DIY Food

[Surfside74]

I am currently using Hikari pellets on a autofeeder as well as Rods food. I was thinking of making my own food at home. Couple of questions. Is the cost of it worth it? Is it more expensive then buying lets say Rods food? What are you guys putting in it? Thanks.

Rob

 

[ShepherdReefer]

Great question. We are also looking into making our own food...will be nice to see other comments.

 

[Reef.]

I am currently using Hikari pellets on a autofeeder as well as Rods food. I was thinking of making my own food at home. Couple of questions. Is the cost of it worth it? Is it more expensive then buying lets say Rods food? What are you guys putting in it? Thanks.

Rob

depends if you have access to good fish supplies, Larry’s Reef frenzy has amazing fish in the recipe, I would struggle to just get hold of what goes in that recipe, never mind trying to match the cost.

I would only consider making my own if there was something in the food I didn’t want in the tank, or I lived next door to an amazing fish shop.

like for like I think most people would struggle to do the same for cheaper but making your own recipe with different ingredients can be cheaper, tho I would say would maybe not have such a wide variety of fish.

 

[ichthyogeek]

^^Agreed. I make a standard mix, but also tend to feed just frozen. Since my mix doesn't rely on frozen fish foods (mysis, brine, etc.), and instead on fresh seafood, it depends on pricing of frozen vs. pricing of bulk seafood.

My mix usually involves shrimp (half shell on, half shell off, snap off all rostrums, but sometimes leave heads), squid (remove the pen, ink sack, and beak, use everything else) [no more than 25% by weight], and some form of bivalve (use everything minus the shell). Mince finely, mix, store in fridge for no more than 1 week. I'm still fine tuning it to see what works and what doesn't though. Ideally, I'd toss in shad roe or another small fish' roe post mincing, but since I don't eat seafood, that's....difficult.

 

[ichthyogeek]

Here's what I suggest:

1) Calculate how much you spend on fish food per month on average. So if you buy frozen food once every two months, cut the final price in half, etc.

2) Using Jay Hemdal's 3% rule (fish tend to eat ~3% of body weight/day), calculate how much a seafood mix will cost you.

For the sake of calculations, let's say you want to use shrimp, clam, and squid. You buy them all for an amount of money M, and after cleaning, you end up with X grams shrimp, Y grams clam, and Z grams squid. Assume you have A grams of fish in the tank. The equation you'll use (to calculate costs/month) is:

(.03*A grams food/day) * (30 day/month) * (M money/ (X+Y+Z) grams food)

3) compare results from 1 and 2.

In general, because we (as humans) buy in bulk, it tends to be cheaper to make our own food. You could also add in factors like labor costs, but that's up to you.

 

[Bars]

I made my own DIY food about a month ago. Went to the Asian market for a bunch of squid, oysters, shrimp and nori sheets and added all my leftover frozen food (mysis, krill, fish eggs etc). Dumped everything in the blender. Total cost for the stuff from the market was about $12, I've got about $10 worth of frozen food mixed in as well, so total cost $22. The amount of food that's in my freezer right now will last me at least a year.

It's definitely cheaper than the dry food I used, but even if it wasn't, it's 100% worth it for me. All my fish are so much more active and colorful. They go absolutely nuts for the homemade food. And last but not least, they get a variety of 10+ different foods with every feeding now, compared to the daily 3 different types of dry food and a random cube of frozen food a few times a week.

Only downside for me is the awful smell that almost makes me gag every time I feed

 

[Crevalle]

I'm still in the planning stages of my tank but this is one aspect that has me excited to try out. I'll probably do something along the lines of the BRS DIY video. Being near the ocean in Florida I can get a few things when I go fishing. A couple fillets from a mackerel, bluefish, or jack should work for the fish portion. I already freeze the live shrimp I have leftover from fishing. I would just need to take the tails and shells off. I may catch a few crabs and add their meat. Plus there are oysters everywhere.

 

[Bars]

I'm still in the planning stages of my tank but this is one aspect that has me excited to try out. I'll probably do something along the lines of the BRS DIY video. Being near the ocean in Florida I can get a few things when I go fishing. A couple fillets from a mackerel, bluefish, or jack should work for the fish portion. I already freeze the live shrimp I have leftover from fishing. I would just need to take the tails and shells off. I may catch a few crabs and add their meat. Plus there are oysters everywhere.

