Food from the kitchen

wrasse · Post by **wrasse** » 24 Feb 2007, 18:40

As well as shop-bought algae wafers and frozen live foods, I like to feed my 5 LDA 33 snowball baryancistrus a varied diet including fresh veggie food.
They get cucumber, lettuce and courgette, plus a frozen mix that I make..... I blend the following: raw tiger prawns, cooked mussels, steamed spinach, garden peas and a garlic clove. I squeeze out as much water as possible before mixing it together, then spread it on a baking tray. (I rinse the prawns and mussels several times befor blending). Then I freeze it and finally cut it into small cubes. The ingredients sound expensive but it still works out a lot cheaper than prepared frozen foods and all my fish love it.

My question is: what foods do you feed your plecos? Perhaps there are other vegetables that you have tested and your plecos loved it.

apistomaster · Post by **apistomaster** » 25 Feb 2007, 22:28

I make blends for discus and plecos varying the content of course to suit the fish.

One thing you may wish to try, even though you are drying out your blends, is to add a binder. I use either unflavored gelatin or a thinned down agar as my binders. I prefer agar but one must be careful not to use too much or the mix will set up like plastic.
Aprroximately 1 tspn of agar added to 2 cups of boiling hot water makes a blend that retains cohesion yet is easy for the fish to eat. It greatly reduces the amount of food particulates that become free floating debris only to be drawn into your filter system.

wrasse · Post by **wrasse** » 26 Feb 2007, 09:15

Thats a great tip Apisto, I'll try that with the next batch I make, thanks.

Mike_Noren · Post by **Mike_Noren** » 26 Feb 2007, 09:48

You guys are essentially making what is known as "shrimp mix". Its used a lot among european breeders, especilly for herbivorous species (as it's an easy & practical way to present vegetable food to the fish) and is considered quality food. There are as many recipes to make shrimp mix as there are breeders, but the fundamental recipe is:
50% whole, frozen, shrimp with shells; 50% frozen green peas, + vitamins. Agar or gelatin as binder.

I don't have herbivorous fish, so my personal recipe is roughly 50% shrimp (with heads & shell), 25% calamare, and the rest about equal amounts of frozen green peas and salmon pellets. I top with a whole egg, including the shell, vitamins, and 1 gram of astaxanthin per kilo mix. In my last batch I also added fish oil and garlic. This is all then blended until completely smooth; one kilo takes takes about 5-10 minutes to 'smoothify' with my blender.

I use 0.5% agar as binder (5 grams of agar dissolved in a little boiling water, per kilo mix).

The mix is poured into plastic freezer bags, pressed flat & thin, and frozen.

wrasse · Post by **wrasse** » 26 Feb 2007, 20:06

Mike, your recipe has everything in it for the more carnivorous plecs. Its a great way of getting all those vitamins into your fish. I would not have tried whole egg and fish oil for fear of fowling the water. I suppose they would not be interested in the salmon pellets if fed seperately.

Have you come across likely foods to be avoided? - I recently read that kale was okay for veggie Loricarrids, so I tried the leaves from a cauliflower (as its in the cabbage family) which I part-steamed . Within an hour the water started to go cloudy and even smell of cauliflower. The fish were not happy so I removed it and did a water change. I'll stick with lettuce...

Mike_Noren · Post by **Mike_Noren** » 26 Feb 2007, 20:41

The good thing about presenting the food as a "paté" like this, is that it holds things together - little seemst to go into solution before the fish eats it. With larger fish I throw in an "icecube" of mix and let them tear chunks out as it thaws, for smaller ones I thaw the cube and mash it up a bit before feeding.

So, in short, no, I've not experienced clouding of the water with this type of food, although as always one has to be wary of overfeeding.

I have had clouding a couple of times when feeding blanched vegetables; my completely unscientific impression was that the blanching caused the vegetable to leak nutrients into the water. Possibly I overdid the blanching, I don't know, but the entire aquarium smelled like boiled cabbage...

apistomaster · Post by **apistomaster** » 26 Feb 2007, 21:19

This past year I have stopped making my blends because I am raising fewer discus as I have been concentrated on my Heckels.

Instead I have been buying bulk 5 pound bags of earthworm pellets as my staple food for both discus and catfish. The plecos love this stuff. It is a matter of greater convenience for me and besides the earthworm content the pellents have both shrimp and spirulina ingredients and a 46% protein content dry weight.

I use the earthworm pellets and flakes, frozen bloodworms, Color Bits, algae wafers and Live blackworms these days.

It is a recent change from my past SOP but much easier.
I have good results breeding Corys and discus still.
Even the Heckels fill up on the earthworm pellets but I believe in variety in all fish diets.

wrasse · Post by **wrasse** » 27 Feb 2007, 08:38

I like the sound of those earthworm pellets, but I've not seen it here in the UK, or blackworms for that matter.
I understand blackworms are like tubifex? When the manufacturers produce a frozen tubifex that isnt a frozen mushy mess I'll buy it.

apistomaster · Post by **apistomaster** » 27 Feb 2007, 14:51

I only know one source of earthworm pellets and flakes in the US. http://www.aquaticeco.com Five pounds costs $51.43 US plus shipping. one pound is $13.46.

Bwhiskered · Post by **Bwhiskered** » 28 Feb 2007, 14:15

There are several vegetables and greens that I feed that no one mentions. I cook the heavy stocks from broccoli and then split them open. Ancistrus love the soft inside. A first food for the ancistrus fry is snow peas blanched then frozen. Thaw then split them open and they eat them down to veins in no time. The butt ends of asparagus that are cut off and thrown away are cooked and then split open. The rinds of cantaloupe or musk melon are put in raw. Collard greens or kale are frozen between sheets of wax paper. I then snap off a piece and anchor it with a stainless steel clip. They go crazy on it the second day when it has started to break down. A slice of raw white potato is enjoyed by some, especially my L-204 Flash Plecos.

wrasse · Post by **wrasse** » 28 Feb 2007, 20:38

I'll try the cantaloupe and the snow peas, thanks Bewhiskered. My LDA33s luv their veg and once they start on something, it doesn't last long. They like the inside of a stalk of broccoli and slices of sweet potato, as well as cucumber and lettuce. I've recently started to freeze the stalks instead of boiling them, to help break down the structure of the veg, thinking it helps to preserve the vitamin content.

Its always interesting to see how they take to a new natural food. However I find they are quite a slow-growing fish despite having a varied diet.

YouTube · Post by **Jools** » 28 Feb 2007, 20:54

Just wanted to add that melon rind is also something I use quite a lot. My have been raised on this treat every couple of months for a few years now - they used to both fit in a slice, now they're bigger (longer) than a whole melon!

Many folks swear by blanched kale for veggie pleco fry too and I'll second potato as a good one for - just make sure you filtration is up to the resulting pile of debris!

and larger seem to really like tomato too.

Jools

apistomaster · Post by **apistomaster** » 28 Feb 2007, 21:17

Salsa, anyone?