Home made fish mix

[miskairal]

Yeehaa!
Remember I asked about this not long ago? Well there is a guy who comes
to our town once a week selling fresh seafoods and I just spoke to him
this morning. Very nice guy and seemed to know exactly what I wanted. He
sells his stuff prepackaged in amounts that are a bit big for my 5 fish
but will bring for me next week a small package of many different things
specially for me - prawns, squid, whiting etc. How great is that! I even
know where it's been caught and that it's not polluted water. My pyjama
cardinals have been eating prawns and squid (scrounged out of friend's
freezers) along with the brine shrimp now so things are looking up. I
also managed to get a product called green marine but it has no
ingredients on the package. Looks to be for the algae eating fish and
the coral beauty likes that but then he likes anything that goes into
the tank.

I've just spent 2 days on a friend's houseboat and was going to bring
back some mud crab to try them on but we only caught one and that was
devoured by the humans. I am covered in sandfly bites, I counted almost
100! My house is also still rocking which is starting to get annoying :)

[[email protected]]

On Thu, 19 Jan 2006 10:51:31 +1000, miskairal <mehiding@Oz> wrote:

>Yeehaa!
>Remember I asked about this not long ago? Well there is a guy who comes
>to our town once a week selling fresh seafoods and I just spoke to him
>this morning. Very nice guy and seemed to know exactly what I wanted. He
>sells his stuff prepackaged in amounts that are a bit big for my 5 fish
>but will bring for me next week a small package of many different things
>specially for me - prawns, squid, whiting etc. How great is that! I even
>know where it's been caught and that it's not polluted water. My pyjama
>cardinals have been eating prawns and squid (scrounged out of friend's
>freezers) along with the brine shrimp now so things are looking up. I
>also managed to get a product called green marine but it has no
>ingredients on the package. Looks to be for the algae eating fish and
>the coral beauty likes that but then he likes anything that goes into
>the tank.
>
>I've just spent 2 days on a friend's houseboat and was going to bring
>back some mud crab to try them on but we only caught one and that was
>devoured by the humans. I am covered in sandfly bites, I counted almost
>100! My house is also still rocking which is starting to get annoying :)

Hello Miskairal,

What does "My house is also still rocking" mean ?
When you get your "fish" food, mix frozen spinach, cooked frozen peas
(shelled), and put through a blender. Pat the mix into pancakes ( I
use pyrex lids), then freeze. Next day remove the mix from the pyrex
lids, put into polybags and return to the freezer. Smash a piece off
the pancake with a hammer, and place in the coldest part of the
'fridge, and feed it to the fish every day or so - good cheap food !
I have never tried a carrot in the mix, but I understand they will eat
it. If you have garlic available - frozen or fresh - they will like
that. Also a crushed vitamin C, D, or multivitamin tablet.
The world is your .........

Regards, Fishnut.

[miskairal]

Wow, thanks for all that fishnut. I had spinach and peas growing here
too (chemical free) until the heat got too much for them. I occasionally
feed peas to my freshwater fish and I've been keeping the fish food in
the bottom of the fridge for up to 4 days as I feed it out. I threw out
the last 1/2 teaspoon last night (gave it to the cat) as I figured 4
days was plenty long enough in the fridge but it still smelt perfect.

We buy garlic already mixed in a bottle, minced garlic (I've never been
able to get it to grow here) would that be ok to use do you think? The
label says it contains garlic, salt, sugar, food acid (330).

The house still rocking bit - while I was typing that and after being on
the houseboat for 2 days, it felt like our house was going up and down
and I was sure the horizon was moving through the windows. I was
actually feeling a bit spaced out at that point :)


wrote:
> On Thu, 19 Jan 2006 10:51:31 +1000, miskairal <mehiding@Oz> wrote:
>
>
>>Yeehaa!
>>Remember I asked about this not long ago? Well there is a guy who comes
>>to our town once a week selling fresh seafoods and I just spoke to him
>>this morning. Very nice guy and seemed to know exactly what I wanted. He
>>sells his stuff prepackaged in amounts that are a bit big for my 5 fish
>>but will bring for me next week a small package of many different things
>>specially for me - prawns, squid, whiting etc. How great is that! I even
>>know where it's been caught and that it's not polluted water. My pyjama
>>cardinals have been eating prawns and squid (scrounged out of friend's
>>freezers) along with the brine shrimp now so things are looking up. I
>>also managed to get a product called green marine but it has no
>>ingredients on the package. Looks to be for the algae eating fish and
>>the coral beauty likes that but then he likes anything that goes into
>>the tank.
>>
>>I've just spent 2 days on a friend's houseboat and was going to bring
>>back some mud crab to try them on but we only caught one and that was
>>devoured by the humans. I am covered in sandfly bites, I counted almost
>>100! My house is also still rocking which is starting to get annoying :)
>
>
> Hello Miskairal,
>
> What does "My house is also still rocking" mean ?
> When you get your "fish" food, mix frozen spinach, cooked frozen peas
> (shelled), and put through a blender. Pat the mix into pancakes ( I
> use pyrex lids), then freeze. Next day remove the mix from the pyrex
> lids, put into polybags and return to the freezer. Smash a piece off
> the pancake with a hammer, and place in the coldest part of the
> 'fridge, and feed it to the fish every day or so - good cheap food !
> I have never tried a carrot in the mix, but I understand they will eat
> it. If you have garlic available - frozen or fresh - they will like
> that. Also a crushed vitamin C, D, or multivitamin tablet.
> The world is your .........
>
> Regards, Fishnut.

