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•  Planning a good homemade recipe - input please!

  Change Page: < 12345 > | Showing page 2 of 5, messages 21 to 40 of 89 - powered by ASPPlayground.NET Forum Trial Version Author Message Umm_fish? Total Posts : 2835 Scores: 10 Reward points : 953 Joined: 11/4/2009 Location: Boulder, CO, US Status: offline MBI: 775 Pnts MBI Site: Marine Aquarium Society of Colorado Re:Planning a good homemade recipe - input please! Sunday, February 19, 2012 12:29 PM (permalink) 0 By the way, if you can't get them to eat larger pieces of algae, try mixing some spirulina powder into your food. --Andy, the bucket man. "Not to know the mandolin is to argue oneself unknown...." --Clara Lanza, 1886   #21 EasterEggs Total Posts : 1946 Scores: 19 Reward points : 735 Joined: 9/22/2011 Location: Saskatoon, SK, CA Status: offline MBI: 590 Pnts MBI Site: Marine Breeding Initiative (MBI) Re:Planning a good homemade recipe - input please! Sunday, February 19, 2012 1:31 PM (permalink) 0 Ohhh, thanks for reminding me Andy.  I have to get some spirulina powder.  I plan to powderize the nori.   Originally Posted by Umm_fish? I'm not a fan of gelatin at all. My fish are much pickier about any food with gelatin in it, including ignoring it and letting it rot on the bottom. If your fish are picky eaters, you might try a round of food without it and see how you like it.   The last, current batch of food I made I did not add enough gelatin, and thus it is really messy.  I have half a mind to throw the last of it out.  The batch before I had lots of gelatin (maybe too much).  My fish actually preferred that batch to the current one.  If I completely liquify the food and bind it with gelatin they will still eat it, they are actually less picky about it, and devour it better.  Maybe because it is one "flavor" then?  Go figure!   Thinking about that, I have half a mind to liquify the next batch then I suppose.  Hmm...I'm going to do that to a small portion and try it out again.   #22 KathyL Total Posts : 2639 Scores: 13 Reward points : 1504 Joined: 6/6/2010 Location: St. Louis, MO, US Status: offline MBI: 1605 Pnts MBI Site: Marine Aquarium Societies of North America Re:Planning a good homemade recipe - input please! Sunday, February 19, 2012 2:45 PM (permalink) 0 OMG, 5 gallons…you must have a large freezer.   I decided to try this recipe because it resembled other recipes and I was guided by some things I read on the Florida Aqua Farms site.  This recipe makes a convenient amount of food to store in my tiny freezer.  The cubes are easy to cut, so I can feed a quarter cube to my fish if I want, or defrost one or two cubes to feed a crowd.      This is what I did last time: I bought a bag of mixed frozen seafood at the Asian grocery store , $6 I bought gelatin and cod fillet at the usual grocery store, kelp at the health foods store, and I already had freeze dried spirulina fish food by Ocean Nutrition that I used in place of spirulina. Kelp and Naturose were the most expensive ingredients, but I have enough to make more food next time.   I waited until the family was going to be out of the house, on a day when I could open the windows, and use the automatic dishwasher.   I rinsed out the food processor to make sure there was no residual soap in there, and attached the fine grating attachment.  Then I grated the following frozen items picked from the mixed seafood bag: 18 grams shrimp 17 grams mussells and or clams 20 grams squid 20 grams scallops and 30 grams cod fillet, previously frozen from the grocery store, and put this mixture back in the freezer.   I heated about 1/2 cup non-chlorinated water to boiling in the microwave, and dissolved a packet of gelatin.  This took some stirring and reheating to accomplish. When it had cooled to approximately 37C,  I mixed in the 4 grams spirulina food, 2 grams dried kelp 5 grams naturose and it formed a dry-ish paste. Then I mixed this with the frozen grated food in a plastic freezer bag, kneading it in the bag until it looked uniform. I sprayed some squares of egg crate with Pam, set them on small sheets of plastic, and mashed the food into the squares with a spatula and my fingers.  