home made food who uses it?

I got some home made food while at a meeting sat evening and my vics go crazy for it! does anyone else make their fish food and if so recipe?

i do not. i feed all sorts of foods tho from 3 different types of dainich with NLS to three different flakes.

I make my own home made frozen food..... I will have to dig up the recipe... its never the same twice though.

I have made it and used it but found that it fouls the water if not all gets eaten so I stopped.

I give frozen home made food as treat..I do agree it is messy so I feedonly wat the fish will consume.

I feed something called 'Snail-o' for inverts and another similiar substance for my Oto's.

When I was raising discus and they took up 1/2 the tanks, cleaning their tanks everyday and such, did use homemade foods as a primary diet. At that time everyone else was getting some every 3 days so they got some on cleaning day.
Also when I was feeding it, was something I could feed to everyone exception of 3 tanks so for me was economical in the long run and the ex loved grinding up the goodies LOL was win win

I make my own food, and my fish love it. It keeps them conditioned for breeding, I control what goes into it (ie...no fillers, additives, or preservatives), and it is far more economical for those of us who suffer MTS.

No set recipe. Whatever fresh fruits, veggies, and fish I can find cheaply. Grind it into different sized chunks. Mix well. Spread onto a cookie sheet. Freeze. Cut into desired sized cubes.

This works well for feeding all fish types and sizes, to include fry. If you have very small fry, let it thaw and feed the small guys the liquid!

As for fouling the tanks, that part is true. Since I do regular water changes, and have strong filtration on most of my tanks, this is not an issue for me.

I can feed all 28 tanks for 4-5 months for what it would cost me for two weeks of purchased processed foods.

My apologies. Forgot the recipe:

1 4oz jar baby food. (look for ones high in calcium. I usually use squash @ 4%)
1 packet plain knox gelatin (unflavored)
1 tsp calcium powder (repti powder works well. Plain calcium pills will work too)
1 tsp assorted flake foods (optional)

- Empty baby food into a microwave safe bowl and heat on high for 1 minute
- Slowly stir in one packet of knox gelatin
- Add calcium powder. Stir to well mixed
- Fold in flake feed
- Spread onto a small saucer or other object and place in the fridge for a few hours.

After it sets, it will be rubbery. Cut into small squares. Feed some now and refrigerate the rest for later use. It will last a week or so.

* Note * credit goes to another person on another forum. :o)

I never needed to use any gelatin in mine. I add in whole raw head on shrimp and they seem to act as a good glue. Spirulina powder is a must in any home made food along with some raw garlic!
I use mine as a treat or when I run out of made stuff.

I put mine in med freezer bags and squish it flat and break off what I need, just be sure you get it thin enough so it will break easy!

This stuff had whole shell on shrimp, baby food ( peas, sweet potatoes, etc), garlic, baby cereal, and I think paprika? Denny makes this to bring out the color in the cichlids. I only put enough in that they devour very quick not giving it time to sit in the tank.

Fern wrote:

I never needed to use any gelatin in mine. I add in whole raw head on shrimp and they seem to act as a good glue. Spirulina powder is a must in any home made food along with some raw garlic!
I use mine as a treat or when I run out of made stuff.

I put mine in med freezer bags and squish it flat and break off what I need, just be sure you get it thin enough so it will break easy!

I have two home made blend.

One is pure vegetarian for my algae grazing africans with green peas, seed weed, spirulina powder, garlic and I used agar-agar (a kind of seaweed/sponge) for binders.

The other is meaty blend for my carnivores with 4 kids of shimp, raw shrimp, mysis, krill and brine with green peas, garlic, seaweed and again agar-agar for binders.

They love this stuff but since we have pure spirulina powder inthe mix it does cloud the water some.
Like I said they are great food and they'd go gaga over it, I just feed them as treats.

when I do juicing I use the pulp left over to make fish food add some calcium and flake to it so it's different each time.

What is your stock list? That will determine your meat to veggi ratio. I tend to go 25% meat and 75% veggi.
use everything raw. Avoid overly fatty coldwater critters, I personally stick with water critters.

meats I have used;
tilapia fillets
standard grocery store shrimp
blood worms
scallops
brine shrimp

Veggis I have used;
Garlic (intestine health)
zuchini
yellow squash
peas (intestine health)
carrots (good for the yellowish colors)
spirulina (good for the blues)


I don't use krill in mine any more after I had an issue with bloat from a bad pack of krill.....

This sounds cool i will have to try my hand at making some for my livebearers

And you may want your own blender...... Your spouse may not be too happy when they find out what you are putting in the blender

I was told I couldn't make it in the house.

Peas are good for intestine heal?

Fern, I like they way you broke it down for colors and all. Can personalize it for the type of fish you have.

Quote :

And you may want your own blender...... Your spouse may not be too happy when they find out what you are putting in the blender

Lol for sure!

Does putting Shrimp and Carrots together count?

Brine shrimp is also good for the yellow/orange/red color.

Peas are a natural mild laxative and help keep the gut moving and helps prevent any blockage.
Spirulina is like a fishy multivitamin its loaded with all kinds of good stuff!
Garlic is a natural anti parasitic and dewormer as well as an appetite enhancer.