[Roy]

I know you probably do not have that big chain store downunder named
Wal MArt, but this past weekend the wife and I were in thel local
walmart andfound large 5# bags of mixed muscles, squid rings and arms,
octopus, shrimp, and clams........all diced up in small pieces perhaps
1/2" in size. Heck the whole bag was like $3.50 USD, so I figured what
the heck, picked a bag up. Also made a stop at the local oriental
market for some assorted sheets of NORI algae.....got it in red, brown
and green types....came home and we threw a bucnh of the stuff into a
food processor scooped it out into egg crate light grill material, and
put it in the deep freeze. For the price for 5# of fresh frozen stuff
ike that and less than 10 cents a sheet for thre NORI, I now have
more food than i can possibly use, as I still have a heap of
previously prepared food, as well as what i get at my lfs on
occasion. I think the fish are in a better position foodwise than us
human types in this household are..Same thing goes for the food for
our 6 dogs and 1 wolf hybrid....We have large 50# sacks stacked up as
we take advantage of any good sales...
--
\\\|///
( @ @ )
-----------oOOo(_)oOOo---------------


oooO
---------( )----Oooo----------------
\ ( ( )
\_) ) /
(_/
The original frugal ponder! Koi-ahoi mates....

[Tidepool Geek]

Hi Miskairal,

First, let me second what Fishnut said about vitamins! In the wild,
fish and inverts generally eat whole animals rather than just the
muscles like we do. By doing so they are also eating bones, entrails,
and whatever their prey had for its most recent meal. By supplementing
with veggies and vitamins you're adding back many of the things that
would otherwise be missed. I recently watched a program about the
Valencia aquarium and they made quite a point about the fact that they
supplement their food with vitamins and I also have seen this being
done at the Seattle aquarium.

I don't know if this is true or not, but I have read that fish can
utilize the pigments from plants like carrots or broccoli to help
maintain their own color. OTOH: Marine animals have no need to be able
to deal with the cellulose found in most land plants so maybe those
things need to be either cooked or pulped to do any good. The whole
subject is certainly worth a bit of Googling.

Some folks say that garlic helps fish to avoid or fight off Ich/Ick and
others claim that to be a myth. I don't know one way or the other but
as my Jewish mother used to say "It couldn't hurt." I'd be a bit
reluctant to use processed garlic though. Although the additives you
mentioned are probably present in too small a quantity to cause
problems it's just too easy and cheap to buy a head of fresh garlic to
take any risk with the processed stuff.

Dietetically yours,

Alex

[miskairal]

I'm jealous!!!
We have big chain stores here, just not in the bush where I am. No
walmarts though. We were meant to be coming for a holiday there this
year but it's been put off until 2007 now due to farm committments. I
plan to visit a walmart and see just what they are. I find it hard
enough to go to cities now and have such a choice available. It will be
interesting to see what the fisho brings me on Thursday.

Roy wrote:
> I know you probably do not have that big chain store downunder named
> Wal MArt, but this past weekend the wife and I were in thel local
> walmart andfound large 5# bags of mixed muscles, squid rings and arms,
> octopus, shrimp, and clams........all diced up in small pieces perhaps
> 1/2" in size. Heck the whole bag was like $3.50 USD, so I figured what
> the heck, picked a bag up. Also made a stop at the local oriental
> market for some assorted sheets of NORI algae.....got it in red, brown
> and green types....came home and we threw a bucnh of the stuff into a
> food processor scooped it out into egg crate light grill material, and
> put it in the deep freeze. For the price for 5# of fresh frozen stuff
> ike that and less than 10 cents a sheet for thre NORI, I now have
> more food than i can possibly use, as I still have a heap of
> previously prepared food, as well as what i get at my lfs on
> occasion. I think the fish are in a better position foodwise than us
> human types in this household are..Same thing goes for the food for
> our 6 dogs and 1 wolf hybrid....We have large 50# sacks stacked up as
> we take advantage of any good sales...