The food in its egg crate was slipped into ziplock freezer bags, and frozen.   This food pops off the egg crate with ease, and my fish seem to love it.  I would like to give this food credit for my newest spawning pair, but I think I am feeding more often and more reliably now that I am unemployed.  It does give my orange clownfish great color, and its true that fish who had stopped spawning because I cleaned their tank, resumed while this diet was available to them.   When I make it again, I want to try doubling the gelatin/water quantities to see if I get a more cohesive mixture. Right now the stuff falls apart when it hits the water and thaws. The size of the particles is very small, so I may try grating half of the frozen mixed seafood on the fine grater, and use the next size bigger for the rest of the food.     #23 EasterEggs Total Posts : 1946 Scores: 19 Reward points : 735 Joined: 9/22/2011 Location: Saskatoon, SK, CA Status: offline MBI: 590 Pnts MBI Site: Marine Breeding Initiative (MBI) Re:Planning a good homemade recipe - input please! Sunday, February 19, 2012 9:57 PM (permalink) 0 Thanks for all the info Kathy!  Sounds a lot like my recipe.  I didn't think of adding Naturose to it though, it seems to dissolve and dye the food red.  You find it works ok with the frozen food rather than top dressing some pellets?  I'm having that same problem with my last batch not sticking together - not enough gelatin.  Plus my fish hate the spinach I put in the last batch.  The fish in my reef tank get fed a lot less, and they like the spinach no problem.  Haha.   Today I bought a manual meat grinder for $30 off the used classifieds.  I'm going to try it out tomorrow maybe to make sure the bites are small enough.  If not I could order a smaller plate for it.  I think I will get more uniform bites with the grinder.   #24 KathyL Total Posts : 2639 Scores: 13 Reward points : 1504 Joined: 6/6/2010 Location: St. Louis, MO, US Status: offline MBI: 1605 Pnts MBI Site: Marine Aquarium Societies of North America Re:Planning a good homemade recipe - input please! Monday, February 20, 2012 7:43 AM (permalink) 0 A meat grinder! Interesting.  Let us know how it goes.   Adding Naturose to the frozen food seems to stick well enough to give the fish that glowing orange color.  I don't top dress the pellets I feed my brood stock, but I could.  I do topdress the pellets I feed my growing fish, at least until my present stocks run out, then I'll order Reeds TDO.  I've had problems with my stocks of Naturose going south before I could use it, so I think if I order TDO more frequently from Reed, I can have top quality Naturose all the time.     #25 EasterEggs Total Posts : 1946 Scores: 19 Reward points : 735 Joined: 9/22/2011 Location: Saskatoon, SK, CA Status: offline MBI: 590 Pnts MBI Site: Marine Breeding Initiative (MBI) Re:Planning a good homemade recipe - input please! Monday, February 20, 2012 5:28 PM (permalink) 0 Well, here it is...   Scallops Wild Pacific Salmon New Zealand Mussels White Shrimp Pollock Squid Nori   Total weight was 1100 grams I added two packs (dissolved in 1 cup of saltwater) of Knox plain gelatin.  I added 11 grams Florida Aqua Farms vitamin mix.  It's in the fridge right now for 2 hours, and then I will move it to the freezer overnight.  I will report whether I used enough gelatin or not (I hope so). This batch is pretty heavy on the nori (a little goes a long way oops haha).  This time I put the nori through on its own, next time I will put the nori through a bit at a time along with the food so I don't overdo it like this time.  I actually added about 50% more (than shown in photo below) of the salmon, scallops, pollock, and mussels to try to dilute the nori a bit.  Haha.   I forgot to add a few cloves of garlic...dangit.    