Fish Foods - DIY Foods, Live Foods, Retail Foods

http://tinyurl.com/Fish-Foods-DIY-Live

This is an article I've been meaning to do for a long time and based on several long answers to the AquaticLife Yahoo Group, I decided to post the Q & A's here as the basis for this article.

-----Original Message-----

From: AquaticLife@yahoogroups.com
On Behalf Of Noura
Sent: Saturday, January 30, 2010 4:07 AM
To: AquaticLife@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [AquaticLife] Fish Foods

Hi,

I have a variety of fish foods, and a variety of fish! Now the delimma if figure out what to feed to whom, and how many times aweek. Your help is needed here.

Fish speices in the community tanks:
Tank1 : I feed these ONCE aday: Angels, Tetra, Zebra Danio, CAE, and 2 guest Clown Loaches soon to go back to their loving owner ( about 3 weeks from now).
Tank2: I feed these 2-3 times aday: Betta, small corydoras, and guppy fry (not so 'fry' anymore).

Foods:
Blood worms (freezedried), whole Shrimp (freezedried), sinking sardine pellets, Tubifex cubes(freezedried), Flake food (Ingredients: High class fish meal, plant astaxanthin, animal proteins, soya meal, cereals, fish oil, multi vitamins and trace element), floating granules that I don't know what they contain exactly but they're supposed to be high quality and for all tropical fish, Green Peas (frozen fresh). I occasionally throw finely chopped letuce, but with no mollies around there isn't huge enthusiasm about this treat.

There are no FROZEN fish foods here, neither live foods, only freeze dried. You see I have been buying all sorts of foods except for those addressing a single species (like cichlids, goldfish, etc..) thinking that it would be better to feed my fish varient foods.

I have a feeling that I'm too crowded with protein rich foods, and don't know how often should I use them. I'm also considering making my own homemade vegetable rich fish food, but don't know how much gelatin do I need.. have bulk powdered gelatin and I don't want to keep trying different amounts and throwing spoiled fish meals in the trash.

Any advice?

Noura

My first reply:

RE: [AquaticLife] Fish Foods

Fry get 4-5 small feedings a day. Juvis get 3-4 feedings a day. I feed my adult fish twice a day, occasionally once a day or even skipping an entire day but most of the time, twice a day. If you have all stages of fish in a single tank, then you have to feed the fry five times a day and depending on how much the larger fish are going after the fry food, you may have to just feed enough so the fry get their fair share and just consider these feedings as the juvi and adult fishes normal feedings and do not feed them any other foods the rest of the day. You could also try feeding the adults first so they are not as hungry when you feed the fry for two of their meals so the fry are at least getting a better chance at food for two meals.

You should consider growing some of your own live foods since you don't have those options... I know... as if you don't have enough to do already! :-P

http://fish.mongabay.com/food.htm (top area lists common live foods for fish and further down lists some DIY micro foods for feeding your fry)

http://www.thekrib.com/Food/worms.html (info on culturing your own worms)

These next three articles have links to culturing most other live foods.

http://www.sydneycichlid.com/live-food.htm

http://www.aquaticcommunity.com/fishfood/

http://www.algone.com/livefood.php

How to Hatch Brine Shrimp

Here are some DIY Gel Food Recipes. Stick to the recipes as some other fruits and veggies will cause the gelatin to NOT gel as Amber and I have recently learned. LOL

http://www.plantgeek.net/article_viewer.php?id=18

http://www.thekrib.com/Food/paste.html

http://www.sydneycichlid.com/cichlid-food-frozen.htm

http://www.kokosgoldfish.com/GelFood.html

http://www.cichlid-forum.com/articles/food_recipes.php

http://www.aquariumlife.net/projects/diy-fish-food/112.asp

http://dataguru.org/misc/aquarium/Food.html

Medicated and DIY Medicated Foods:

http://thegab.org/Articles/MedicatedFood.html

http://thegab.org/Articles/MedicatedGelFood.html

Here's some articles that someone else recently posted about using unflavored gelatin and also some foods that will mess up Jello but these are mostly fruits but I'm sure some veggies do the same thing.

http://www.baking911.com/howto/gelatin.htm

htmhttp://chemistry.about.com/od/foodcookingchemistry/a/foods-that-ruin-jell-o.htm

Other fresh foods that can be used are things like green pea *meat* (pinch the skin and let the two halves fall into the water), sliced and blanching Zucchini, cucumber, broccoli florets, etc. I've seen posts of folks feeding their goldfish all sorts of fruits and veggies and many other omnivores and herbivores and I'm sure some carnivores would also like these types of foods.

Lenny Vasbinder
Fish Blog - http://GoldLenny.blogspot.com

Noura's reply:

Re: [AquaticLife] Fish Foods

Thanks Lenny, these are tons of practical information.

The big tank contains mostly juvis, with one exception : Tetras

The guppy tank contains juvis and some fry, only one adult Betta.

If I'm feeding one tank 18 meals/ week, how many of these should consist of Veggies, Protein-rich frozen foods, and Flakes (which I mentioned their ingredients earlier)??

Noura

My Reply:

RE: [AquaticLife] Fish Foods

That depends on the fish and whether they are carnivores, omnivores, herbivores or limnivores. On the Mongabay page about foods, further down on that page, it gives a breakdown on percentages of protein, etc.

