By Anita Reismann - I make about 15kg of food at a time so you can adjust all these ingredients according to how much you want to make for yourself.
Fish Food Ingredients:
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5kg frozen marinara mix
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5kg white fish meat (any type, although no skin and as little sinew as possible)
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3kg frozen mussel meat
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1 whole bunch of fresh spinach (or frozen)
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1kg frozen peas
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125ml cod liver oil
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100gms ascorbic acid
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100gms spirulina powder
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Gelatin - lots of it
Defrost all the frozen items and put all the meat through a whiz until finely blended. Remove the stems from the spinach and par cook the leaves in the micro wave. Cook the peas as well. Combine all these ingredients and all the rest in a large mixing bowl. Mix the gelatin as per instructions on the pack in batches with 500ml of the “goop” (fish mix). It should be a semi runny consistency - this all depends on how much water was in the seafood, so you may have to add a bit more water to the gelatin mix depending on consistency. This 500ml of “goop” fits perfectly into a 16″ x 10″ plastic fish bag when spread flat or can be put into any container of your choosing. Let it set for about 10 mins and then put into freezer for later use. When making this food for your fry, take some fresh “goop” and put into a blender with some extra water until totally smooth and continue on with gelatine as above.
You may want to use Agar Agar instead of gelatine, this is a personal choice. As an interesting aside, gelatine is made from ground up bone and hooves - while agar (the gelling agents are agarose and agaropectin) is made from seaweed. Both are edible.
Alternate Frozen Cichlid Food Recipe
By David Midgley - Prepared frozen foods bought from aquariums are a great source of nutrition for your fishes. However these foods have a single major drawback, price.
I have used homemade frozen fish foods for many years. The fish love it, it is extremely low in cost and judging by the success I have had breeding various species it seems to be good for the fish.
Small ice cube trays are ideal for making small pellets.
I use fresh prawns/squid/various fish/beef heart and a variety of vegetables (squash, peas, nori etc). The most important consideration when making frozen fish food is to consider the species you intend to feed. For most omnivorous cichlids a mixture of 1:1 of animal to vegetable products is advisable. If you are making a mixture for Tropheus or even mbuna which are predominantly herbivorous species you might make the a mixture to the following specifications:
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- 50% zuccini slices
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- 15% peas
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- 15%spinach
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- 20% whole uncooked prawns
The final product is easy to use and very
cheap, around $15 AUD for 3-4 kilos.
It is important to ensure you use the freshest
possible ingredients. I then blend the mixture
in a food processor till it is a thick pulp. I
add a mixture of hot water and gelatin (to bind
the mixture together) until I achieve the right
consistency which is similar to that of thick
lumpy porridge. Pour the mixture into small ice
cube trays and freeze. When it is frozen, empty
the ice cube trays into an air tight container,
keep it in the freezer - and the food is ready
to use.
