What Type of Food Do You Feed Your Tank?

[xandraescape]

Originally Posted by Myka

Oh, sorry, here's my recipe:

White shrimp (shells on) 500 g (this one is tough to find good quality)
Wild Pacific salmon 200 g
New Zealand Green Lipped mussels 200 g
Squid 100 g (can't be more than 10% of total mix) (be careful on the quality of this one too)
Flying Fish Roe (masago) 15 g (you could use Doc's Eco Eggs or Reef Nutrition R.O.E. instead)
Nori (green, dry) 8 g
Florida Aqua Farms Spirulina powder 2 g (a little goes a long way!)
Florida Aqua Farms vitamins 10 g
Wild Salmon Oil 5000 mg
Hawaiian Astaxanthin 600 mg (optional, I've been leaving this out and coating pellets instead)
Florida Aqua Farms Gelatin 50 g

As already said, be careful which products you buy. Generally, the cheap brands are not the good brands! The ingedients on the label should say ONLY the seafood that you are buying. There should be nothing else in the ingredients. CFIA requires all food additives to be on the label.

I thaw out everything in the fridge except the squid. Rinse each meat in RO/DI water then use a food processor to blend each meat ingredient separately and finely, worry about blending it too little rather than too much (tiny pieces are better than large chunks), and add to a large bowl. Keep the large bowl in the fridge while you're processing so the meats don't warm up.

The squid it tricky to process because it is VERY tough. First I thaw it out just enough so I can cut it into 0.5-1" squares or so, then refreeze it just to the point where it was before you cut it - mostly frozen, but not super solid, then blend it in the processor and add it to the bowl. This is something you'll have to get the hang of.

My fish won't eat chunks of nori, so I wet the nori in saltwater, blend it up into paste and add it to the meat mix. Then add all the oil, vitamins, and astaxanthin if you're using it.

Mix everything VERY well.

Use about 50 mL saltwater, heat it up to near boiling, add the gelatin, mix until dissolved. Pour the gelatin water into the meat mix and stir it up really well, QUICKLY. As soon as the gelatin cools it will stiffen up and will make gelatin chunks in the mix if you didn't stir it up fast enough or good enough.

After all is mixed thoroughly I weigh out 4 ounces into sandwich bags, flat them out with a rolling pin while removing the air. Then I put two sandwich bags into a medium freezer bag. They last a few years this way. To feed I break off a chunk, that it in a shot glass in the fridge (dry), and use a small spoon to break it up into pieces (squash it).

I just bought a french fry cutter, and I'm going to experiment with cutting the sheets into squares. I think I will spread the food on a cookie sheet and cover it with plastic wrap then roll it out with a rolling pin (wrap keeps pin clean), freeze it, then cut with french fry cutter. I do think this will make the food much more susceptible to freezer burn, so I'll have to work on packaging - maybe use my vacuum sealer after I lay the pieces out flat or something.

It sounds like a lot of work, but once you get the hang of it it doesn't take long.

Sounds like a good option, but my Clownfish are a bit of a picky eaters.