Feeding homemade and seeing your fish love it, is very rewarding. With the dry food I just tossed some in, gave a quick look and walked away. Now feeding is my favorite part of the day Especially when someone catches a bigger chunk of squid they all go nuts and slam it on the rocks. Very cool to see.

I didn't remove the shells or tails of my shrimp by the way, just threw them in whole. Same for the squid. Every now and then I see a large piece of shell that wasn't blended properly and doesn't get eaten (or maybe it does by the hermits or snails), but most is. My fish never spit anything out either (unless it's too big).

 

[build_wall]

I recently made my own frozen, but have noticed my fish don't much care for it. This was raw frozen cod/shrimp/scallops from the seafood aisle at the local grocer. Chopped up real fine. I wonder if getting fresher material would make a difference ;Pompus.

On a side note, does anyone see any problem with cutting up a caught freshwater fish? For example going and hooking a bluegill from the local fishing spot and chumming that up? I wonder if there is any undesirable pests or parasites that could be introduced doing this. If there were, would freshwater parasites survive in our tanks? Would probably die after being frozen, but still hesitant of course to throw anything "weird" in the tank.

 

[Crevalle]

Pretty sure WWC uses tilapia which is mainly freshwater.

 

[Reef.]

I recently made my own frozen, but have noticed my fish don't much care for it. This was raw frozen cod/shrimp/scallops from the seafood aisle at the local grocer. Chopped up real fine. I wonder if getting fresher material would make a difference ;Pompus.

On a side note, does anyone see any problem with cutting up a caught freshwater fish? For example going and hooking a bluegill from the local fishing spot and chumming that up? I wonder if there is any undesirable pests or parasites that could be introduced doing this. If there were, would freshwater parasites survive in our tanks? Would probably die after being frozen, but still hesitant of course to throw anything "weird" in the tank.

Are you using raw seafood?

 

[mb5322]

I've been thinking about going to the local baitshop, (I live in south florida, so there are a million) and buying frozen, shrimp, squid, silversides, krill maybe menhaden etc.... like these: Bottom Bait - Baitmasters of South Florida I can make a years worth for under $30, any thoughts?

 

[Dj City]

I made some homemade fish food that is far and beyond anything I could purchase pre made.
It was less expensive, I have waaaaaay more and it's the freshest, healthiest for I could hope for.

This is what I made...

MEATY PROTEIN
Frozen shrimp
Frozen scallops
Frozen mussels
Frozen cod
Frozen tuna
Frozen clams
Frozen silversides
Frozen squid

DRY FOOD
New life spectrum marine pellet food
New life spectrum algae max pellet food
New life spectrum jumbo fish formula
Marineland Bio Blend carnivore diet pellets
Freeze dried mysis shrimp
Freeze dried krill
BRS Reef Chili
Two little fishies sea veggies mixed seaweed flakes
Calanus
Paracoccus
Spirulina

LIQUID FOOD
Selcon
Zoe
Brightwell AminOmega HUFA omega
Brightwell Coral Amino
Kent Garlic

I minced the frozen food in a food processor.
I mixed all my dry food together.
mixed my liquids.
I then added the liquid food to the frozen food then mixed in the dry food.

I put it in large freezer bags and put it in the freezer.
I have 5 large bags of the best food available!

This is great food for fish and corals! The fish and corals absolutely love it!
I have enough to last for more than a year.

 

[build_wall]

Are you using raw seafood?

yes, raw but frozen

 

[build_wall]

I've been thinking about going to the local baitshop, (I live in south florida, so there are a million) and buying frozen, shrimp, squid, silversides, krill maybe menhaden etc.... like these: Bottom Bait - Baitmasters of South Florida I can make a years worth for under $30, any thoughts?

Ah, I think this is the right idea fellow Floridaman. I'll do this next!

 

[mb5322]

Ah, I think this is the right idea fellow Floridaman. I'll do this next!

Haven't done it yet. I've been thinking of it for awhile. For 50$ you could seriously make 2 years worth of food.
I also want to look into menhaden oil for spot feeding corals, wonder if anyone has any input on that.

 

[Dj City]

Haven't done it yet. I've been thinking of it for awhile. For 50$ you could seriously make 2 years worth of food.
I also want to look into menhaden oil for spot feeding corals, wonder if anyone has any input on that

Check my post above.
I have fish and Coral food in my food mix.

 

[Crevalle]

Picked these up for $3 a dozen not going to find fresher and they mainly pretty good sized slow day fishing and had plenty left over