You should probably find/make a decent food with 30-40% protein base and then feed protein snacks (worms, etc.) to your carnivorous fish (Betta for example) and fruit/veggie snacks to your omnivorous/herbivorous fish. If you don't know the primary suggested diets of each of your fish, look at the Mongabay profiles on each species and it will tell you.

Lenny Vasbinder
Fish Blog - http://GoldLenny.blogspot.com

In another recent thread talking about processed foods, here are some select Q's & A's:

-----Original Message-----

From: AquaticLife@yahoogroups.com

On Behalf Of Deenerz@...
Sent: Sunday, January 24, 2010 3:51 PM
To: AquaticLife@yahoogroups.com
Subject: Re: [AquaticLife] Re: Foods my Fish Like

Kai,

All of my fish devour New Life Spectrum. I buy it five pounds at a time to get the best price and a cool little fish bucket ;)

My bettas love it. I gave some to a friend that was running out of "Betta food" and she sad her betta went nuts over the NLS.

I have two mortar and pestles and grind the pellets into powder for fry or small fish and it is a hit.

Every time I think I want to try a different or less expensive brand I end up going back to NLS.

I do not own stock in NLS or know Pablo Teepoot, just like the results from the food.

-Mike

And My Reply:

RE: [AquaticLife] Re: Foods my Fish Like

Looking at the ingredients for NLS, it looks like they're pretty darned good too! Just watch out for NLS fed fish that smack other fish on the forehead and say... "Should have had a V-8!"

http://nlsfishfood.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=12&Itemid=60

New Life Spectrum® food is made with high-quality easily digestible South Antarctic Krill, Herring, Squid, and New Zealand Mussel protein, and several all-natural color-enhancing ingredients for a balanced diet that boosts immune system function and enhances the full spectrum of your fish’s color. With the belief that all fish require a complete and fully balanced varied diet, New Life also contains Algae Meal, that consists of Seaweed, Kelp, and Haematococcus pluvialis (a micro algae), a premium grade of natural Spirulina, as well as a fruit & vegetable extract that consists of Spinach, Red & Green Cabbage, Peas, Broccoli, Red Pepper, Zucchini, Tomato, Kiwi, Apricot, Pear, Mango, Apple, Papaya, and Peach.

All New Life Spectrum® products also contain a generous inclusion rate of Garlic (Allium Sativum) with the Thera-A formulas containing a mega-dose of this natural anti-parasitic ingredient.

All ingredients used are almost identical, since we cannot find anything better than what we are using. However, the crude analysis will be different due to the percentage of ingredients incorporated into a specific formula.

Typical Ingredients: Whole Antarctic Krill Meal, Whole Herring Meal, Wheat Flour, Whole Squid Meal, Algae Meal, Soybean Isolate, Beta Carotene, Spirulina, Garlic, Vegetable and Fruit Extract (Spinach, Broccoli, Red Pepper, Zucchini, Tomato, Pea, Red and Green Cabbage, Apple, Apricot, Mango, Kiwi, Papaya, Peach, Pear), (various vitamins, etc.)
(END SNIP)

Lenny Vasbinder

Then several questions came up about store bought processed foods, and my reply:

RE: [AquaticLife] Re: Foods my Fish Like

I find that most Tetra and many other store-bought processed foods is that they have WAY TOO MUCH AND MANY fillers added to them. Look at the ingredients of your fish foods. If they start off with various flours/glutens/meals (except fish meal is OK since that just means
ground up fish stuff) as their first few ingredients, they aren't the best things for your fish since fish don't really eat a whole lot of corn, wheat, etc. in their natural diets.

Although they aren't cheap foods, I like the OmegaSea.net foods http://www.omegasea.net/products.html, labeled Omega One, but there are other quality foods that are similar with their limited use of fillers.

Here's the ingredients for Omega One Natural Protein Formula "Freshwater Flakes" food for Tropical Fish:

INGREDIENTS: Whole Salmon, Halibut, Black Cod, Whole Herring , Whole Shrimp, Whole Krill, Wheat Flour, Wheat Gluten, Fresh Kelp, (then all the vitamins, etc.)

And for Goldfish Flakes:

INGREDIENTS: Whole Salmon, Black Cod, Seafood Mix (Including Rockfish, & Shrimp), Wheat Flour, Wheat Gluten, Fresh Kelp, (then all the vitamins, etc.)

As you see, "Wheat Flour" and "Wheat Gluten" are not listed until 7th and 8th ingredients on the tropical food and the 4th and 5th ingredients on the goldfish food, meaning they are no where near being primary ingredients.

Compare this to the ingredients on most other non-premium and even some premium fish foods and you'll see the flours, glutens and meals listed as the primary ingredients.

Even what I thought was a premium fish food a while back... Hagen's Nutrafin Max Goldfish Flake Food, has some of the same fillers as the el-cheapo fish foods:

INGREDIENTS: Fish Meal (which is OK), Corn Flour, Wheat Flour, P.D.P. (means Pre-Digested Plankton), Soy Flour, Oat Meal, Squid Meal, Fish Liver Meal, Wheat Gluten Meal, Squid Liver Meal, Fish Oil, Dried Yeast, Shrimp Meal, Laver Aquatic Plant, Krill, Wheat Germ Meal, (then all the vitamins, etc.)

As you can see... A BIG DIFFERENCE with the Omega One obviously being a much better food, IMO.

Lenny Vasbinder