From: radharc@karkis.canit.se (Mike Noreen)
Subject: Microparticulate feed recipe.
Date: 30 Oct 95 23:44:16 CET
I prevously mentioned that I had a recipe for a food which could be used
for gut loading artemia or to raise marine fish fry. I got a few requests
for the recipe, so I've decided to post it. As you can see it is very
simplistic, but it is said to work well. I've not used it myself.
This is the simplest recipe. I've got half a dozen other recipes
which are more complex (ie zein coated microparticles, or carrageenan bound
microparticles) and a _lot_ more difficult to make/find the ingredients for
(basically you need lab chemicals and equipment).
EGG CUSTARD (Microparticle food primarily intended to gut load artemia,
but also usable for direct rearing of very small fry):
REAGENTS:
1 Hens egg
10g Milk powder
1g Vitamin premix
10g Fishmeal (or squidmeal)
10ml Water
EQUIPMENT:
Whisk
250ml Glass Beaker
Boiling water bath
Sieve (of desired food size)
1. Whisk one whole hens egg in a 250ml glass beaker.
2. Blend in 10g milk powder, 1g vitamin premix, 10g fish- or squid-meal, and
10ml water.
3. Place beaker in a boiling water bath until mixture is set.
4. Cool mixture and press (or rub) through a sieve to appropriate particle
size.
5. Store at 4 degrees centigrade until required, not longer than 24h.
Note: this mix is guaranteed to cloud your water if you overfeed.
Note#2: the 'vitamin premix' spoken of, is a DIY vitamin mix, which is too
long and arduous to type in, although if someone really really wanted it,
I guess I could type it. I'd however suggest using a standard
mineral-vitamin mix instead (ie ground vitamin pills), as some of these
substances will be very difficult and expensive to obtain pure.
Note#3: One can of course add more stuff to the above recipe. My source, the
Frippak infosheet, uses ie brewers yeast and cod liver oil in the more
advanced recipes.
Note#4: It seems to me that an artemia sieve or nylon stocking would
probably produce acceptably sized microparticles.
Note#5: Frippak, if they're still in business, sells the more advanced
formulated foods packed and ready for use. There's a replacement even for
green water, which, it seems to me, would make culturing Brachionus a lot
easier. Using replacement foods to raise Brachionus isn't economical for
commercial hatcheries, but it might well be to a hobby type breeder.
MVH: Mike Noreen Internet: radharc@karkis.canit.se
FIDONet: 2:201/411.14
From: narten@percival.cs.albany.edu (Thomas Narten)
Subject: Homemade fish food recipes
Date: 23 Feb 1994 13:48:19 GMT
In article <2ke1et$4t0@crcnis1.unl.edu> latenser@unlinfo.unl.edu (Latenser) writes:
> >BTW, I'm feeding them
> >freeze-dried tubifex worms, flake food, frozen brine shrimp, and more
> >recently, home-made paste food.
>
> Recipe? Hint, Hint, Nudge, Nudge.
Here is what I use. I've only been using it 3 weeks, but my fish all
like it just fine. I got the recipe from Steve Shine
(shine@hoqub.att.com). It is based on one described by C.E. Bower in
"The Basic Marine Aquarium", 1983. Here is Steve's description:
Bower's recipe calls for shrimp, fish filet, lots of veggies (parsley,
carrots, spinach, green beans), brewers yeast, baby vitamins, and
gelatin. I recall it being about 50% vegetable matter. In my
opinion, Bower's recipe needs another packet of gelatin; her recipe
just falls apart in my tanks. I've received a couple of private
emails from people who've tried her recipe, some of whom say their
fish aren't really enthusiastic about it. That was my case as well
(although my veggie-loving SW and FW fish did enjoy it). I made
another batch with some large deviations in proportions (less vegs,
more animal matter, same vitamins), and it's a universal success with
both my FW and SW fish. Even my pickier killies like it. If your
fish have never seen paste food, they may need a couple of feedings
before they recognize it as Good Stuff, so don't worry if they act
uninterested on the first pass. Like I said, all my fish love this
stuff.
Bower, C. E., The Basic Marine Aquarium, 1983.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Measurements are from just eyeballing it. This recipe is based upon a
Carol Bower's "Omnivore Diet", found in her book "The Basic Marine
Aquarium".
==========================================
Shine's version of Bower's "Omnivore Diet"
==========================================
5 oz whole shrimp (I did remove the tail fins)
5 oz haddock filet (I use canned tuna in water)
4 oz crab meat
1 Tblspn parsley
1 Tblspn carrot shavings
1 Tblspn spinach
1 Tblspn green peas
1 Tblspn oatmeal cereal
2 teaspns brewers yeast (ever read the composition of this stuff? Wow.)
