# Making your own fish food



## AquaNekoMobile (Feb 26, 2010)

Just curious how many poeple here have made thier own fish food?

I'm using fish flakes right now but because of my fancy in Aquaponics and don't have goldies at the moment I was thinking long term for the food solution. 

I figure if I can make some homemade fish flakes it'll save on osts down the road. Even if the food is not quite up to the fish food I'm using now at least I could do 1:1 or 1:2 feedings to thin out and extend the orginal fish food I've got already.

Wondering how everyone has made thiers, storage methods to keep it from spoiling, etc. I knoqw I'm bluring a few lines here with DIY/aquaponics/fishkeeping so I figured it would fit here for thi posting.


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## Rmwbrown (Jan 22, 2009)

Why make flake when you could blend shrimp, spirulina, beef heart, spinach, so forth and then freeze it off and portion it up? I was over buying some stuff from another member, and while he said this was common practice with Discus keepers, his other fish were going crazy over it. That said, doing your own dry food sounds like a fun experiment - i imagine you would need a dehydrator or something similar.


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## AquaNekoMobile (Feb 26, 2010)

I prefer not to use a fridge or freezer for storing my fish food. Thus why I am interested in dry food should power outages or so forth.

It is the meat portion of the mix that concerns me if things go bad in storage as veggie blends tend to be more stable at least that is what I'm lead to believe while looking in the spice rack and such.


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## ryno1974 (Dec 6, 2009)

I don't know specifically about fish food, but in general what spoils food products is moisture and air. If you remove water (moisture ) the item lasts longer. meat generally has a high moisture content, so coupled with the fat content it spoils faster than other foods. The leaner the meat, the longer it will last. Shelf stable meat products (peperettes ) are shelf stable mainly because the water activity has been intentionally reduced to a point where it is no longer a factor. 

If you use meat products in fish food and dry it, it should last the same type of time as a straight veggie blend. 

The wetter and fatter the product, the faster it degrades and allows bacterial growth.

That said, I would love to see some recipes that people have used - dried or fresh frozen. Fishy food can get expensive.

Sent from my X10a using Tapatalk


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## AquaNekoMobile (Feb 26, 2010)

Well I only know of one and that is duckweed blended with some garlic and dried up which was used for goldfish. I have heard of duckweed blended and dried out for tilapia fish but have also heard of just cube freezing the excess duckweed and just dropping cubes into the tank later for feeding.


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## cichlidsnorth (Dec 2, 2009)

years ago I use to make the european shrimp mix. My cichlids loved it! I found the reciepe on another forum (cichlids-forum.com) check it out. I still have the sprulina powder (which is the most expensive part of the recipete) this food is frozen but is exellent nutrishion for your fish and 1 batch lasts a long time! As for saving money, I think there should be better ways to save money in the hobby than the food. There are a couple people around the GTA that sell quality fish foods in bulk buckets at great prices which is the way I go!
here is the european shrimp mix
The European Shrimp Mix:

One such alternative is the highly acclaimed "European Shrimp Mix." This recipe is recommended by many European breeders and hobbyists, and even appears in Ad Konings' book Enjoying Cichlids. He recommends it for virtually all African Cichlids. This recipe is reputed to increase color, help give them size, and mature properly. 

Some aquarists feed it almost exclusively to their fish, while others prefer to use it merely as a supplement to a good quality flake food. CAUTION: You should never suddenly change your Cichlids' feeding regimen or food. Instead, gradually introduce the new food, observing them carefully in the following days to make sure it sits well with them. Because of the high nutritional value of the shrimp mix, you should not feed it more than once a day.



● 2 lbs. Whole Shrimp You want to get regular whole shrimps, heads and all. The cheaper ones are preferable, they just need to be full-sized. 
● 2 lbs. Green Peas These should be frozen green peas. 
● 2 tsp. Spirulina Powder You can find Spirulina powder at Health Food Stores. Just make sure you get the pure powder with no added herbs or other products. 
● 100 gms. Gelatin Powder You can find this at health food stores as well. It's best if you use the vegetable form rather than meat as it's more easily digestible. 
● 10 drops Liquid Multi-vitamins These can be any good quality freshwater aquarium concentrate. If you are unable to find liquid multitamins for fish, you could alternatively try the liquid vitamins that are marketed for birds and other pets. 


Thaw the shrimps and peas, leaving them slightly frozen.



Place them in a blender or mincer and grind them to a fine paste.


Place the mixture in a bowl and add the Spirulina powder and liquid multi-vitamins and stir well.


Dissolve the gelatin, following the directions on the box, making sure there are no lumps in it. It must be an easily flowing, sticky mass without any lumps. Lumps of gelatin can be dangerous for juveniles.


Slowly add the shrimp-pea mix to the warm gelatin. Be sure to mix it completely before it cools. The best way to do this is to mix the food scoop by scoop with the hot gelatin, preventing it from cooling too quickly by keeping the gelatin still on low heat.


When ready, the mixture is poured onto a baking tray or into small ice cube containers and placed in the refrigerator to cool for several hours.


The hardened mix is then cut into pieces of convenient size, and frozen in plastic zip-lock bags. After the mix has been frozen, it cannot b cut easily. 
This recipe should last the average Cichlid hobbyist many months. By freezing it in several Zip-lock bags, you can keep the food fresh until it is completely consumed.


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## matti2uude (Jan 10, 2009)

I like to buy homemade food as I don't have the time or patience to make it myself. I get it from here:
http://www.canadapleco.com/showthread.php?t=1000&page=1


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## acropora1981 (Aug 21, 2010)

When I was breeding Banggai Cardinals I made them a meaty mix. I bought sole or haddock and salmon as well as raw white shrimp and squid at the grocery store. then I would freeze the seafood into chunks, and use a cheese grater (actually a food processor, takes too long with a cheese grater) to shave the chunks into little bits. Then I would mix in brine shrimp and mysis shrimp, and add a HUFA suppliment (SELCON). Then I would let it all stew in the fridge for a few hours, and then put it all into ziplock bags, and flatten them into thin pads, and freeze. Bingo, super nutritious and inexpensive frozen food. Only suited to fish that don't much need veggies though.

BTW, got the recipe from Conditioning, Spawning and Rearing of Fish With Emphasis on Marine Clownfish (Frank Hoff), and tweaked it.


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## AquaNeko (Jul 26, 2009)

cichlidsnorth said:


> years ago I use to make the european shrimp mix. My cichlids loved it! I found the reciepe on another forum (cichlids-forum.com) check it out. I still have the sprulina powder (which is the most expensive part of the recipete) this food is frozen but is exellent nutrishion for your fish and 1 batch lasts a long time! As for saving money, I think there should be better ways to save money in the hobby than the food. There are a couple people around the GTA that sell quality fish foods in bulk buckets at great prices which is the way I go!
> here is the european shrimp mix
> The European Shrimp Mix:
> 
> ...


I'm assuming shells off on the shrimps right? Just asking unless you wanted them on for extra calcium or something.


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## cichlidsnorth (Dec 2, 2009)

shells and all


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