's time to mix the Gelatin.  The directions on the box are fine; with Knox I did exactly this:  Poured 1 cup of water in a pot, turned on the oven to low heat.  Boiled water in a kettle.  While water is heating up, add 5 packets of gelatin to the water in the pot and stir it up.  When water is boiling, add 1 cup of boiling water to the pot, and stir.  Keep the pot on LOW heat.  (It doesn't need to be much).

- Add the contents of the bowl slowly to the pot, stirring constantly.  You want the gelatin mix (which at this point is probably the consistancy of water or maybe slightly thicker).  I added a big spoonful of the green mix to the pot at a time, and stirred.  Eventually you'll get the whole thing in there and your pot will be filled with a seemingly liquidy green nastiness.

- When done, pour the mix into small ice cube trays, or a plastic cookie sheet, or a big wide-flat tupperware container, etc.  Anything that will give you a thickness of say, 1-2 cm.  Put it in the fridge for several hours.

- After several hours, it will have the consistancy of Jello.  At this time, you can cut it up into convenient sizes, throw into ziplock bags, and freeze it until ready to use.  Simply thaw out an appropriate amount before using.


First Trials

When my batch was done, I cut up some small cubes and tried it on my pickiest audience, my 90gal African tank.  To say they were enthusiastic would be an understatement.  They gobbled it with glee; plus, because that tank has fish of various sizes, it made me feel better seeing that the big guys could get an actual full mouthful of food and the little guys could eat the chunks that went flying, rather than forcing the big guys to eat little tiny morsels (traditional fish food).


Future Research

Today I will freeze my batch and will see how the dethawing process affects the food and it's acceptance.  Also, we'll see how the fish are doing a month from now.  


Economics
This recipe makes a stupid amount of food; it will easily last me a few months.  Although the initial investment in money includes expensive items like the vitamins and spirulina powder, the amount you get vs the amount you use means that every batch you make will get cheaper and cheaper overall.  The Vitamins and Powder will last you a LONG time.


Nutrition
The benefits of this food are great.  Now I know exactly what my fish are eating, and can vary future recipes accordingly if I want to introduce a new element.  This food is high in veggie value, and has enough protein to satisfy the carnivores as well as grow the herbivores without promoting malawi bloat.  I hope to research more and produce some percentages, but for now I am very happy.

[Mettle]

Very cool.

One thing for the multivitamin... I know when people get a case of HITH with their oscars (most common to get it I think) they often use a liquid multi meant for people. I'll have to do some looking to get the exact name or names of the brand(s) people use - but it would probably be available at Walmart and might be cheaper.

[darkdep]

Good thinking!

[repeej]

Sounds good.  I'm hungry now...

[Mettle]

I really like this idea of making my own fish food. I'm probably going to be trying my hand at a batch of something for feeding my discus. Not quite sure what I'm going to put in there yet, however... It's just that I find different fish in the tank seem to like different things. I have some that go nuts over beefheart and a couple that won't touch it. Yet those same ones who don't touch the beefheart eagerly eat up the dry bit food and bloodworms. Still another group relishes squid. It's so random! If I can make a good that combines all these things that all the fish like it'd make feeding MUCH easier, heh.

[darkdep]

Ok, some more for anyone interested...

I had put the goop into a small ice cube tray, and a big tupperware container to jell up.  The Tupperware is the way to go, bar none...the ice cube tray was very difficult to deal with and get the stuff out.  With the tupperware, I just cut a grid with my good knife and scooped out the cubes with a spatula into a few ziploc freezer bags.  Froze em in the deep freeze in the basement.

I came back about 10 hours later to see how the feeding process from frozen would be.  The little cubes were VERY easy to break apart, a good thing.  Put a few into a little cup and let em defrost.  

Only bad thing...I put the food near the tank lights, thinking the heat would defrost it faster.  I may have heated it too much, because it wasn't really a bunch of cubes when I got back to it..

Scooped blobs of it into the tank anyway with my finger, the Africans went nuts for it.  We'll see if I can defrost it and make it stay cubular tommorow.  Perhaps I need to use more gelatin...

Anyway, I'm still really pleased.

[darkdep]

Week 1 Update:

It's been about 5 days since my big Africans have been put on this new food, and it's really working for them.  They are just as colourful if not more so, and they have never been so excited to eat.  This food has been the key to them eating out of my hand.

Letting the cubes thaw at room temp for about an hour seems to be about right.  They stay cubical enough, but are soft and easy to eat.  And I love watching the fish do tug-a-war on each piece!

The food tends to break up into a lot of bits once they go at it, but it gets cleaned up by the smaller fish in time.  They don't waste any of it.

Tonight I tried the food on my other African tanks, and so far everyone is happy.  I'm planning to phase all my Africans onto this diet and phase out store-bought food.

[slickshooter]

Sounds like a great cheap alternative.I have a few questions :

Isn't 454 grams equal to 1 pound or have I been out of school to long?
Assuming I haven't was it 1 or 2 pounds of shrimp and veggies you used?

