Share in homemade food?
 

Just looking to see if there is any interest in splitting a batch of homemade frozen food? I'm looking to make some food in the near future, next couple of weeks, but there is no way I can use all of it before it will succumb to freezer burn. Would anyone like to share in the costs and the product?

I will be following a recipe akin to Melev's (http://www.melevsreef.com/food.html ) Jnarowe's (on RC) (http://www.mediafire.com/?zhmhymxpljo ), and Cbui's (on RC half way down the page) (http://reefcentral.com/forums/showth...2#post11964662 ). I plan to either freeze the results into cubes, or into sticks.

Photos of the process to follow in my tank journal.

i might be interested. im just going to look at the recipe. the first link is down!

Right now i just use a bastardized mix of mysis brine, and cyclopeese. not sure of what else my fish will like..

I have tried the community reef mixes and my fish dont care for alot of the food (esspecially Plankton).

I have 2 true perks, a pearly jawfish, 2 green chromis, a rusty angel, and a tobbacco bass. 3 types of shrimp and 4-6types of crab if you count different types of hermit.

i would be interested i something that had an algae in it for my sea hare.

What ingredients were you thinking? also what size of Cubes or sticsk as i find the stre bought cubes to be twice the volume that i need.

how much are u figuring it would cost?

Problem with the link is the close bracket is interpreted as part of the URL. Someone with admin privledges might ought to take it upon himself to fix the link .... :p

Anyhow, sure, I'll participate (ie. share in the costs and the "product"). I have the same problem with most of my frozen tanks foods, I can't hardly use it up before it gets freezer burn. A "co-op" approach might work really well. :mrgreen:

PS. Links should be fixed now.

Whomever this sweet person with admin person is, it is very kind of them! :lol:

I'm hoping the total buy in for each person is less then $20. For cubes what I'm looking at right now are shallow cubes, like thin mints, or extra small cubes about the size of skittles, or half the size of the hikari cubes.

I'm looking to fill the food with vitamins, garlic, a variety of meats (although no clam as I don't want to encourage clam eating), nori, and possibly some prepared pellets etc. As for the ratios, I'm not yet sure on them. Although I am open to making three batches with three different ratios of ingredients.

Is there anything anyone would not want, or really would want included in a homemade food? Any size preferences as well?

i like the idea of no clam as i dont have any yet but still looking for a small one that wont out grow my tank.

for the size i would preffer it tou be betwwen a third and a half the size of your average cube.

As far as ingredients go im im on MYSIS, BRINE (would prefer spirinela enriched), and Cyclopeese. i dont know much about vitamins and such but think i would be a good idea.

They only thing as of now i would preffer to leave out off the mix is PLANKTON. the reason being none of my fish likeit and man does it clog a spong filter fast.

the idea of pellets is a good one i think. i have a 5.3 OZ bottle of NLS marine formula 1mm pellet i think would bee a good addition. think the FINICKY version might be worth while. the only fish i have that wont touch them is my Bass. but all my inverts like these pellets.

Do you feed ocean plankton, as in the stuff that looks similar to mysis?

I'll make some ice cube samples tonight and post a photo, at least then I can get an idea of what sizes work. I can also just freeze the food into thin sheets in ziplock bags as well.

I have probably 5 different possible recipes of food, and what I've done is I've made a list of all their ingrediants. Most likely what I will do is made a trip to the asian market, see what is available for seafoods and at what prices. Most likely for me it will be price that decides what will be in the mix.

These are the ingrediants I am seeing;
- mysis
- blood worms
- krill
- squid
- ocean plankton
- enriched rotifers
- spirulina enriched brine shrimp
- cocktail type shrimp
- octopus
- cyclop-eeze
- spirulina (powder, flake, and pellet varieties)
- silversides
- smelt
- nori (green, purple, red/brown, and in flakes, stripes, and shredded)
- phytoplankton (I'm iffy on this because of potential pollution)
- garlic (Kent's garlic extreme, crushed garlic cloves, and liquid garlic)
- scallops
- selcon
- vita-chem
- zoecon

I want to make sure if we choose to use garlic that it includes allicin, the active ingrediant. I also don't know much about selcon, vita-chem, or zoecon. I'm doing my best to research them. Are there better vitamin type products, or something else worth putting in the mix?

Ill jump in on this too only thing is i have severe allergies to blood worms...lol:redface:

You can easily be accomodated. Same goes for the ocean plankton.

I guess the next question would be how much product does everyone expect/want? A single ziplock, two?

ill prolly take 2 zips :biggrin:

I'd be in for some....$20-ish you were saying?

yes the only plankton ive seen is the stuff that looks like mysis.

i am fairly ignorant in the ways ot vitamins ond foods. my only concern is that krill and squid may be too large for my fish.

I'm assuming it will be blended, right?

Yes the food will be blended/chopped/mangled into smaller pieces. As for the approximate cost of $20 per person, the amount will depend on how many people are in for some, and how much I will be making. I probably wouldn't pay more then $30 myself to make this, so I wouldn't expect anyone to pay more then $25 for 2 ziplock bags. I'm going to try and visit the market tonight and get a feeling for some prices here in Calgary, and I will report back.

So if I were to assume everyone wanted 1-2 bags, would that be an acceptable starting point? So no bloodworms, and a preference for no ocean plankton. Anything else?

sounds good to me:biggrin:

I've also seen these listed in people's mixes;
- prawns
- DTs oyster eggs
- Golden pearls (what are these?)
- Amino acids, I saw the zeovit version used.

