Homemade Fish Food Ideas (DIY)

[chefjpaul]

I make different blends, I order fresh seafood, (chef here, fish eat well).

Typical mixes:
Oysters
Clams
Shrimp
Scallops
White fish
Oyster eggs
Mussels
Lobster
Crab
Any fresh / live fish from the market, like eel, snapper etc..
(Use the organs)

I make different blends depending on my menus at work.
Freezer in double freezer bags, flat.

I do add selcon or something similar when I thaw daily, but I don't rinse off.

We do eat a lot of fish at home, so I sometimes cut pieces and drop in tank. They love it!

 

[Harold Green]

Lots of good recipes here and I doubt you can go wrong with any mix of fresh seafood. I purchased a sailfin tank several months back and couldn't get him to eat regardless of the food I offered. Decided it was time to fall back on an old standby from the time I raised african cichlids and started my first fowler tanks. Pulled out the blender and added a small portion of chopped up carrot, a small piece of liver, a small can of rinsed spinach, several gulf shrimp, a dozen eggs and ran the blender until I had a smooth green slurry. Poured it into a clean teflon skillet and heated slowly, stirring until gelled. Spread on wax paper on a large sheet pan. Froze until soft set and then cut into squares with a butter knife. Froze solidly, then vacuum sealed and placed back in the freezer. Thawed a small portion and added to the tank. Tang decided it's what he wanted to eat and has been eating well since. I've never had a fish that refused to eat it. At one time I raised a Pacu up to eight pounds and fed it exclusively the spinach and egg mixture. Always got excellent health and breeding. Even fed it to my anemones from time to time. I think when making your own fish food the skies the limit and most home made foods are fresher and more nutritious than store bought. Of course there are advantages to a freezer with multiple varieties of frozen fish and coral foods.

 

[BOWHUNTER4250]

i have been making my own fish food now since reading this , i buy what i can fresh and add some frozen white fish fillets , Ive mixed squid , clams , shrimp, nori , whatever sea food i can get that's fresh , blend it all up and put it into zip lock bags , 3 bullet blenders full makes me about 6 bags and over all has been cheaper.

i have noticed a huge difference in my fish !! they go absolutely crazy when i feed ans everyone of my fish looks like their stomachs will explode ! fat , healthy , and colorful ! will never buy store bought frozen food again !

 

[s2nhle]

Great ideas.

 

[Turbo's Aquatics]

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/diy-food.176307/

 

[s2nhle]

Very detailed. Thank you for sharing.

 

[GnarleyMarley]

I've been making my own fish food for about a year now, my tank seems to enjoy the last batch a lot. Im using scallops, shrimp, flounder, nori, mysis, new life spectrum pellets, phyto, extreme garlic guard, and selcon. All of the seafood is fresh, as I have a friend who owns a large commercial fishing processing plant in nc. The big thing is I rinse out the food several times in rodi water before freezing it to try and knock the po4 down a bit. So far everyone is happy and healthy

 

[Turbo's Aquatics]

Flounder should be avoided as it sits on the bottom all day and thus contains more heavy metals, so I'm told.

Regarding rinse, I assume you mean before you add the phyto, selcon, & garlic? Hope so! But phosphate is in everything at a cellular level. For your seafood is preservative free in the first place, soak doesn't gain you much but can't hurt either AFAIK.

But, if the seafood contains trisodium phosphate or something like that (I think it has "bis-" in it maybe), that is generally not water soluble so it ends up in your tank and is very hard to get rid of naturally. That's why it is very important to avoid this start in the first place

 

[GnarleyMarley]

ooo, i'll have to look into that flounder, Thanks for the tip. Looks like I may have to get some more seafood next time I'm on the coast and mix up another batch.

 

[rowdy]

Ingredients - all ingredients raw and either fresh or frozen
-2 ea whole fresh sea fish
- 20 fresh or frozen shrimp
- 2 pounds fresh mussels - cracked and scraped out
- 2 pounds fresh clams including clam juice
-2 8 oz containers fresh oysters
- 1 fresh or frozen squid, whole
- 2 packages mixed fresh or frozen seafood (Asian Market)
- 2 package frozen sea urchin cubes
- 2 12 oz package artemia (brine shrimp, frozen), thawed
- 10 sheets of dried seaweed (Nori, Wakame, Hijiki, Dulse, Ano, etc.) - (health food stores, Asian markets)
- 1/2 cup minced garlic
- 4 tbsp. marine flake
- 4 tbsp. powdered spirulina
- 2 tbsp Selco and VitaChem
- 16 oz frozen krill
- 16 oz frozen sw mysis
- 1# bulk frozen cyclops

If you want to make smaller cubes, line a cookie sheet with foil then egg crate the size of the cookie sheet. Stuff all the holes with the food and freeze, makes nice small little frozen cubes.

 

[csharps42]

How long does this usually last being frozen

 

[Turbo's Aquatics]

Depends on your freezing method. As long as you can keep it from getting freezerburn, quite a long time. I just line the shelf and the sides of the freezer with a sheet of cardboard, then a sheet of cardboard for about every 3 food bags, then I put down a layer of ice packs on top (I have about 2 dozen from DRFS).

 

[ArowanaLover1902]

Recipe for coral/feather worm/assorted filter feeder/all inverts ha ha ha
1. Kent's microvert
2. Instant ocean herbivore marine pellets
3. microbe lift special blend (use the bottle and just a bit of what's inside
4. Frozen brine shrimp
5. Freeze dried mysis
6. Add Water
7. Stir and shake everything together
8. Leave to air for about 2 hours.
This stuff isn't great for your water, but the livestock LOVES it. Shrimp and crabs go insane over it and literally will jump to the syringe (this is how i got my cleaner shrimp to clean my hand {and my arrow crab [RIP]}), corals and feather dusters seem to like it too, but they don't really move much so its hard to tell. It is kind of just a random assortment of fish foods that I mixed together, but it seems to work just fine, it was the sole food of my feather dusters for a few months.

 

[Hannahll]

Wow! This is very helpful I will reference this if I ever want to make some awesome food!!!

 

[s2nhle]

Great! now I need to find a blender to do this otherwise my wife will not happy. Thanks,

 

[MJC]

 

[Turbo's Aquatics]

Nice!

I would, however, use unroasted seaweed. Also Flounder is one of the fish that is typically very high in contaminants as it lives it's life on the bottom of the ocean floor.

 

[MJC]

Nice!

I would, however, use unroasted seaweed. Also Flounder is one of the fish that is typically very high in contaminants as it lives it's life on the bottom of the ocean floor.

Thanks ill keep that in mind next round

 

[hung52]

My tangs are eating vegetable... Like litteraly any vegetables haha and they are so healthy!

 

[reef123456]

i heard too much protein (shrimp, squid) will cause constipation in the fish. Not sure how true this is. Also, would that be ok if I put green cooked vegetable into the home made food u think?