Garlic is another ingredient I'd recomend you try adding to your mix.
Its used to treat for internal parasites in fish.Could be a good preventative.

Also you mentioned the possible need to add water to the mix to get it to blend.Might I recomend carrot juice,tomato or clam juice (I know there's some kicking around from all those Ceasars) it'll add even more yummy goodness to your mix.

Here is a couple  links that you might find useful

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

http://www.gcca.net/howto/fish_food.htm

I'm casting my vote right now for a Do It Yourself (DIY) forum on OVAS. Anything from food to backgrounds and filters. Whatchya think ?

[Julie]

The recipe sounds nutritious;  but does it pollute the tank?
No doubt the veggies would keep the fish regular  :wink:  but wouldn't they be getting the same nutrients from the vitamin you are adding?

Julie

[darkdep]

454g is indeed equiv to 1lb; and is correct.  I've edited my recipe.  It was 1lb of each that I used.

Garlic is a REALLY good idea; I think I'll add that to the next batch to see how it goes.  

Veggie juice as a liquid is another great idea; although I probably wouldn't go for clam juice myself in an African recipe...but Carrot might be a good one.

This recipe was originally based on the European Shrimp Mix recipe on the first link you posted...but modified slightly.


Julie:  I have not had any undue pollution.  Although the first few minutes into eating the tank does appear to have a lot of bits floating around.  It doesn't last tho, once they finish swallowing their first or second mouthfuls they go around and clean it all up whereever it may be.  So far I have two tanks on this recipe full-time, and both are thrilled.  It's especially awesome in one of my 30's that has a variety of Herbivore, Omnivore, and Carnivore...this meal satisfies them all.

The vitamins are a safety buffer, IMHO; I personally believe that "natural" sources of nutrients are better than "artificial" sources like vitamins.  Because of this, I like to ensure there is a variety of natural nutrient sources.  But, the vitamin addition helps to ensure nothing is missed (as this is intended to be their main diet).

[pegasus]

Did I ever mention that your Red Empress, Jake, Afra & lithobates were raised on beafheart, shrimp, garlic, spinach, spirulina, fish, peas, vitamins & galic? That's why they like it so much.  

I prefer to put the receipe in a baggie and flatten it, frozen solid (24 hours) and served frozen & diced to size of mouthful (no mess)  

I'd stay away of gelatine, shells and juice of any kind.

[darkdep]

pegasus: That might explain their enthusiasm.  They think they're back home

(Although I didn't get my Afra from you )

The "cubes" I've cut are a tad large; I will likely make them smaller for future batches.  But I really don't notice any mess after a few mins anyway.  

I used gelatin because it seems to be common in many DIY recipes.  And the Shells I used intentionally as I believe they will consume a certain amount of this material in the wild and I think it will be beneficial.

[pegasus]

The gelatine should bond the juices, fill their bellies and do wounders to their skin.
I'm just to worry that they would choke on the shells, as they once did on some beta pellets.
You are right, both are often included in home made receipes.

Ok ... who got my Afra?

[darkdep]

With the shells, I really blended the hell out of them...tiny tiny bits only.  Final consistancy was that of a runny smoothie before gelatin was added, so I think they'll be ok choke-wise.  But it's a good point, I'll keep an eye on that.

The Shells, though, I do feel are an important part of their "real" diet so they are there.

[Glenn]

Hey,

So Darkdep, any updates on how this food is treating you?  I was just curious, what are the main differences between food for say, cichlids, and the other food you'd feed to other freshwater fish??  (Say a community of tetras etc. .  ) Would this recipe be suitable for them as well??

Glenndon

[darkdep]

An interesting discovery last night actually...When I transferred my Afra female back to my 90gal after having her last batch of fry, I accidentally moved her with a single fry.  I discovered him about a week and a half ago going in and out of a cave he discovered in the slate at the back of my tank.  I figured, oh well, he's not gonna make it.

Last night my daughter and I found him again...and he is FAR larger than his siblings growing up in their own tank!  The only food that goes into the 90gal now is this homemade recipe, whereas the fry are being fed live / frozen baby brine shrimp and crushed flake.  The growth difference is very noticeable.

So, I took some last night, ground it up between my fingers so as to break up the gelatin a bit, and put it in the fry tank...to the result of very happy babies.  I have not seen them go so crazy for a food yet.  It looks like this might be a good fry food too.  


As to your question on food for different fish; different fish have different dietary requirements.  Many Africans from Lake Malawi have high veggie diets in the wild; some almost exclusively so.  This particular recipe has a high veggie content to be an optimal diet for these types of fish.  It also has "enough" protein to both satisfy the more carnivorous Africans I keep as well as to give the veggie eaters the nutrition to grow.

In addition to the Malawi Cichlids, I also keep some Synodontis Multipunctatus catfish in my 90 that are more carnivorous in nature; they also eat this food happily.  Actually they're great because they clean up all the little bits that the bigger fish miss.

I don't know tetras well; I just did a very brief read on the diets of some of them and would suggest that this food may work well for them, possibly supplemented with a little more meat.  But I'm just guessing here; someone would need to do those experiments