.5 teaspn Poly-Vi-Sol baby vitamins
2 or 3 dashes paprika
3 drops anise extract
3 packets gelatin (Use Knox, cheap brands don't work as well) [note:
I already upped the quantity of gelatin, so ignore the comments
about using more]
Dump it all (except gelatin) into a bar blender with a couple oz water
and puree it. Dissolve the gelatin in 10 oz boiling water, and slowly
add this into the blender while churning. Let it sit for a minute to
let the air bubbles escape, then pour into zip lock baggies. (If you
want floating food, blend it until you get lots of air bubbles.) I
put enough into the baggies to make a layer about 1 cm think, which is
easy to cut up into long strips with a knife (see last step). Lay the
baggies flat in the fridge to chill for a day to let the gelatin set
up. I make a stack of zip lock baggies separated by small pieces of
plywood to keep the baggies flat. DO NOT put the food directly into
the freezer or the gelatin won't do its job. After a day in the
fridge, move the stack of baggies/plywood into the freezer. After it
freezes, cut it into chunks or slices for feeding and put it back into
the zip locks. The fish sure do like it.
I made a batch of this once using canned tuna (in water, of course), and
I didn't like the consistency. [Note: I used canned tuna and 3 packets
of gelatin and mine came out fine.]
A neat method of getting atin and mine came out fine.]
A neat method of getting all the air bubbles out of the zip lock baggies
when the food is hot is to submerge most of the baggie in a sink full
of water. This forces the air up so you can easily "burp" the bag
to remove the bubbles.
--
Thomas Narten
narten@cs.albany.edu
From: alisa@vkgs.com (Alisa Dean)
Newsgroups: rec.aquaria,alt.aquaria
Subject: Re: What the heck is "infusoria" and where do I get it?
Date: 29 Jun 1995 00:11:04 GMT
In article , kfc@wimsey.com (Ken Cunningham) says:
>
>I've heard that the best food for newly hatched fry is infusoria.
>
>Where do I get/grow/culture this stuff?
"Infusoria" is a generic term for the microscopic and near-microscopic
life found in water. Examples are protozoa, rotifers, etc.
Many newborn fry from egg layers are so small that their mouths
can only fit around microscopic beasties.
How to get some? They are already in your tank. The problem is
that there is probably so few that they could not support a batch
of fry. Therefore, you must cultivate them.
Take a large jar (gallon sized, if possible). Fill with water from
your tank. Add a handful of straw or grass. Put in the sun for a
few days. If you look closely, you'll see the water get cloudy -
that's infusoria growing. If you look _really_ closely, you'll
see little specks moving around.
Use a turkey baster or eyedropper to feed water from your jar near
the batch of fry.
I read somewhere that the water from a vase of flowers is full of
infusoria - however, it usually smells so bad I would hesitate to use
it.
A sponge filter in your tank will also cultivate infusoria. Fry will
pick at it.
You can order specific species of microscopic animals from
biology lab supply houses. I'm sure they'll provide instructions for
cultivation.
Good luck
Alisa
From: mitch@blacksun.stortek.com (Mitch Black)
Subject: Re: Seeking frozen fish food recipe........
Date: Thu, 21 Sep 1995 19:33:47 GMT
SESLINGE (seslinge@aol.com) wrote:
: :anyone offer a recipe, and relate your personal experiences with this
: :method of feeding..
I use a lot of my own homemade frozen food with my two salt tanks and my
one freshwater tank. Martin Moe's book (I think: Marine Aquarium
Handbook - Beginner to Breeder) is what I used as a guideline. Made a
gelatin-based mix (using blender), which I then freeze. The fish go wacky over
it, except for "special needs" fish (like my scooter blennie, who prefers
live food, esp. brine shrimp).
The person who commented on what it costs to make this kind of food, and
implied that the aquarium store prices were justified would not be correct
for at least my area. I purchase all ingredients for around 3 dollars,
and then only use about half, since that makes enough for several months,
which I believe is as long as is fair to expect it to remain somewhat fresh.
Here is an example of what I put in:
scallops (the cheap small ones)
tuna (not from a can, but *fresh*, from your seafood counter)
other white fish, or snapper
shrimp (shelled, cooked or raw)
I buy all these at the seafood counter (in Colorado! ha!, but every store
seems to have one now). I tell the guy (in my case) behind the counter what
I need the food for, and ask for exceedingly *small* portions - I still end
up with about double what I need, so you can eat the rest yourself if you're
handy at cooking seafood :-) Even though the tuna runs $9/lb, I get about
50 to 80 cents worth - plenty. Everything else (that I buy) is cheaper.
The fish seem to like the scallop and shrimp best, and stuff I mix with krill
(see below).
In addition to the above, I always put in:
gelatin
water
some kind of green (spinach, mixed greens, etc.)
The green stuff I put into the boiling gelatin/water to *cook* it, make it
softer and breaks it down a bit.
Finally, I have added other things like some dried krill (my fish love the
taste, but it's too big and dry for them, even if I soak it, so the frozen
and blendered form is *great* to them), or even some other
dried fish food which might have been full of vitamins, but wasn't in a form
that the fish loved (eg. pellets too big/too dry, etc.). I usually make
several "flavors" of food mixes at once. Blend each in the blender for delicious
consistency (and watch the funny faces your SO makes :-), then pour into
old plastic yoghurt containers, and freeze. Grate off the block when ready to use.
Check out the Moe book for measurement details, and *experiment* - that's what
I did, and the fish love it. I feed brine shrimp and/or dry food from time to
time (and if it's "fish appropriate").
Excuse the length of posting.
-Mitch
--
[ EMAIL: Mitch_Black@stortek.com LOCATION: StorageTek - ]
[ Louisville, Colorado, USA ]
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