This is what it looked like before grinding (1/5 of that bag of nori was used):   I soaked the nori in saltwater for a few seconds before putting it through the grinder:   The hole size on the grinder:   I smeared some on the cutting board to show bite size:   #26 Fishtal Total Posts : 5467 Scores: 37 Reward points : 2908 Joined: 8/31/2006 Location: Waterford, MI, US Status: offline MBI: 585 Pnts MBI Site: MarineLife Aquarium Society of Michigan Re:Planning a good homemade recipe - input please! Monday, February 20, 2012 5:38 PM (permalink) 0 Looked yummy before you ground it up. http://www.fishtalpropagations.com/#!home/mainPage "Making captive breeding easier."   #27 KathyL Total Posts : 2639 Scores: 13 Reward points : 1504 Joined: 6/6/2010 Location: St. Louis, MO, US Status: offline MBI: 1605 Pnts MBI Site: Marine Aquarium Societies of North America Re:Planning a good homemade recipe - input please! Tuesday, February 21, 2012 6:32 AM (permalink) 0 It does look good! You made 10 times the amount of food that I did, but used only 2 times the amount of gelatin.  Please let us know how well it holds together.  I wonder if the larger sized pieces will do better with the lower amount of gelatin.   #28 EasterEggs Total Posts : 1946 Scores: 19 Reward points : 735 Joined: 9/22/2011 Location: Saskatoon, SK, CA Status: offline MBI: 590 Pnts MBI Site: Marine Breeding Initiative (MBI) Re:Planning a good homemade recipe - input please! Tuesday, February 21, 2012 7:23 AM (permalink) 0 I did not use enough gelatin.    The meaty parts hold together quite well actually, but the nori goes flying off everywhere.  Kathy, the bites are actually fairly small because I put it through the grinder a second time (after I took the photo of the bite size).   The packets say that each packet will hold together 2 cups of fluid.  I estimated I had 4 cups of food, so I used 2 packets (all I had actually).  I did this last time too now that I think of it, and it wasn't enough then either...ha duh.   #29 Umm_fish? Total Posts : 2835 Scores: 10 Reward points : 953 Joined: 11/4/2009 Location: Boulder, CO, US Status: offline MBI: 775 Pnts MBI Site: Marine Aquarium Society of Colorado Re:Planning a good homemade recipe - input please! Tuesday, February 21, 2012 9:18 AM (permalink) 0 So, are you thawing it before feeding? I don't do that. My fish are all trained to gnaw at the broken-off frozen food cubes. That keeps mine together long enough that fish get it in before it breaks apart. --Andy, the bucket man. "Not to know the mandolin is to argue oneself unknown...." --Clara Lanza, 1886   #30 KathyL Total Posts : 2639 Scores: 13 Reward points : 1504 Joined: 6/6/2010 Location: St. Louis, MO, US Status: offline MBI: 1605 Pnts MBI Site: Marine Aquarium Societies of North America Re:Planning a good homemade recipe - input please! Tuesday, February 21, 2012 10:06 AM (permalink) 0 My filefish eat a quarter cube of it that way.  I drop the frozen bit in the tank, and they attack it until its gone.  I thaw a cube or two and feed the rest of the 14 pairs of brood stock.   #31 EasterEggs Total Posts : 1946 Scores: 19 Reward points : 735 Joined: 9/22/2011 Location: Saskatoon, SK, CA Status: offline MBI: 590 Pnts MBI Site: Marine Breeding Initiative (MBI) Re:Planning a good homemade recipe - input please! Tuesday, February 21, 2012 11:26 AM (permalink) 0 Hmm, I feed it thawed, and use a spoon to feed a little glob at a time.  Most of my fish prefer to eat from the surface, or close to the surface.  I'm thinking maybe if it is still frozen it will float?  That would be good.  I have a couple days' worth thawed right now, I will try it frozen in a couple days.  Thanks for the advice.   #32 GreshamH Total Posts : 757 Scores: 16 Reward points : 600 Joined: 4/27/2011 Location: SF Bay Area, CA Status: offline MBI: 0 Pnts MBI Site: Marine Breeding Initiative (MBI) Re:Planning a good homemade recipe - input please! Tuesday, February 21, 2012 5:35 PM (permalink) 0 Originally Posted by KathyL A meat grinder! Interesting.  Let us know how it goes. Adding Naturose to the frozen food seems to stick well enough to give the fish that glowing orange color.  I don't top dress the pellets I feed my brood stock, but I could.  I do topdress the pellets I feed my growing fish, at least until my present stocks run out, then I'll order Reeds TDO.  