Does anyone have any foods/vitamins/etc. they want to contribute? Something that they feel may not get used in a timely manner at their place. In exchange I'm sure a discount or something can be arranged.

Golden Pearls is just a brand of frozen food, I'm not sure what it is, oyster eggs or urchin eggs or something like that.

I have oodles of bags of mysis (I cleverly thought I'd order 20 packages in the last group order, and then acquired about 10 more in a trade after that). Even though I feed mysis *every day* I use up a package at a rate of one per 6 weeks or so. So yeah, I've got more mysis then I really need. I can donate some to the cause. :lol:

oyster eggs would be a nice addition. I would be in for 2 bags. Also i like the idea of having them the size of thin chocolate mints or skittles sized balls. the frozen mysis cubes you get at the store are too big for me usual and i have to cut them up for feeding time.

if we want to put any of the pellets in the mix i would be willing to donate a half a jar for the cause.

Also in for 2 bags.

i can go throught my freezer tonight and see what ive got i know i got krill and a few other foods in their :redface:

I think the bulk of everything can be found at the grocery store. Things that need to be bought or ordered from an LFS are the following;

- oyster eggs
- vitamins
- marine sponges (I'm adding this to mine, as I have an angel, I can skip it if no one else is interested)
- cyclop-eeze (I have a fine mesh strainer so I can easily clean these to add them)
- spirulina enriched brine shrimp

The tentative total right now is approximately 8 bags of product.

I have a bunch of nori I can add, in all colors.

i have a rusty angel if will eat it then im all for it. that list did not have mysis on it are you still putting it in ?

Mysis was on the orignal list of possible ingredients. It will be in the mix for sure!

I would take 2 bags maybe even 4 depending on the size of them.

Keith

A bag would be a standard ziplock sandwhich bag.

I'm off to shop for prices.

Hey Catherine I'll take some of that food. They quit making juiced up at aquarium illusions

cool thanks. just wondering if you got the 2 bag order earlier. !!!!!!

this is starting to look like it could be a big order so if you need any help or anything just let me now.

I'm keeping a running list. I hope to have a better idea of the total cost after. I've just finished making up the ice cubes. So now I really am leaving for the store, and when I get back I am going to try and post approximate sizes for the finished frozen product.

I will also post a tentative list of how much everyone wants.

My fish thank you (in advance)!

My local store is useless...at best they offer imitation crab...I will make a trip up north tomorrow to price out everything.

So people in for some;
Phanman - 2 bags
Langdon Reefer - 2 bags
Der_Iron_chef - ?
Dephinius - ?
24Storm - 2 to 4 bags
ElGuappo - 3 bags
Fencer - ?
Me - 2-4 bags

Total of 11-15 bags

I guess we should all finalize what we want in this mix of food, and how much we are buying/contributing/etc. I'm thinking the following;

- Mysis (Tony said he has a bit of an excess)
- Nori (I have some to give)
- Oyster Eggs
- Garlic (crushed)
- Scallops (they seem to offer the most protein per serving size, and are lower in cholesterol then other options, like quid, and shrimp, per USDA database)
- Misc. mix, which I'm hoping to buy
- Marine Sponge
- Vitamins (leaning owards selcon and vita-chem)
- squid (I have a package to contribute)
- Krill
- cylop-eeze
- pellet food?
- Spirulina flakes/powder?
- ocean plankton (I'm going to put some in my mix, but I can edit it out of others)
- enriched rotifers
- spirulina enriched brine shrimp
- cyclop-eeze
- silversides or smelt with heads and tails removed
- phytoplankton (anyone thinking this would cause excess pollution without being of any benefit?)

are the spirinela flacks nessisary with the enriched brine? just thinking it might be one way to cut the cost a little.

Also im thinking i might like to up my order to 3 bags.

I will be donating the spirulina flakes to the cause, I never feed it, and I don't want it to go to waste. :D

cool. i can donate a half stick of cyclop-eeze. if its needed. and as far as the pellets go probably not a good idea by the time they thaw they will be nothing but mush. might be a good thing.

I am late getting in on this but I would take 2 bags if available.

Kevin

I will add you in :D

So people in for some;
Phanman - 2 bags
Langdon Reefer - 2 bags
Der_Iron_chef - 2 bags
Dephinius - ?
24Storm - 2 to 4 bags
ElGuappo - 3 bags
Fencer - ?
Me - 2-4 bags
Zylumn 2 bags

Total of 13-17 bags

I have some cylop-eeze, too. I rarely use it on its own, but I'm sure it would be good in a mix.

Put me down for a couple bags, provided the price is around $20-ish :)

ever try cyclop-eeze by itself? i was late heading out one night and had to drop a frozen chunk in and the fish just destroyed before i could even close the canopy.......:twised:

:biggrin: Thanks

The goal is at least 2 bags for $20. I'm hoping it will be a thicker paste, which will justify the cost. I'm hoping that each bag will contain at least 1.5 times the amount of product that you would get with a hikari-type frozen product.

The list is updated.

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I THOUGHT I WAS THE ONLY ONE!!! Ha!!

(Creepy - you have the same birthday as me)

Sorry, that was totally off topic!!

michika : I think that's a great idea I'm just too far!