Loaches Online Forum

Hi,

I was wondering if anyone has made Martin's home made food that is on here?

I made it and it seems to break up in small pieces in the water column. I think my loaches are getting it as it settles... perhaps.

These small pieces that break off when they eat - is this food still viable for the loaches as they get bigger?

What has been your experience with this home made food?

Thanks,

Bruce.

I make a very similar version and my fish love it. The slow break up is ideal for all my fish.. I'll try and upload a video later on when I'm home to show what it is like when I feed them all.
As I have a mix of different sized fish the particles feed all of them and very little is left over afterwards.

The only problem with it really is the stench when making the stuff.

I make something similar, and it does sort of crumble as it defrosts. (I feed it frozen) I do not add gelatin.
I am going to try adding something to make it more gel-like the next time.

50% Protein food such as frozen fish, shellfish, canned sardines, oysters... whatever I can find, usually at least 3 things. (reserve the water from the canned things, using it as needed to help the food processor properly chop and blend stuff)
40% vegetables such as butternut squash, pumpkin, yam, spinach (frozen, chopped), other vegetables.
10% other:
Several cloves of garlic, several tablespoons spirulina powder (Health food store, and read the label to be sure it is pure spirulina), banana...
If the mix is too watery I will add freeze dried foods such as bloodworms, brine shrimp, daphnia or even Omega One flakes to dry it up a bit.

Food processor to blend and chop it all, cook as needed, depending on the ingredients.

I package it in zip lock bags. One sandwich sized baggie is one meal for all my tanks. Flatten it out in the baggie so the food is between 1/8 and 1/4" deep. 1/8 is not quite enough, 1/4" is a bit too thick. Freeze on flat trays, then store about a dozen sandwich bags in one gallon size freezer bag.

Metric translation:
Put food into plastic bags 3-6 mm deep, spread out flat.

While I feed a whole bag at one meal, with fewer tanks you can break off whatever amount you want to feed and reseal the bag, being sure to exclude all the air.
This stuff does freezer burn rather easily, so keeping the air out is very important, both in the initial packaging and during storage.

I did half of Martin's recipe about a month ago, but minus the beef liver. It turned out excellent. My loaches can't get enough of it. The gelatin holds everything together just right. I usually break off a frozen square that's about the size of a credit card and hold it in the tank water for about 15 seconds. Then a horde of loaches come after it and it will be completely gone and eaten in about one minute.

I should probably shot a video of it. Maybe in a few hours.

Yep, I have used Martins recipe but with a few extras of my own. My fish (loaches) seemed to prefer it than normal frozen stuff I get in shops-they went nuts over it


Ashleigh

Doc - Diana - Chefkeith and Ashleigh - Thank you for your comments and your offers to shoot a video of it.

Some of the particles seem so small, it makes me wonder if the loaches are actually eating it because when they come around to eat it - clouds of particles fill the bottom half of the tank around where it falls in. It does stay intact tho on the bottom until the boys show up to eat it but the resulting flurry of action around it - changes it's intactness ( if that is a word ).

I suppose I could take ammonia and nitrite readings every few days to see if it has any affect on the water chemistry. If everything is hunky dory then I can assume they are eating it all.

I do know that my loaches love it because everyone shows up to eat.

Thanks again!

Diana - I'm going to incorporate some of your ideas in my next batch, especially the vegetables and spirulina powder.

In Martin's description - he says to "liquidize" - is this what you do? - or just chop it up. On my blender it has chop and liquidize and about 1/2 dozen of other things it's capable of doing. Perhaps it's a mute point whether one chops or liquidizes it?

Thanks!!

i used to make my own frozen foods when i had discus, if your blender has a pulse action you can do it fine or chunky, a good addition is garlic and banana as well as spinach.
you can make your own recipes up, prawns are always good but make the blend chunky.

mick

Thanks Mick...I think I'll do the "pulse" as my fish increase in size....good thinking!....adding spinach sounds good too. I used banana and garlic in my current batch.

BTW, where is Martin's recipe? I would like to give it a shot myself.

Hi Rae,

Here is the link for it.

http://www.loaches.com/articles/home-co ... n-fishfood

ty

I feed something very similar to my fish. It does get a bit messy, but for limnivores such as balitorids, the particulate food "dust" wold seem to mimic their foodstuffs in the wild very well.

pics:

Not the best quality but you get the picture.

I'm glad so many people have given this a try. It sure saves you a bundle of cash if you have a lot of fish or large ones with big appetites.

Martin.