I've had problems with my stocks of Naturose going south before I could use it, so I think if I order TDO more frequently from Reed, I can have top quality Naturose all the time.   We do not use Nutrarose® as they do not sell it into our market anymore   We have our own source of Haematococcus.  What comes in (Nutrarose) is batches that do not meet the human grade standard and is sold to Asia (Singapore distributor) from what we've been told.  I guess some US people either import it, use human grade ($$$) or have an in with them that we don't.  Then again, we need batches of ~100kg.   FWIW it doesn't last long with any moisture, oxygen or temps above freezing so store it well.  If you need to store it, get both oxygen and moisture scavengers and add them to you air tight container.  If using a Mylar bag or zip lock, the seal is not O2 proof and it will degrade the product.  Heat sealing an all Mylar (with silver) bag (not clear, that is not 02 proof) is your best bet.  Keeping it out of light, with no moisture & oxygen in a freezer is the best way for people to keep it.   #33 EasterEggs Total Posts : 1946 Scores: 19 Reward points : 735 Joined: 9/22/2011 Location: Saskatoon, SK, CA Status: offline MBI: 590 Pnts MBI Site: Marine Breeding Initiative (MBI) Re:Planning a good homemade recipe - input please! Tuesday, February 21, 2012 8:39 PM (permalink) 5 Hmm, my Naturose is in the fridge door in the clear container it came in.  Dangit.   #34 aomont Total Posts : 774 Scores: 0 Reward points : 1003 Joined: 2/12/2011 Location: Rio de Janeiro, RJ, BR Status: offline MBI: 5 Pnts MBI Site: Marine Breeding Initiative (MBI) Re:Planning a good homemade recipe - input please! Sunday, May 6, 2012 7:57 AM (permalink) 0 Hey Kathy and Mindy, are you still preparing the home-made food ? Any change in those recipe (specially the gelatin part) ? Anderson.   #35 EasterEggs Total Posts : 1946 Scores: 19 Reward points : 735 Joined: 9/22/2011 Location: Saskatoon, SK, CA Status: offline MBI: 590 Pnts MBI Site: Marine Breeding Initiative (MBI) Re:Planning a good homemade recipe - input please! Sunday, May 6, 2012 9:21 AM (permalink) 0 I am almost out of food, and will be preparing a new batch.  I'm going to take a look at Kathy's gelatin amounts and go from there.  I'm using way too little.   #36 KathyL Total Posts : 2639 Scores: 13 Reward points : 1504 Joined: 6/6/2010 Location: St. Louis, MO, US Status: offline MBI: 1605 Pnts MBI Site: Marine Aquarium Societies of North America Re:Planning a good homemade recipe - input please! Sunday, May 6, 2012 1:09 PM (permalink) 0 I've been in a quandary about a pair of clownfish I have.  The female becomes visibly gravid, but the nests are countably small, like 2-6 eggs each time.  I consulted Joe Lichtenbert about this and he suggested adding fish eggs to their diet, as well as krill.  I prepared the following frozen mash, fed it to them, along with Nutramar Ova, separately, and they spawned a nest of about 50 or so eggs this time!  Thanks, Joe! Basically, this mash is the same as last time, but without scallops because I was out of them, and with krill meal that I bought from Florida Aqua Farms.  I also bought gelatin from them and spiralina  powder, and I'm using it instead of the Spirulina food (Ocean Nutrition) that I used last time.  Spirulina is supposed to interfere with gelatin gelling, so I added it last.  Next time I may just mix it in, because I'm not sure this notion about gell inhibition is correct, or maybe I'll do a real experiment.   All weights approximate: 18.6 g gelatin in 1/2 cup RO type water, boiled (microwave).  If you are using RO, add a pinch of salt before you attempt to boil it, then sprinkle gelatin on top after it has boiled. Set it aside while you fix everything else, and mix well just before using.   Mixed in bowl:   5 g kelp powder 12 g naturose 12 g krill meal   grated in food processor: 10 g shrimp 20 g mussels, clamms 30g squid 140 g fish(cod)   Mix everything together in a bowl, then add   9 g spirulina powder, added last.   