Hey Martin and DMF

[angelfish83]

I thought I'd ask you guys cuzz we live in the same area- where do I get alternative foods for my loaches? I've seen people feeding shrimp and prawns and stuff from the grocery store to their loaches. Any particular store or brand or species I should look for? Any way to prepare it? Or do I just take a 2" prawn tail, de-vein it and chuck it in there?

[Martin Thoene]

Best place to buy stuff like this is Chinese or Korean supermarkets. They usually have frozen, peeled shrimp at good prices. You can get frozen fish too. Here's a recipe I got from TFH years ago. I've pasted it over from The Loach Almanac:

Or try the following for the more discerning palette: (Note that all measures are approximate and you can add other ingredients as you wish)


1 cup (measured before chopping) of finely chopped, cooked and peeled prawns (shrimp).


2 individual blocks of frozen cod, thawed and chopped finely)


½ cup of cooked or defrosted spinach (chopped finely)


1 can of V8 juice


½ banana mashed


1 sachet of gelatine (to set mixture)

METHOD: Combine all ingredients except gelatine, and mix thoroughly. You can put the stuff in a blender to get a more homogenous mess (sorry, mix) if you want. When mixed, dissolve the gelatine in boiling water (enough to give a thick, but flowable mixture when combined into the mix, use your judgement). If the mix is very cold, pop it into a microwave for a short time to warm, then add the gelatine and combine. Spoon portions into plastic, ziplock bags or freezer bags about 10" square. You should aim for an amount that squeezed out flat is approx. 1/8" to 1/4" thick. Lay the filled (and sealed!) bag on a flat surface to cool. When cold, pop the bag flat into a freezer to set solid. When you want to feed the fish, break off a lump and drop in the tank. Loaches go loopy for it. Everything eats it, everything grows, and everything gets good, wholesome food without the risks of feeding live food.

Martin.

[Hurricane Charlie]

Hey that sounds pretty tasty to me! Oh wait your feeding that to your fish? oops....

[Mad Duff]

This is a mix that I use and all my loaches love it as well as everything else in the tank

100 grams of frozen Bloodworm
200 Grams of frozen foods, Mysis, Daphnia, Artemia, Black & White Midge, Cyclops and peeled Prawns.
(Make sure all frozen food is defrosted before mixing)
10 Baby Spinach leaves
2 Tablespoons of Tetra Prima or Sera Discus granules
Some good quality flake
2 Cloves of Garlic (crushed)

You can vary the ingredients to make as much or as little as you want

Preparation:
Soak the Prima or alternative in some hot water,
Place the frozen foods in a blender along with the spinach leaves, and then switch on the blender and mix for 2 to 3 minutes.
Now add the Prima or alternative and blend for an additional 2 minutes.
You should now have a fairly wet mix, now start adding the flake food until the mixture starts to thicken out, ideally not to wet or dry.
Put 4 or 5 tablespoons of the mix into freezer bags and flatten until it is about 1/4" thick. Lay the bags in between sheets of newspaper to stop them sticking together and lay them in the freezer until frozen.
Now you can just break a bit off and feed as much or as little as you want.

Like I said all my fish love the stuff, the original recipe was given to me by a friend who breed Discus and he used it to feed adults and fry and would also add vitamins to the mix.

[Hurricane Charlie]

I was hoping for "step 1, put prawn in tank" those are all too complex for me...

I've chopped up a couple small shrimp before and tossed them in and had some clowns and weatherloaches nibble quiet abit on them. Not sure if they really ate them much, or if its ok for them. I've only done this once. With the abundance of live and frozen foods specifically for fish I've never seen the need to mix my own cocktails for my fish.

[helen nightingale]

well you could do that, but the other options sound much better. surely you can manage to at least try it?

as your loaches are tiny, chop the prawn up a bit perhaps. if i put too big lumps of prawn in for my yoyos, its just a good fun toy to make a mess with

[Mad Duff]

Its really not complex to make the food up, messy yes but complex no.

I do feed them prawn on a regular basis, just get a couple of frozen prawns and mush them up with a fork and all will enjoy.

[Martin Thoene]

I was hoping for "step 1, put prawn in tank" those are all too complex for me...

OH.....you should have said. Right now, I don't have any mix made so it's break off hunk of shrimp.....bung in microwave....nuke.....drain off excess liquid......cut up with kitchen scissors......let cool......feed.

Bon appetit!

Martin.

[angelfish83]

I was hoping for "step 1, put prawn in tank" those are all too complex for me...

OH.....you should have said. Right now, I don't have any mix made so it's break off hunk of shrimp.....bung in microwave....nuke.....drain off excess liquid......cut up with kitchen scissors......let cool......feed.

Bon appetit!

Martin.

I think i can manage that one

[Martin Thoene]

I figured you were a microwave kind of guy

Martin.