Expensive to Feed Fish
- Thread starter Trouser Cough
- Start date
what product do you recommend for the gelatin?No...yes...not at all...yes...yes.
Not Repashy; I've tried that and don't see any benefit over my own secret recipe.
I use a mix of whatever is on hand at the time; fish, crickets, grasshoppers, krill, shrimp, nightcrawlers, mayflies, trout chow, commercial aquarium fish food, etc. makes up the protein side, and the veggie side is mostly duckweed, hair algae, sometimes dandelion greens, Hornwort and/or Guppy Grass (Najas) near the end of the summer when I have a glut of those. I think that FINWIN's insect trail mix (love that name!) would be a perfect component. Proportions vary depending upon what I'm feeding. I use way more meaty stuff for my Jelly Cat, but I've also made versions with more greens for things like Giant Goramy, Pacus, etc. Add VitaChem, powdered vitamins, even human vitamins as desired. I make sure nowadays to add some B1 to counteract the effect of Thiaminase-containing foodstuffs.
Chop the stuff up in a (dedicated) blender a bit; mix it up with some unflavoured gelatin, just barely enough to hold it together. You have to experiment a bit to get the right proportions. Let it set up in the fridge, then cut it into appropriate sized chunks and freeze them on trays so that they don't freeze up together. If you offer a chunk that's too big and requires the animal to shake it or bite it apart...it's a giant mess. You want pieces that are easily and quickly swallowed whole. Once they're frozen, I like to freeze individual feeding portions in separate ziploc baggies. Thaw on a plate, not in water.
This also lets me buy and use big bags or tubs of near-expired fish food, even if its in very small granulations which would be useless to me otherwise, since it just goes into the mix.
Not sure what I should call it; I'm kinda leaning towards John's Organic AquaGumbo. I can use a modified version of the Buckley's Cough Syrup motto (It tastes awful, and it works!). Something along the lines of "It stinks...but they eat it!"
Whatever is available at the grocery store.
I think the one I see most often is called Knox.
How are you feeding this bug mix, FINWIN? I've rec'd same and tossed a handful in a tank. When the Arowana hits it I can see a poof of broken up legs fly out of his mouth and am guessing you may rehydrate before you toss them in the tank? How about that vitamin? You just sprinkle it on 'em dry or mix it in the hydrating gruel? How's it done best?
BTW... the bag I rec'd is mostly meal worms. Is that typical?
BTW... the bag I rec'd is mostly meal worms. Is that typical?
Maybe your mix isn't stirred up so the mealworms are all up top? That's what happened to my bag. With the vitamin powder I put 2 heaping spoons in and shake in the bin until all the bugs have a light coating. I don't hydrate these, just toss 'em in. My fish eat them like bacon. For smaller mouths I crush some and the pieces fall very fast. I'll break the crickets because Brick will eat the grasshoppers whole but not the crickets. So those I break.
I also bought some separate crickets and grasshoppers to add to the mix. I've got a bag of krill I can add too.
When Brick eats a mouthful he blows some out too but grabs it later. You can hear him strike the surface to grab 'em. He literally sticks his head out of the water to get the bugs.
