Homemade Fish food recipe

[johnbabin]

I think it was Dark's recipe, I tried it today and all I can say is my fish went INSANE for it!!! (talk about a feeding frenzy...lol)

If you haven't tried it yet, you should! I'll be using this as part of their diet from now on.

I also found the spirulina powder at Wal Mart Pharmacy in their vitamin section for $5.00 a bottle.

[redbelly1]

whatz the recipe?  :lol:    

[darkdep]

Recipe is here:  http://ovas.ca/article.php?sid=109

Glad it worked out for you johnbabin...and good tip about the spirulina!  The stuff I got was way expensive.

What kinds of fish are you feeding it to?

[luvfishies]

TYVM for the link to the recipe.

I've got 1 lb of spirulina powder that I got from a seller at pnaquaria, in addition to axastanthin (sp?) I can add.

I think the total for both powders was around $20.

[johnbabin]

I'm feeding it to my African Cichlids (PS Demasoni, Lithobates, Frontosa, Red Zebras and now my Oscars....lol

I made another batch with white fish fillets and my Oscars love it!!

I also added spinach to the recipe.

[Mettle]

I did one for my mother's goldfish, which could be easily modified.

http://ovas.ca/bridge/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=6907&highlight=homemade

The goldfish LOVE it. And so do the cories who share the tank, actually. Quite remarkable. And they're looking and doing better than before I'm sure.

[darkdep]

What's axastanthin?

Homemade food in general is a great way to go, no matter the type of fish.  I really like having full knowledge of what they're eating.  

One of my tanks ended up with a case of flukes (I think; definetly some kind of parasite) which I treated successfully with meds, but it got me to thinking about adding garlic to my next batch.  Garlic is supposed to be a natural anti-parasitic isn't it?  I tried throwing a couple pieces into my 90 and they ate it  so I know they won't mind.

[pegasus]

I tried throwing a couple pieces into my 90 and they ate it  so I know they won't mind.

Lucky! Too much garlic and my fish will spit it out.

[darkdep]

Hmm...anyone know of any "garlic guidelines"?  

[FishBuddy]

Hey DD,  your receipe is gaining popularity :-)  I'll give it a try soon...  Did you ever considered of starting up a business on this??? :-)  I think the NLS guy is doing something similar as you before starting up his own business.....

[darkdep]

Well, in conversation over wine one night my wife and I talked about how to package it for sale.  And I've had at least one person in PM tell me they loved the food, but asked if I'd be willing to sell batches to them in the future cause the prep is a bit of a hassle.

I'd need some heavy duty blending equip.  I burned out my blender on the last batch

At this point, it's working for me, and for those that have tried it out, I'm glad it's working for them too.  

I know Mettle's homemade food is working well for Goldfish, so maybe we'll have to get together and figure out a marketing plan

[FishBuddy]

All you need is a commercial-grade blender and you are in business :-)  May be one of those blenders that's used in the Orange Julius shops??

[darkdep]

My wife has had her eye on one of those multi-hundred-dollar KitchenAid supermixers forever...maybe this is justification

[FishBuddy]

Ha!  There you go....  Killing 2 birds with one stone :-)

[mseguin]

Is she gonna want to use it after u use it for fish food?

[darkdep]

Ha! Probably not.  She's pretty much making me get my own cups and bowls now for everything that's gonna touch "fish stuff".

[james]

Hi
I use to make my own food egons ago. when I had over 35 tanks and over 200 plus fish.

Here are a couple of tips. Go to the dollar store and get some small ice cube trays (not the standard ones),. pour your mix into these trays and put into zipllock bags and freeze.

These cubes makes it a lot  easier to feed your fish. I did not add vitamins because they will not stable in the mix (heat is no good for vit). I put drops of vitamin suppliment about once a month.

I  also add some natural Astaxanthin(colour pigment)suppliment and spirilina as well. These two ingredients really colour up your fish.

I pop one of these cubes into each tank once a week.

The reason I stopped making it is because it was a lot of work and I don't have enough fish to justify the work.

James

[Mettle]

A lot of people talk about this being a lot of work... I made a huge supply of food in less than two hours, total prep time. I guess it comes down to how efficient you are with cutting and steaming and so forth. And how much your time is worth to you.

[darkdep]

2 hours is a lot of time to find for some people

My wife, after hearing about others doing the homemade food thing, is contemplating mass-producing some various recipes (beefheart, african, etc) for sale within the group.  She's a stay at home mom and would love to get more involved in my hobby

Just out of curiousity, and just to spark conversation, is anyone in the position where they love the homemade food recipes but would rather purchase it pre-made instead of making it yourself?  (Assuming the price was reasonable of course)

[Laura]

I would buy something, if only to give some variety to my fish, as opposed to using it as a staple diet.  I'm interested in trying to make some myself, but have trouble finding the time and the gumption.