Diy Fish Food

[ahenson]

Does anyone make their own frozen fish food? I been thinking of buying a bunch of seafood and giving it a shot. Does anyone know where to buy nori in Champaign? Where is the place to get the seafood? Meijer? If anyone has a recipe please post it.
I've been feeding a lot lately and the fish seem to like it. My corals look good as well.
Thanks
Andy

[Vitaly]

Andy,

I have actually been meaning to put a post up about this myself. Regarding the Nori/Seeweed, check-out:

Am-Ko Oriental Foods (I know for a fact that they carry it)
101 E Springfield Av
Champaign, IL 61820
Phone - (217) 398-2922

Green Onion
2020 S Neil St
Champaign, IL 61820
Phone - (217) 359-5370

Obviously the pet stores; such as Sailfin carry it too.

Now how about seeing those recipes.

[FloatingFish]

Try this its a place to start.


http://home.comcast.net/~76fxe/food.htm

[syrinx]

Gotta buy it at amko- or any asian market- it is higher quality and half the price. Heck I didn`t even sell it at my shop it was such the better deal at amko. We used to make a pea mixture for our angels as well as other reef fish. Basically we would get a cherry stone clam, a few prawns and whatever else looked interesting- blend it with frozen peas to the consistancy needed for fish type- add vitamins(and I guess people like garlic nowdays). There were some that would add a bit of knox gelatin( as per directions in water), but I seldom did. We always froze it flat in a ziplock quart bag, soas you could bust it off. The only prob was if you got too fine of a mix it would be wastful in feeding of the fish- would get too small in particulate after mouthing. But this is an advantage where there are corals involved.

[ahenson]

I bought some Nori at Schnucks tonight. It was 2.59 for an ounce, compared to 5.99 at the pet stores. I expected it to be cheaper but that's not bad.
Last week I tried brocoli, carrots, flake, 2 kinds of pellets, some flake food and some tuna. I think the tuna was a mistake. Fish didn't go crazy for it but the eventually ate it. I just blended it all together. I'm going to keep trying till I get it right.
Should I get my wife a food processor for Christmas?
She'd see right through me.

[Horace]

Ive been told that NO red fish should be used, and Tuna definitely is red.

[Vitaly]

Out of curiousity...why no red meat fish. Do you recall why...or could you refer me to a source/site?

I imagine the redness is from myoglobin in the tissue...and I would not have thought that would be detrimental.

[Michelle L]

This same topic just came up in this forum:

http://www.bnarc.com/modules.php?nam...iewtopic&t=340

[Vitaly]

MichelleL,

Thanks for the link, but there did not seem to be any discussion regarding the red flesh fish issue.

I have been searching online myself, but cannot find anything relevant or suggestive of why it would be deleterious to use. I have found several interesting articles that describe biochemical and microbial differences to white fleshed and red fleshed fish. However, after reading them, I would argue that there is no releveance with respect to aquaria feeding.




If anyone is curious, these are the articles that I found:

Study of the histamine production in a red flesh fish (Sardina pilchardus) and a white flesh fish (Dicentrarchus punctatus)
Turkish Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences 6: 43-48 (2006)
M.A. Afilal, H. Daoudi, S. Jdaini, A. Asehraou, A. Bouali


Distribution of cathepsins in red and white muscles among fish species.
Fisheries Science, Volume 66 Issue 4 Page 776 - August 2000
Takahiko Aoki, Tsuyoshi Yama****a and Ryuji Ueno


Pigmentation of the rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) with oil-extracted astaxanthin from the langostilla (Pleuroncodes planipes).
Arch Latinoam Nutr. 1997 Sep;47(3):237-41.
Hinostroza GC, Huberman A, de la Lanza G, Monroy-Ruiz J.


High activities of cathepsins B, D, H, and L in the white muscle of chum salmon in spawning migration.
Comp Biochem Physiol B. 1990;95(1):149-52.
Yama****a M, Konagaya S.

[Michelle L]

Oh, no, it doesn't--sorry about the confusion, I should have quoted the OP. I linked to the thread so that the original poster could get an example of DIY food.

[syrinx]

I never put fish into any of my mixes- always shellfish and squid and whatnot. No real reason. I used legumes for the enzymes and protein component as well as vitamins. I avoid things of the cabbage family (broch) due to the elevated phosphorpus and oxalics that bind with calcium rendering it more indigestable. I would imagine they would also be worse for water chemistry- but that wasn`t the reason for the choices. Garage sales are the place for food processors! (I`ll see if I have one out in the garage, the wife seems to collect small appliances from garage sales like I collect guitars)!

[BradL.]

