Homemade food

[Lizzy]

Hi I was wondering if people might be able to suggest to me different types of veges and meat that my fish might like to eat. I already feed my bristlenoses cucumber and peas with the skin off. I also give them egg yolk occasionally. I have a community tank with the usual kinds of fish! Thanks

[Caryl]

They say bristlenoses like zuchini too but mine wouldn't touch the stuff. Just as well as cucumbers are lots cheaper!

I thread cucumber rings onto a knitting needle weighted down with a fishing sinker so it sits on the bottom. Others just let the rings float. Which method do you use?

My bristlenoses just get cucumber and peas too, along with dried fish food (fed to the other inhabitants) and sinking pellets for bottom dwellers.

Blanched lettuce is another option. Get a lettuce leaf, drop it into boiling water for a few seconds, then add it to the tank. I gather it has to be blanched to break down the cellulose for ease of digestion.

[Lizzy]

I just weight down the cucumber with those lead weights that you normally use to weigh your plants down with. I saw in a book that you can feed fish potato, do you think that it would be raw or cooked potato?

I also feed my fish a mixture of flakes, spirilina disks, frozen bloodworms and frozen brineshrimp if I can afford it. Also i feed them misquito larvae if I have been near a beach. Homemade food interests me tho.

[Derek]

Generally vegetables should be fed raw. Cooking destroys some of the nutritional content, especially vitamins. The main reason for cooking vegetables is to make them sink. Blanching is a compromise which allows veges to sink without destroying too many vitamins, etc. Although there are differing opinions on the usefulness of blanching.

Different foods for different species (and as Caryl has alluded to) sometimes even different individuals. I have just put zuchini in a tank for some bristlenose fry and now I can hardly see the zuchini for the swarms of fry all over it. Almost all veges could be tried, carrot, potato, pumpkin, yams, broccoli, cabbage leaves, etc. The one exception is iceberg lettuce, apparently it contains an acid that binds iron in the liver.

I have also noted that the bristlenose most commonly available in NZ (Ancistrus lineolatus) also likes a little bit of meat based foods in it's diet. The largest male I have ever had grew up in a tank with some Discus and was always first on the scene at feeding time when I fed my homemade beefheart mix.

[Ira]

I don't know about the bristlenoses, but my cichlids seem to like chicken. I just take a little chunk whenever I have some and tear it into small enough pieces for them, so if you've got something bigger than tetras in there you could try that. I suppose even tetras might like chicken but it might be a bit tedious to make it small enough for them.

Lettuce would be good for the bristlenoses, I thought, never heard anything about it being bad for them, always heard it was good.

[Warren]

I use the following:

2.5kg Beef Heart (all fat and membrane removed - takes ages to prepare)

1.0kg Raw Shrimp or Prawn - no shells

1.0hg Fish

0.5kg Liver (all membrane removed)

5 Bananas

3 Pears

1kg Peas (very lightly cooked)

4 Carrots (very lightly cooked)

750g Gluten Flour

Optional: Flake food, Tetra Bits (or similar), Crumble (make water cloudy though).

Puree all ingredients (except the flour or dry items). Mix very thoroughly then add the gluten flour (and other dry ingredients if used) to bind it. Leave for 6 hours in the fridge for the flour to react (and turn into glue). Spread on a tray to approx 6-8mm thick. Add plastic and next layer. Keep layering until all used up. The sides may need some support if the mix is too thin.

This food is suitable for nearly all omnivorous fish. Fish that exclusively feed on vegetable matter do not do so well on this diet alone.

It lasts about 3 months (I've got lots of fish). The recepie can be scaled to make as much or as little as you like.

Disclaimer:

I use this food with excellent success. I got the recepie from freinds who also use it with the same results. This does not guarantee you will get the same result however.

[Ira]

Hmmm, that sounds pretty interesting. Sounds like a pain in the ass to prepare though. Do you just break a chunk off for each tank and toss it in, or what?

[Warren]

Oops, forgot that bit. Once food is frozen, separate each layer and chop it up into suitably sized squares. Put the squares into bags and back into the freezer.

It does take about 4 hours to prepare the food, but you go and buy this much premade frozen food and see what it costs!

[Ira]

All the meat is raw, I assume?

I might try making up a tiny batch, only problem is that you can't buy liver and beef heart in small bits, and I don't want to have to buy a kilo just to use 1/10th of it. No way I'm going to eat the leftover liver!

[Lizzy]

yeah...liver is yucky! :-?