The FAF gelatin dissolved without a struggle when sprinkled on top of the hot water. The gel was pretty good, I think. It also smelled better than Knox unflavored gelatin. I made cubes as before, and one flat frozen pack as well.  My fish seem to enjoy it, and I think the added spirulina is good for my angel fish.         #37 aomont Total Posts : 774 Scores: 0 Reward points : 1003 Joined: 2/12/2011 Location: Rio de Janeiro, RJ, BR Status: offline MBI: 5 Pnts MBI Site: Marine Breeding Initiative (MBI) Re:Planning a good homemade recipe - input please! Monday, May 14, 2012 8:00 AM (permalink) 0 I've prepared 500g of food this weekend. Equal parts of squid, salmon, shrimp, clams and fish roe. I wasn't able to cut the squid in small enough bits as I did with the other ingredients so I put everything but the roe in the blender. Added two cloves of garlic and two sheats of nori (blended as well). I dissolved ~30g of unflavored gelatin (I wish it was odouress too) in half a cup of water and added it to the mix. At the end, added the roe and put it in the fridge.   It became a good paste but not really firm (a bit of the roe still floats in the water after I add it to the tanks) but it looks and smells more yummy than the last one and the fishes are crazy about it so I may have done something right. Maybe I'll add more gelatin in the future (2 packs = 50g), I have to ask the fishes first. They will eat this paste + artemia (frozen adults and fresh nauplii) + mysis + TDO. Anderson.   #38 EasterEggs Total Posts : 1946 Scores: 19 Reward points : 735 Joined: 9/22/2011 Location: Saskatoon, SK, CA Status: offline MBI: 590 Pnts MBI Site: Marine Breeding Initiative (MBI) Re:Planning a good homemade recipe - input please! Monday, May 14, 2012 5:37 PM (permalink) 0 Well done Anderson, sounds like maybe you needed more gelatin.  One of us will figure out the right amount eventually!  LOL.  My fish also love, love, love the food!   #39 EasterEggs Total Posts : 1946 Scores: 19 Reward points : 735 Joined: 9/22/2011 Location: Saskatoon, SK, CA Status: offline MBI: 590 Pnts MBI Site: Marine Breeding Initiative (MBI) Re:Planning a good homemade recipe - input please! Sunday, May 27, 2012 12:50 PM (permalink) 0 Today's recipe was the same as last time mostly, fairly equals parts of:   Scallops Wild Pacific Salmon New Zealand Mussels White Shrimp Pollock Whole baby squid (about 1/4 of a part) Nori (5 sheets 6x1.5")   I put the squid through first thinking everything else would push things through, but all it did was clog up the meat grinder...ugh.  Hence, the food this time is minced very, very finely.  Next time I will chop it by hand, it's just too rubbery and tough.   This mixture weighed 812g, so I added 8.12g FAF Vitamin Mix.  This time I also added 3 ounces Selcon, 0.5mL Kent Garlic Extract, and 8g Naturose (it's fairly old).   Looking at Kathy's use of gelatin, I made what I think is about the same ratio of gelatin.  I used 1 gram of FAF Gelatin for every 30g of food, so I used 27g gelatin.  I mixed this with 1/2 cup of saltwater I microwaved until boiling.  I stirred this very well until it cooled a bit, then poured it in.  The Naturose immediately dissolved and the mixture is now bright red!  Next time, I will try mixing the gelatin mix in first, then add the Naturose as the very last ingredient.  I took a little glob and put it in the fridge to cool, once cooled I checked consistency and it was very gelatinous, so I bagged it all up and it's in the freezer now.   I fed the fish some of the scrapings from the bowl, and some of the fish were scared of the bright red food.  LOL.  I'm sure they'll get over it.  My reef fish (who aren't fed much and thus always hungry) ate it up viciously.   Fwiw, Knox gelatin stinks something awful and FAF gelatin doesn't stink. <message edited by EasterEggs on Sunday, May 27, 2012 4:02 PM>   #40 Online Bookmarks Sharing: Facebook Digg Google del.icio.us StumbleUpon Change Page: < 12345 > | Showing page 2 of 5, messages 21 to 40 of 89 - powered by ASPPlayground.NET Forum Trial Version

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