Here is a recipe from one of the best.
Shrimp, scallop, oyster, clam, Squid, octopus, enriched brine, krill, mysis, grouper, Red Plankton, broccoli, carrots, colliflower, Red Nori, green nori, selco, garlic, Golden pearlsTM (all sizes) DTs oyster eggsTM, nutra rose powder, fresh rotifers, fresh baby brine.

[webbstock]

Out of curiousity...why no red meat fish

Hey vitaly, I'm wondering if the no red meat thing has to do with the high level of oils and fats found in those fishes' flesh. Maybe all that oil will nasty up the tank. Just a guess.

[ahenson]

Does anyone know the best place to buy seafood in Champaign?

[syrinx]

I used to get it at the old farm shop great american seafood company. There is a cigar shop next doow so its a win win! Thats only a couple blocks from your old tank!

[Michelle L]

Does anyone know of a recipe for DIY veggie based food for tangs, foxface, etc? I know peas, broccoli, etc. works, but what else could I use?

[GreenBay1]

I asked one of the Biology instructors at the college I work at and he said no red fish, because of the ease that mercury and lead can be stored in the tissue. He also said that the read fish tissue can contain high levels of toxins, such as PCB's and pesticides that we do not want to add to our fish's diets. I will try to get some of his documented works on this topic.

[Michelle L]

I feed my dog an all-raw meat diet, and I have read that same information on the forums dedicated to this method of feeding. For dogs, most fish is acceptable but what should be avoided are trout from certain regions due to the fact that they will have higher levels of undesireable elements.

I would think that this is most likely why red meat fish should be avoided for our salty fishy friends.

[dcombs44]

There used to be a great recipe stickied on one of the coral forums. You may PM one of the mods to see if they can get it to you.

[Vitaly]

I do not think that either Mercury or PCB's would be "Red Fish" specific. The phenomenon is known as "bioaccumulation."

A worm consumes contaminated organic matter. -> Small fishes eats many worms. -> Large fish eats many small fishes. -> Man eats many large fishes.

Over a lifetime, the PCB concentration in our tissues would continue to increase as we eat more and more contaminated fish. This phenomenon would occur in either "white" or "red" fleshed fish. In fact most of the presentations I have seen involved research on trout populations; which tend to be a light pink fleshed fish.

I would argue the same to be true with Mercury. So if you are a white flesh fish or a red flesh fish, and you are feeding on invertabrates/insects, in a PCB/Mercury polluted waters...then there will be detectable amounts of either compound in the flesh.

I have seen no data documenting health effects in fish populations (though it may be out there)...but imagine that there is not enough bioaccumulation to cause any effects.

So I would think that rather than avoid red flesh fish...the argument should be to avoid using the larger, predatory fish or any species of fish that are long lived and thus more likely to have higher loads to PCB's/mercury/etc in their tissues.

[dcombs44]

Found the recipe

http://archive.reefcentral.com/forum...hreadid=176530

[Michelle L]

I don't think anyone is stating whether the theory is correct or not, just where the idea that red fish flesh should not be used may have originated....

[Vitaly]

MichelleL,

Actually there are some that argue that PCB's are not toxic in humans...though the data from my colleagues lab seems to be quite obvious that there is.

However, I am just trying to understand why red flesh fish cannot be used? The matter/question that I attemped to raise in my previous post was whether the toxicity of PCBs/mercury/lead/etc would be valid if those compounds accumulate in both white flesh fish and drak flesh fish?

I guess I never outgrew the "why" stage of my life. So why is red fleshed fish inappropriate to use in DIY fish food?

webbstock...pulled up a few articles about your suggestion and their does seem to be a general correlation between "fish oil" and flesh color.

[ahenson]

Well I made my food tonight. I had a good time doing it. I found a huge international store in Indianapolis.
Here's what I used (bought)
1/2lb shrimp
1/2lb eel too tough I didn't use it
1/2lb octopuss I used about a third of this
5 clams, 3 oysters
1/2 lb squid
1lb white fish
frozen bag of fish roe
3 types of dried seaweed, one looked likespice size, the other two bags were spirals
1 bar of cyclopeeze
5 eggs, garlic oil, 5 baby carrots
golden pearls about what would fit in a 12oz pop can
and all the flake and pellet food I had laying around.
It made 8 or 9 gallon size ziplock flats layered pretty thin.
Some of this I had already but today the fish, seaweed and cyclopeeze were $40
I fedd a little as we were making it and they seemed more aggresive going after it and all the fish fed which is unusual. Usually each fish has a preferred food.
Thanks for the help and advice
Andy

[Vitaly]

Andy,

Regarding the eggs...did you just crack them and then throw them into the slurry...or were they hardboiled first?

Why did you use eggs in your mix?

Thanks!