Do u mush?

[jason604]

So I normally just feed my dishes flake as it is very easy and fast but now that I have a larger tank I'm getting more different fishes that require meaty food such as a blue throat trigger and thinking about getting a copperband. So I would like to make my own fish food(mush)

My ingredient list is shelled frozen shrimp, semi thawed octopus, nori sheets, frozen blood worm, fresh oysters, couple cloves of diced garlic, mybe some type of saltwater frozen shrimp as well as a squeezed lemon to preserve it. Not sure about the quantity of each yet. Everything will be mixed in a food processor and will be flattened thin in a ziplock bag n put in freezer. So my question is.... Are these ingredients good enough or should I add something else as well? Also when u feed do u let it thaw out or just break a piece n throw it in ur tank for all ur fishes to pick at. I suspect that if I let it thaw with tank water before feeding it will very easily pollute my tank. Can anyone who make their own mush give me tips?

[rsisvixen]

I add Agar Agar and spirulina powder to mine. The Agar makes a gelatin sheet that I then cut into portions and freeze.

[jason604]

Originally Posted by rsisvixen

I add Agar Agar and spirulina powder to mine. The Agar makes a gelatin sheet that I then cut into portions and freeze.

Do u mix it with tank water n feed or u just drop in a cube n let them tear it apart?

[Timbits]

Some vitamins would be good too like vitachem or selcon

[Madreefer]

Use the search button. Theres some good recipes on there.
You have to be careful on the ingrediants you choose. It also has to be rinsed really good. Most stuff is full of phosphates. Ditch the lemon and get Garlic Guard or Garlic Extreme. Seriously do some research or you'll be posting another thread soon asking about GHA or cyano.

[Myka]

I get some ingredients from Florida Aqua Farms such as bulk gelatin, vitamin mix, and spirulina powder. You shouldn't use more than 8-10% squid as it is very fatty and you can cause health issues if they get too much. I use about 40% white shrimp and smaller portions each of wild Salmon, mussels/clams, roe (from Asian market). I also add Salmon oil (squeezed out of gel caps), Selcon, and garlic extract.

I don't think adding a squeezed lemon would help much. Freezing it is just fine. I bag mine in Ziplock sandwich bags, then put two of those into a Ziplock freezer bag. As long as you sqeeze all the air out of the bags you won't get freezer burn, and don't make more than you can use up in 6 months.

FWIW, I've used this recipe for several years and I don't have any phosphate issues. I don't think what you feed is as important as how much you feed when it comes to phosphate. It is true though that some ingredients do have significantly more phosphate in them, but these ingredients aren't necessarily avoidable. Phosphorus makes up protein, so higher protein foods have higher phosphate.

Here's some reading by Randy Holmes-Farley (2012) on phosphate sources. www.advancedaquarist.com/2012/3/chemistry

[rsisvixen]

Originally Posted by jason604

Do u mix it with tank water n feed or u just drop in a cube n let them tear it apart?

I just place a cube in the tank and let them work on it, it dissolves slowly thus the fish have a chance at eating it and I don't have a cloudy mess.
the CUC find it very quickly too and what the fish don't get to they will.

I use the Agar Agar as its a seaweed based gelatin thus has higher vitamins and minerals than standard gelatin.

[jason604]

I think the ajar ajar to bind the pieces together is a great idea so they don't break apart and polute the water before my fishes eat it. Isn't adding real garlic better than the ones in the bottle since I can mince it so fishes can actually eat pieces of it as well. I read that fresh water fishes should not be feed to saltwater fishes and that mussels clams and oysters contain too much heavy metals. Dunno how accurate these claims are. I was gonna get one of those mixed frozen raw seafood bags at the super market Cuz of the variety of different seafood in it. Was going to wash it good with water and table salt then dry and semi freeze it again n add to food processor with lots of garlic, flake, pellets and nori. Don't want to have so much juices come out if I don't freeze it a lil bit.

[Masonjames]

Why not keep the food sources separate? Personally I wouldn't add flake and pellet. They are not needed and might be better to keep them as a seperate form of feeding. You may find you are not able to feed the mush daily and as your sole food source anyways which may require you to feed a more controled form of food through pellet or flake. Not every system will be able to handle the amount of excess nutrients that the mush is going to cause on a daily bases. The amount you will be able to feed of it will be based on your system. So personally I wouldn't dirty it up any more then you have to. Feed pellet/flakes when you need to and the raw whole foods when you can and need to. And skip the garlic and binders. The whole food is so nutirent rich you don't need all that junk in there. You'd just be polluting it and your system further with no real bennifit. If you want to add some nori however that is fine but try not to destroy it with the proccessing breaking it down to to small pieces that don't get consumed as it is also very high in phospahtes.

[Craigdillman]

I mix a bunch of fish food together thawed out and then pour the mix into the mini ice cube trays you get at the dollar store then freeze it and pop them all out and toss them in a big ziplock

Easy to thaw and ready to feed

Also awesome for tank sitters to tell them to defrost one or two cubes and just feed that

just my 2 cents