[Warren]

Yip, meat is all raw.

Why don't you ask your butcher for a small amount. I've never had trouble getting them to cut either hearts or liver into a smaller bit.

I usually buy hearts at 5kg a time. You only get about 50% max once all the fat, membrane and sinue is removed.

[Caryl]

Of course you can buy liver and beef heart in smaller bits. Go to a butcher and ask for the exact amount you require and they will cut it for you.

I am one of the "Yuck liver!" brigade too but Grant loves it. Needless to say, if he wants it, he has to prepare and cook it himself!

[Derek]

Great recipe Warren, much more complete than the one I used to prepare.

Puree all ingredients (except the flour or dry items). Mix very thoroughly then add the gluten flour (and other dry ingredients if used) to bind it. Leave for 6 hours in the fridge for the flour to react (and turn into glue)....

wish I had known this trick years ago, I kept on using gelatin which wasn't much good as it breaks down in the freezer and melts at higher "discus" temperatures.

Add plastic and next layer. Keep layering until all used up. The sides may need some support if the mix is too thin.

Try putting the mix inside a plastic bag and then flatten to required thickness. No worry then about the mix oozing out the sides.

[cees]

yeah...liver is yucky! :-?

Nooo, it's nice, esp chicken liver and fettucine in a nice creamy sauce .... yummy

[ajbroome]

Cees said...

> it's nice, esp chicken liver ...

I don't eat liver (or kidneys) for essentially the same reason

I don't eat most shellfish.

Their job is to be a filter, retaining all the nasties that they can

and excreting nice clean water. Then you eat them...

Bleeech. ;-)

Andrew.

[Ira]

Hehe, Yeah, it's basically like eating your filter media.

How do you feed it to them, Warren? Break off a chunk of it frozen and toss it into the tank? Sounds like it would make a bit of a mess unless it was swallowed before it had time to melt and disintegrate.

[Warren]

Nope, thats the beauty of this food, it does not cloud the water at all. The gluten flour completely binds everything and stops the couldiness.

As previously mentioned, it is cut up into squares and stored frozen in bags in the freezer. The lumps stay whole even after they have thawed in the tank. The fish don't seem to care if it is still frozen, but I usually wait until it is just starting to soften before feeding it.

[Ira]

Ok, I've got just about everything for it. Couldn't find any gluten flour though. Will regular flour do? And got Ox heart instead of beef, close enough I think. I'm only doing about 1/5th of the recipe and it looks like it's going to make mountains of food. Hope I can fit it in one of our freezers.

[Caryl]

If gluten flour isn't with the rest of the flours, have a look in the healthfood section.

[Ira]

Pak&save doesn't have a very big health food section. So, regular flour won't work? I'm in the middle of making it right now. Should I leave out the flour until tomorrow and see if I can find the flour at a health food store tomorrow to finish it?

[Caryl]

Can't help you sorry Ira. I hoped Warren may have seen your question by now and answer, since it was his recipe.

I assume he specified gluten flour for a reason and don't know what would happen if you substituted plain flour.

All I can tell you is that gluten flour has the starch and bran removed and a higher protein content than plain flour but what affect this has on your recipe I can't say.

Gluten makes me think of better binding of ingredients but I may just be fooled by the 'glu' at the beginning

[Warren]

Hi Ira,

Might be a bit late, but I'd use Gluten flour. Caryl is right, its in the Healthfood section, or sometimes hidden in amoungst the baking needs section, but almost never in the Flour Section.

I've never tried normal flour so can't comment.

[Caryl]

Here's your chance to experiment and report back Ira

[Julie]

Hint when making up the food, "Don't" use a bar mix type blender.

I did over at my friends house and what a mess, had to clean all the walls etc of liver etc, not a nice job and made even harder as I could not stop laughing. :lol:

How stupid could I be, must have been in one of my blonde phases

I give all my fish blanched marrow, the young bristles eat a 1 cm round per day, also broccoli stalks. the apple sanils love it.

With a very large marrow at about $1.00 in season the is most worth while blanching them and free flow freezing them.

[Ira]

Next time you post that recipe, better put a warning in it. That is the most HORRIBLE smelling stuff I've ever put in a blender, got the wifey pretty annoyed with me. Cats went nuts over it though, they really wanted some. I'm definitely not experimenting, cause if it doesn't work I don't want to have to go through it AGAIN soon, YUCK! I'll run to a health foods place in upper hutt and check there, if they don't have gluten flour, then I might try the normal flour.