Ultimate Guide to Making Your Own Tasty Fish Food

[tayhonglee]

hey guys,

i made a fresh new batch of fish food today. here's a picture guide to how i did it. its actually very simple, but require about half an hour to 45 mins to whip it up.

to prevent any misunderstanding, let me just say from the start that im not selling the fish food. its for my own use. also, if anyone has any advise or pictures to add, please feel free to do so. any tips or ideas are very much appreciated.

First, the ingredients

1) Prawn, shelled, about size of 2 can drinks

[tayhonglee]

here's a separate batch of prawns.

they're separate because i took the pictures at different times. some of the pictures are from my last batch of fish food. i usually buy whatever is the cheapest at the supermarket. no way my fishes are going to snack on better stuff than me

[tayhonglee]

2) sotong. please remove the filmy cartilage thing also.

[tayhonglee]

3) all time favorite, nori

please add more if you have lots of tangs.

[tayhonglee]

4) fish eggs. they take a little more effort to prepare, but well worth the effort. very nutritious and drives my fishes crazy. and cheap...

[tayhonglee]

here's how i prepare it.

first, cut the li'l bugger right down the middle

[tayhonglee]

then, scrap the eggs off the egg sac. gently. the egg sac is very tough, and not good at all for mixing with fish food.

[klim]

More Please

[tayhonglee]

ta-daa!

a word of warning to the wise. please do not smell the eggs. nor taste them.

i did both, and you can prolly guess what happened.

[tayhonglee]

5) next ingredient, fish fillet

note: i usually don't add so much fish meat, but it was on offer at sheng shiong (vely cheap oh), so i figured what my fishes don't know can hurt them.

[tayhonglee]

there you go. this is what they look like. lovely....

[tayhonglee]

ingredient no. 6 and no. 7! cyclopeeze and golden pearls.

add them if you have 'em on hand. its not that important. i normally dump in half a can of cyclopeeze and a small bottle of golden pearls. good for corals and filter feeders and small fishes. plus they smell awesome.

[tayhonglee]

next step is to blend the shrimps. a few seconds of my turbo charged china made blender is enough to chop them up nicely.

blend the fish fillet very well. there're usually quite a lot of tendons (?), which really messes up the fish food righteously.

cut the nori into small pieces with a pair of scissors too. cut when dry. wet nori is like steel wool. very tough and mean.

[tayhonglee]

mix them up nicely in a big bowl, put them into plastic bags, flatten the bags, and dump them in the freezer. every time you want to feed, just break off a small piece.

that's about it.

i usually add clams and crab meat too, but i couldn't find any in sheng shiong this time around (which is why i bought the fish fillet).

as the fish food is really very nutritious, i really don't recommend feeding very much the first couple of weeks until your tank is used to the bioload. better safe than sorry. nowadays i feed about 1 inch cube a day.

[uws]

Bro, what a guide.

How much is the nori pack selling at Sheng Siong?

BTW, can show a pix of your fishes eating this home-made food?

[tayhonglee]

Bro, what a guide.

How much is the nori pack selling at Sheng Siong?

BTW, can show a pix of your fishes eating this home-made food?

sure thing bro, i will take some pics tonight during dinner.

i can't remember the price of the nori. its very cheap, something like $2 or $3 per packet. buy the dried unflavored ones. there are different colors, but i don't know the significance

[borinz]

wah looks like very potent frozen cyclopeeze

[tayhonglee]

oh yeah, i forgot to mention that i used to add mysis and brine shrimp. but i stopped after i realised that there's no way frozen brine shimp and mysis have more nutrition than this stuff. i also added garlic juice to one of my past few batches, but it didn't make much of a difference either (although i wouldn't rule out adding some if my fishes had ich).

**summary**

1. shrimp (shelled)

2. sotong (remove the cartilage and skin, blend thoroughly)

3. fish fillet (blend VERY thoroughly)

4. nori / seaweed (cut up into small pieces when DRY)

5. fish eggs / roe (without the sac, disgusting yet fascinating)

6. clam (quick blend will do)

7. oysters (if you are rich)

8. sea urchin (decapsulated, add only if you are really really really really fussy or mildly ######)

9. mysis and brine shrimp (make sure to drain the stinky liquid first)

10. cyclopeeze

11. golden pearls, phyto, etc

12. garlic juice

Mix and match! and finally, the ultimate secret ingredient!

Lots and Lots of TLC......awww....

that, and a really powerful skimmer, like my amazingly efficient and hardworking aqua c (i love you baby!)

BONUS PIC!!

i saw this singaporean car masquerading as a malaysian car along tanjong pagar not one week ago. some people really know no limits. shameless slut....tsk

[tayhonglee]

ok, a little update. a little but sad update. this batch of fish food is a failure.

the fishes still go crazy over the food, and corals seem to like it (judging by the reaction in Borinz's tank), but there's a whole bunch of fish fillet tendons in the mixture. fishes apparently do not like to eat tendon, so everytime i feed, i have to separate the tendons first, which, in my opinion, is really too much of a trouble.

sorry guys, i added too much fish fillet this time around.

therefore, (this may come as a surprise) lesson learned is: DO NOT ADD TOO MUCH FISH FILLET.

everything else is a'okay

[Thexder]

Instead of fish fillet you can try white bait, which you can get from supermarts. No tendons in those

[kareen]

For all the prawns, do consider to add in those "flesh" from the prawn head rather than to discard them.....

Also, I frozed the mixture in cubes form using those frozen mysis shrimp/brine shrimp package....

[tayhonglee]

kareen, whats in the prawn head? i know i love to chutchut the yellow goo in the head when i eat prawns, but i have no idea what it is. tasty, but somehow a little sinful.

putting the mixture in used mysis packaging is a super good idea. i think i will try it the next time.

on a separate note, anyone knows how to make the food float? a couple of my previous batches float very well, so its very easy to feed. i just dump them frozen into the water and the fishes peck at it relentlessly until they get some love.

maybe blending the mixture for a longer time will introduce more air bubbles, which of course in turn will make the food more bouyant. i don't know...its just a guess.

also, any here interested in sharing some food with me the next time i make some? maybe another 2 reefers? im pretty sure borinz would wana share (although i have to ask him first), so that would make four of us. we'll split the cost right down the middle, no extras for transport and time and effort or all that crap. but you will have to come and pick it up from my place (near boon keng mrt). im seriously thinking of doing another batch, coz this one has too much tendons.

[tayhonglee]

new batch o' food.

looks a 100% better this time around.

list of ingredients:

1. prawns

2. cuttlefish

3. sotong

4. see hum

5. fish roe

6. nori

7. golden pearl

8. cyclopeeze

[tayhonglee]

after i mixed them up. confirm no tendons this time around, coz i did not add any fish meat.