Feeding questions - diy frozen food?

[Carissa]

After doing some reading I think it would be a good idea for me to make up a frozen food to feed my fish, especially since commercially prepared frozen/live foods are not readily available to me so I'm stuck with stuff like flake unless I do a diy food. I have a clownfish and a lawnmower blenny right now that I just got, and I already posted in the clowns forum about the fish not eating so I won't go into that issue here, but I'm also concerned that the blenny won't get enough food since I don't have a large amount of algae in the tank. He is picking at invisible stuff on the rocks but how long that will sustain him I don't know. So anyway I guess my question is, what would be a good overall food that would be nutritious, that I can make just from basic ingredients at the grocery store (no pet store items other than flake or your very basic dried foods, my options are limited) and that can be frozen for ease of use? And is there anything in particular I can get that the blenny might pick at so I don't have to be paranoid that he's not getting enough food?

[spleify]

Well IMO, DIY homemade frozen foods are awesome. I will start by suggesting you find as much fresh food as you can like in the seafood market at better grocery stores. Some of the frozen stuff has a lot of extra additives that I just don't feel comfortable with.

Here is what is in mine;
-from the seafood dept at a grocery store-
Salmon
Scallops
Halibut
Shrimp
Oysters
Mussels
Squid
Clams

-already frozen prepaired food-

Brine shrimp
Mysis
Silversides
Blood worms
Formula 1
Formula 2
Prime reef

-dry foods-
Formula 1 pellets
Formula 1 flakes
Formula 2 pellets
Formula 2 flakes
Prime reef flakes
Brine shrimp flakes
Marine complete pellets
Marine grow flakes
Jullian Sprungs aglae
3 different types of spirulina red, green, brown

I also add;
Phytoplankton
Garlic
Vitachem

Throw all of this in the food processor and blend away, try not to make it into mush, just blend it enough to get all small pieces. Very small, but not mush.
I then take a couple large cookie sheets, I cut a piece of egg crate, cut it to fit into the cookie sheet, then spread out the food and press into all of the squares on the egg crate. Throw it all in the freezer, then the next day take it out, press out all the new "cubes" and put then in bags of 20, and keep them in the freezer.

My fish seem to love it and they eat everything.

HTH

Good luck

Spleify

[E.intheC]

that's a great post, spleify. Especially about the eggcrate idea. I have always 'struggled' with finding a way to easily make small squares.
One thing I would like to add though, from personal experience is to make sure not to add any water to the frozen mixture. When I was first blending I thought it'd be a good idea to help 'blend' the mixture together, but it ends up freezing weird and causing ice crystals, among other negative side effects.

As for food, you should try to find a quality flake or pellet like new life spectrum. That in itself is a pretty balanced diet. (You should of course supplement with other frozen food though)

[Carissa]

That's awesome. I actually have a freezer full of fresh squid and I hadn't even thought about using it. I also am feeding formula one flake. Has anyone tried broccoli? I've read several sites that hghly recommend it as a vegetable source.

[fufu]

For vegetable source, I would use Nori Algae sheet. Tangs love them. You can get them for cheap at an asian market.

[loosecannon]

Go easy on the squid, vary fatty! The blenny eats micro alge he can see it even if you can`t. I like nori from my walmart. I roll up hole oyster non oily fish , clam, scallops. and freeze it till needed.

[Carissa]

Squid is only about 7% fat, is that considered fatty for a fish diet? It's pretty low fat for a human diet, I know because I eat it all the time and I diet all the time too. It's about 75% protein. Oysters are about 12% fat.

[loosecannon]

KEEP READING! Fatty foods such as squid can lead to serios problems like fatally swollen liver. Fats are not required in high amounts . When squid is ingested to excess it`s stored in the liver as fat. Too much deposited fat can lead to sever disorders that stress the fish. Over time causing degeneration of internal organs. Fat deposits eventually fill the body cavity putting pressure on internal organs. When squid is feed in excess fish will develop fatty livers and appear swollen. A diet containing only raw seafoods has been linked to Thiamin deficiencies in marine fishes!

[MileHighFish]

Carissa, this is a bit off topic but normally a blenny wont take frozen food, if you want to target feed that fish put a piece of nori (available at an Asian market for sushi) use a clip and it will devour it.

[Saltliquid]

Mostly what spleify said sounds resonable.

What i do is use marinara mix add some dried foods nori and if you can get some cunjivoe,it is the food nearly all marine aquarium life will do well on.

blend it as spleify said but put in a lot of salt,say 4 teaspoons per cup and it will last for ages,even thawed out in the fridge for a few days with out developing that nasty bacteria that gets into your fishes gullet and kills.

I feed all my inverts and fish from this.

Your fishes salt diverting organ can handle it.

But than i always have an algae scrubber!!

[loosecannon]

Whey put more stress on your fishes then necessary! Don`t add salt! And thou ring in fresh ro water will also help in the fishes digestion!