For those of you who make your own food, do you find it cheaper than nls and other manufactured foods? What recipes do you use? Any input is appreciated.
Frontosa food
- Thread starter savannah_az
- Start date
I feed adults, almost exclusively, frozen mysis and plankton.
I do sometimes make my own food for fry. The European shrimp mix is the basis of it. I mod it for my own purposes. I use agar as the gelatin. Frozen mysis, plankton and uncooked shrimp get mixed in too. The main reason for this jello mix is to get spirulina powder in my fry.
I make my own food. but I have yet to make food for my fronts yet, but i do have a recipe. It is definitely cheaper for larger fish, not for smaller fish. Unless your frontosa are extremely large (around 6+ inches) there is no need to make your own pellets. Its a fun project but an overall waste of time.
My future frontosa recipe (similar to my current Arowana recipe)
here are my directions. first fill up the blender with the proteins. fill it to the brim sparingly.
Tilapia
Bluefish
Searobin
swai
fish organs (from the caught searobins and bluefish)
Shrimp
squid
normally it'll be a random mixture of the above. (organs, squid and tilapia is always present) Organs are a great source of nutrients that SHOULD be in a fish's diet. i do take out the guts though. That can cause the mixture to taste bad. Squid is a double edged sword. Squid does contain thiaminase, but when cooked the levels of thiaminase does reduce. BUT squid is a MUST with frontosa pellets, it works as a great sinking agent. Without it, the pellets tend to float. As you know, floating pellet and frontosa isnt a good equation.
after you blended it all up into a slop, the level of fish paste should have lowered in the blender. Next i add my supplements.
I take daily vitamin pills (centrum mens+) and just pound them into powder and mix it in. (you can buy the fish vitamins from seachem... but i like to save money lol) I use about 5 pills.
I add garlic and my coloring agents. Spirulina, axanth, and/or betacarotine. The coloring agents are not necessary but i have some sitting in my freezer taking up space. Garlic is for taste and a very weak antiparasite guard.
I remix (by hand) then blend it again to ensure the powders mix properly and ensure there arent any random large chunks of flesh.
Next take your mixture and put it into a mixing bowl. Add a starch. Flour, oat flour, corn meal, whatever you want. I choose plain unbleached flour. Its cheap, and its a simple carbohydrate. Simple Carbohydrates are the easiest to digest in a human body, so i took the same logic and use that as my preference.
The mixture should be 3/4 fish slop to 1/4 Carbohydrates. for sinking pellets use less flour. 4/5 Fish slop to 1/5 Carbohydrates.
mix it well. after put mixture in ziplock bag and cut a corner. and make long strips of the paste.
Bake at low temperature. i bake mine for about 45 -60 minutes at 300 degrees. and cut to size. make sure your pellets are dry. this ensure quality and prevents molding. Then freeze what you dont use. There are no preservatives in this mixture, so you MUST freeze what you dont use.
My average cost is about 14-20$ for a 1 gallon container of large pellets (WITHOUT the coloring agents).
lmk if you need other info. i have done tons of mixtures.
IF you want to make your food extra fatty (which isnt advised...) i do add a few hard boiled egg yolks to the mixture... helps my fish grow really fast BUT its not suggested for african fish.. they get bloat and health issues waaaaaaay too easily.