This topic is about a simple tutorial to help the ones who need a nice and nutritive low cost food, fast and easy to do, that can be easily accepted for your fish, even the ones that arent pellet trained yet. I will try to discuss here why doing it this way and why choosing some ingredients rather than others.
Ingredients:
View attachment 985072
1- Gelatin without flavour and colour. (this will be the agglutinative, its just proteins which are very well degraded by the digestive system of a carnivore fish different of any flour used in pellets)
2- Fish fillet (I advice you to choose the one they are used to it at start, but after theyre used to your ownfood you should move to saltwater fish since they have a more wide range of minerals and sometimes more omega fat, which is important for fish reproductive metabolism)
3- Frozen artemia or whole shrimp.
4- Pellets
5- Vitamin C
I choose the fish rather than the whole fish because it has lots of low quality materials that would make the moisture less nutritive, like bones, cartilage and scales. The lack of nutrients for structures like bones and cartilages can be found in the crustaceans shells of artemia and the whole shrimp.
You may ask yourself why using pellets to make pellets, and theres a simple answer: I couldnt find a cheap source of dried spirulina/chlorella or any microalgae yet. The spirulina countains a wide range of important vitamins for fish and its easily assimilated by them. I think it alone would take the place of the pellets giving enough vitamins. Remember to dont use a lot of spirulina because its reported to make ''Spirulina Spots'' in african cichlids and the Cichla digestive system isnt prepared to proccess great amounts of vegetal matter.
I choose to add vitamin C because in the boiling a lot of vitamins would be lost, and one of the most sensitive is the C vitamin. Tt plays lots of roles in fish metabolism. It affects growth and reproduction and also prevent diseases.
How to do:
Cut the fish in smaller pieces, and add the ingredients in the blender.
View attachment 985077
You should add some water to make it easier to blend (Blending it is a pretty tough). But remember, no more than 100 mL or you will be screwing the moisture and giving water for your fish. To make it easier to blend you can also defrost the ingredients before using.
View attachment 985078View attachment 985079
The moisture should look like this, its very consistent.
View attachment 985080View attachment 985083
Follow the instructions of your gelatin and add the mix everything. Let it boil to make water evaporate a bit.
View attachment 985084
After a small time boiling it will look like this, and you will put it to rest. Here if you have added much water it will appear, you can try to take it away, but the better was not adding much water.
When its not hot anymore, you add the vitamins you choose to use. Im using 200 mg of vitamin C in solution/KG of food, which is enough and safe.
If you arent doing the moisture with pellets, you should add the spirulina powder in this point to make sure the temperature wont damage the vitamins.
View attachment 985086
Put the mix in a ice tray and rest it in the freezer.
View attachment 985087View attachment 985088
The final product is as mass of food. You can cut it in any shape you want to offer for your fish.
Remember before throwing it in the tank to warm it and clean it in a recipient with water to make it easier to eat.
The weak point is because you always need to save it on the freezer, because its a gelatin.
Testing:
I dont need a better proof to show its working. My fish loves it, theyre showing nice colors are healthy and really fat.
[video=youtube;kTWC7Qdkb4A]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kTWC7Qdkb4A&feature=youtu.be[/video]
Ingredients:
View attachment 985072
1- Gelatin without flavour and colour. (this will be the agglutinative, its just proteins which are very well degraded by the digestive system of a carnivore fish different of any flour used in pellets)
2- Fish fillet (I advice you to choose the one they are used to it at start, but after theyre used to your ownfood you should move to saltwater fish since they have a more wide range of minerals and sometimes more omega fat, which is important for fish reproductive metabolism)
3- Frozen artemia or whole shrimp.
4- Pellets
5- Vitamin C
I choose the fish rather than the whole fish because it has lots of low quality materials that would make the moisture less nutritive, like bones, cartilage and scales. The lack of nutrients for structures like bones and cartilages can be found in the crustaceans shells of artemia and the whole shrimp.
You may ask yourself why using pellets to make pellets, and theres a simple answer: I couldnt find a cheap source of dried spirulina/chlorella or any microalgae yet. The spirulina countains a wide range of important vitamins for fish and its easily assimilated by them. I think it alone would take the place of the pellets giving enough vitamins. Remember to dont use a lot of spirulina because its reported to make ''Spirulina Spots'' in african cichlids and the Cichla digestive system isnt prepared to proccess great amounts of vegetal matter.
I choose to add vitamin C because in the boiling a lot of vitamins would be lost, and one of the most sensitive is the C vitamin. Tt plays lots of roles in fish metabolism. It affects growth and reproduction and also prevent diseases.
How to do:
Cut the fish in smaller pieces, and add the ingredients in the blender.
View attachment 985077
You should add some water to make it easier to blend (Blending it is a pretty tough). But remember, no more than 100 mL or you will be screwing the moisture and giving water for your fish. To make it easier to blend you can also defrost the ingredients before using.
View attachment 985078View attachment 985079
The moisture should look like this, its very consistent.
View attachment 985080View attachment 985083
Follow the instructions of your gelatin and add the mix everything. Let it boil to make water evaporate a bit.
View attachment 985084
After a small time boiling it will look like this, and you will put it to rest. Here if you have added much water it will appear, you can try to take it away, but the better was not adding much water.
When its not hot anymore, you add the vitamins you choose to use. Im using 200 mg of vitamin C in solution/KG of food, which is enough and safe.
If you arent doing the moisture with pellets, you should add the spirulina powder in this point to make sure the temperature wont damage the vitamins.
View attachment 985086
Put the mix in a ice tray and rest it in the freezer.
View attachment 985087View attachment 985088
The final product is as mass of food. You can cut it in any shape you want to offer for your fish.
Remember before throwing it in the tank to warm it and clean it in a recipient with water to make it easier to eat.
The weak point is because you always need to save it on the freezer, because its a gelatin.
Testing:
I dont need a better proof to show its working. My fish loves it, theyre showing nice colors are healthy and really fat.
[video=youtube;kTWC7Qdkb4A]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kTWC7Qdkb4A&feature=youtu.be[/video]
BTW nice thread bro