[miskairal]

OK, fresh garlic for the fish. I'm worried about adding vitamins meant
for humans too though as the "base" or crap it's mixed with might harm
them or other stuff growing in the tank. Still I will keep working on it
and thinking about it. It just seems so much more "right" to be feeding
them real food and a variety. They've been getting a reasonable mix of
whiting, prawns, the green marine, brine shrimp and flakes this last
week and my 20 year old cat gets the leftovers so she thinks life is
pretty good too.

I was thinking of buying a pizza cutter for chopping up those small
amounts that aren't available when I make the main food mix (eg. the
spinach). Run it back and forth quite a few times and I'd hope the
result would fit comfortably into the fish's mouths?

Now what to feed the humans?


Tidepool Geek wrote:
> Hi Miskairal,
>
> First, let me second what Fishnut said about vitamins! In the wild,
> fish and inverts generally eat whole animals rather than just the
> muscles like we do. By doing so they are also eating bones, entrails,
> and whatever their prey had for its most recent meal. By supplementing
> with veggies and vitamins you're adding back many of the things that
> would otherwise be missed. I recently watched a program about the
> Valencia aquarium and they made quite a point about the fact that they
> supplement their food with vitamins and I also have seen this being
> done at the Seattle aquarium.
>
> I don't know if this is true or not, but I have read that fish can
> utilize the pigments from plants like carrots or broccoli to help
> maintain their own color. OTOH: Marine animals have no need to be able
> to deal with the cellulose found in most land plants so maybe those
> things need to be either cooked or pulped to do any good. The whole
> subject is certainly worth a bit of Googling.
>
> Some folks say that garlic helps fish to avoid or fight off Ich/Ick and
> others claim that to be a myth. I don't know one way or the other but
> as my Jewish mother used to say "It couldn't hurt." I'd be a bit
> reluctant to use processed garlic though. Although the additives you
> mentioned are probably present in too small a quantity to cause
> problems it's just too easy and cheap to buy a head of fresh garlic to
> take any risk with the processed stuff.
>
> Dietetically yours,
>
> Alex
>

[Mike Kelly]

This is good stuff, folks. I've been emailing the messages in this thread to
myself, and started saving them in a folder for permanent future reference.
Thanks.

"miskairal" <mehiding@Oz> wrote in message
u...
> OK, fresh garlic for the fish. I'm worried about adding vitamins meant for
> humans too though as the "base" or crap it's mixed with might harm them or
> other stuff growing in the tank. Still I will keep working on it and
> thinking about it. It just seems so much more "right" to be feeding them
> real food and a variety. They've been getting a reasonable mix of whiting,
> prawns, the green marine, brine shrimp and flakes this last week and my 20
> year old cat gets the leftovers so she thinks life is pretty good too.
>
> I was thinking of buying a pizza cutter for chopping up those small
> amounts that aren't available when I make the main food mix (eg. the
> spinach). Run it back and forth quite a few times and I'd hope the result
> would fit comfortably into the fish's mouths?
>
> Now what to feed the humans?
>
>
> Tidepool Geek wrote:
>> Hi Miskairal,
>>
>> First, let me second what Fishnut said about vitamins! In the wild,
>> fish and inverts generally eat whole animals rather than just the
>> muscles like we do. By doing so they are also eating bones, entrails,
>> and whatever their prey had for its most recent meal. By supplementing
>> with veggies and vitamins you're adding back many of the things that
>> would otherwise be missed. I recently watched a program about the
>> Valencia aquarium and they made quite a point about the fact that they
>> supplement their food with vitamins and I also have seen this being
>> done at the Seattle aquarium.
>>
>> I don't know if this is true or not, but I have read that fish can
>> utilize the pigments from plants like carrots or broccoli to help
>> maintain their own color. OTOH: Marine animals have no need to be able
>> to deal with the cellulose found in most land plants so maybe those
>> things need to be either cooked or pulped to do any good. The whole
>> subject is certainly worth a bit of Googling.
>>
>> Some folks say that garlic helps fish to avoid or fight off Ich/Ick and
>> others claim that to be a myth. I don't know one way or the other but
>> as my Jewish mother used to say "It couldn't hurt." I'd be a bit
>> reluctant to use processed garlic though. Although the additives you
>> mentioned are probably present in too small a quantity to cause
>> problems it's just too easy and cheap to buy a head of fresh garlic to
>> take any risk with the processed stuff.
>>
>> Dietetically yours,
>>
>> Alex
>>