Homemade Fish Foods - Your Recipes

PIMPALA

PIMPALA

Well-Known Member
for my large mouth fish, i chop up one shrimp, and one scallop every day. i mix in a small amount of brine shrimp with spectrum pellets for my smaller fish, and usually i chop up a piece of shrimp or scallop into very small pieces for the other little guys.


i buy the shrimp and scallops fresh, once a month. separate into freezer bags with 8 of each for a 1 week run. then freeze. chop with razor knife when frozen, then thaw in a small cup of tank water before feeding. i leave them in chunks about 1/4" thick.


Also spot feed my large urchin and RBTA a chunk of shrimp or scallop once a week. the urchin is the most fun to watch eat.
 
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leebca

Well-Known Member
Color looks about right and if it smells offensive to humans, it should be just right for the fish.
 
DrugMonkeyRX

DrugMonkeyRX

Member
is it ok to sprinkle spirulina and kelp powder over Frozen Mysis? Usually when i prepare the food i usually place 1/4 of a tsp of both powders along with Selcon, Garlic and a vitamin supplement. I let it sit for about 30 minutes then feed the fish(which is one Clown and 1 Coral Beauty)

I usually feed every other day.
 
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leebca

Well-Known Member
The addition of those things is an improvement to the food, especially for the omnivores. However, I would recommend not using mysis for more than about 3 out of 21 feedings. Switch the basic feedings to more nutritious foods, like prepared frozen foods that don't contain brine shrimp nor mysis.

There's a sticky in this Forum on Food forms as well as fish nutrition you should read through to understand better the needs of our ornamental marine fishes.

Most of our fishes (you don't mention the ones you have) eat throughout the day. So feeding is best done no less than three times a day.

Thanks for posting. :)
 
DrugMonkeyRX

DrugMonkeyRX

Member
When you say prepared frozen foods are you talking about actually making the food like in this post? ill be honest all i have been feeding my clown and coral beauty is frozen mysis and Brine mixed with what i have stated above and i only feed them every other day. Three times a day would be tough for me because im usually at work im also worried about over feeding and causing cyano outbreaks since im not running a protein skimmer on my system.

Thanks for your response Lee!
 
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leebca

Well-Known Member
Either your prepared foods, or the ones you may purchase in the local fish store that doesn't contain land products nor brine shrimp nor mysis.

One of the goals of preparing your own homemade food is to use a cross-section of marine life that is what your marine fish eats, plus supplemented with vitamins and the kinds of fats that fish eat. Of that 'marine life' you want to choose whole foods that are as nutritious as you can obtain. But if you can't do better than the frozen foods you can find at your LFS, then stick with those prepared foods. :)

I have to admit that it bugs me when hobbyists don't want to feed their fish because of the fish pollution or because it causes problems with the aquarium. Saving the tank and starving the fish just doesn't make sense. Even if you work or go to school you can get in multiple feedings.

Set the clock to turn on the aquarium lights an hour before you wake up. Feed them once as soon as you wake up. Just before you leave for work/school, put in some macro algae. You set the clock to turn off the lights two hours after you leave, then on again an hour before you get home. When you get home, immediately feed again. A couple of hours later, put in some more macro algae. Then just before bed, feed once more. Lights timed to go out an hour or more after their last feeding. It shouldn't be difficult to feed at least three times a day. If you have omnivore and herbivore you can feed 'five' times a day with the two extra feedings of macro algae.

Feeding does not mean over feeding. You feed until the fishes begin to lose interest in eating. The hobbyist can tell this after a while. You feed such that food doesn't get swept away or gone uneaten. If the food gets 'past the fish' then wait until they eat it or slow down the feeding, or both.

Your tank should have at least three types of filters: Biological, mechanical, and chemical. The chemical one (usually activated carbon) should handle the excess organics. The mechanical one should handle picking up pieces of waste. All this depends on the right kind of circulation, keeping the filter clean, rotating the chemical you use, and proper water changes.

Cyano break outs (known as red algae) are not only caused by over feeding, but by not having enough circulation. Of course they need nourishment like all life forms need some kind(s) of nourishment, but you can thwart them by other means. These kinds of organisms can't stand moving water and can only get a foot hold in aquariums that don't have enough circulation. There are snails that will keep little bits of this under control, but can't control it in an aquarium that is under circulated. :)

Just like it isn't only light that causes brown algae. It's one of the things they need to live, but just one of them and keeping the lights off wouldn't be a very nice thing to have to do. However, you can control brown algae by other means. You might want to the read the post on starting up an FOWLR (even though you've been running one for a while now), it gives information on these sorts of things.

You may be getting the wrong information or listening to poor advice. Read more of the stickies in this Forum, especially the one on What is Water Quality.

You don't need a skimmer, but you don't want to starve your fishes just so you don't have to do the other things to run and maintain your tank. :hallo:

 
DrugMonkeyRX

DrugMonkeyRX

Member
One thing that was confusing to me about feeding and what i read on forums was not to overfeed because this could cause problems with your system and feeding fish every other day should be enough obviously its not and i will pick up the feedings for my fish. I do run Carbon, and i do 10% water changes weekly. I had a cyano outbreak about 2 -3 weeks ago but i managed to get rid of it. I have plenty of circulation in the tank (2 korilla PH's and a mag 7 pump) anyway that problem is now over with. I will def start feeding my fish the way you explained above.

Thanks for you advice Lee, i really appreciate it man.
 
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