Let's talk food!

[Kristy]

Since MAAST is doing a group food order, I thought I would start a thread to see what all everyone feeds their tanks.

What is your favorite fish food? Brand? Type? Frozen or flake?

-We feed variety... not the same everyday. We feed mostly frozen- spirulina enhanced brine shrimp, mysis, emerald entree, cyclops, mega-marine (not our favorite- wierd wormy things), cyclopeze, and Rods (on hold due to noticeable slime algae after use). Some flake and dry- Aqueon Marine Flakes and New Life spectrum.

So before our food group order, let's hear what y'all feed.

-Mike

[p00num3lli]

well, im not doing the order, but ill say what i feed.

i do meaty flakes and algea flakes daily

frozen brine 3-4 times a week

and green sea weed flakes

and when i go to store, ill buy live brine and start up my brine tank... soo yea brine shrimp 2-3 times a week

[princer7]

I've been feeding New Life Spectrum pellet cuz that is what the fish will eat. The anemone and eel get silversides and the fish enjoy what they miss. I would like to try more of the frozen stuff but not really sure which brand is better.

[BIGBIRD123]

I feed a wide variety...PE mysis, brine,krill,cyclopeze,squid,nori,plankton and on the occasion flakes.

Steve

[Bill S]

I have 2 different mixes:

One with the following large frozen foods I can get my hands on EXCEPT tubifex: brine, mysis, plankton, bloodworms... I feed this every day, except when I feed the one below:

Everything above, plus daphnia, cyclops, baby brine, rotifers, phytoplankton (dried) zooplankton (dried), oyster eggs, etc. This I feed once or twice a week, so the corals get fed.

Every day, my fish get about 3/4 of a 1/2 sheet of bulk nori.

[ismvel]

I have 2 different mixes:

One with the following large frozen foods I can get my hands on EXCEPT tubifex: brine, mysis, plankton, bloodworms... I feed this every day, except when I feed the one below:

Everything above, plus daphnia, cyclops, baby brine, rotifers, phytoplankton (dried) zooplankton (dried), oyster eggs, etc. This I feed once or twice a week, so the corals get fed.

Every day, my fish get about 3/4 of a 1/2 sheet of bulk nori.
Bill....how do you make these mixes (process)? Do you let the ingredients defrost then throw them in a blender and re-freeze?

[hobogato]

bill is a genius - he turned me on to doing this same thing..... you just spread the flats out so they thaw (takes a while) and then pour them all into a bucket and mix em up. then you can put em back in the empty flat bags and re-freeze em. like bill pointed out, even tho they thaw, the food's temperature doesnt get high enough to cause any problems. my fish and corals LOVE it :)

[Rychek]

I've been alternating Formula 1 pellets, Formula 2 pellets, spirulina enriched frozen brine and bloodworms. Mostly I feed the Formula 1 pellets and brine because the fish don't particularly like the formula 2 or the bloodworms.

[ismvel]

bill is a genius - he turned me on to doing this same thing..... you just spread the flats out so they thaw (takes a while) and then pour them all into a bucket and mix em up. then you can put em back in the empty flat bags and re-freeze em. like bill pointed out, even tho they thaw, the food's temperature doesnt get high enough to cause any problems. my fish and corals LOVE it :)
Ahhh okay thanks for chiming in Ace.....I have made food before but not from the already frozen bought food...I had made stuff from the seafood at walmart....

Mamma wasn't too happy with that....smelled up the entire house, then i was cleaning and cleaning and cleaning....and YES..SCRUBBING the #$*&^#$(@& out of her blender.....until the smell was gone...

Then I made her an octopus and squid margarita...LOL...no just kidding...but I did that once and never again...so putting in a bucket and mixing all those ingredients sounds good....I am going to have to jump in on that group order..

[ErikH]

My fish won't eat squid.

I feed mysis, bloodworms, and on very very rare occasion I feed them brine. Other than that they get Nori daily and formula 2 flake.

I would like to know where the best place to get oyster eggs from locally and any other special SPS food since today I am going to splurge on food for my corals. Since I am now officially getting a cool collection of SPS, I am going to be more diligent on feeding them.

[Bill S]

Ace, don't give me credit for this - it was Richard (CB Pets) that turned me on to it.

I just dump it all into a big bucket. No blender involved. Unlike Ace, I don't re-use the packages, I use quart ziplocks. I place the flats on a cookie sheet and re-freeze.

There's then no decision process on what to feed. My neighbor, who takes care of the fish on weekends, just breaks off a chunk and feeds it.

As most folks know, my RBTAs - which are prolific - are almost never fed. A bit if krill every month or 2.

[ismvel]

Good to know guys....I think i will jump in on that order and get some things and get to mixing....have a deep freezer, so I have plenty of space for the fish food.....

thanks guys

[princer7]

Bill, could you share your shopping list? :bigsmile:

Also, when looking at Drs Foster Smith, are cyclopse and mysis and cyclopeze all different.

How do saltwater fish do eating freshwater product? Wasn't sure if mixing was ok.

[Bill S]

When looking at frozen food, be SURE and look at the moisture content - you are buying water. I've found, in general, that the Hikari foods are a better buy than the SF/Sally's brands, because of moisture content. For example:

Hikari Biopure frozen brine shrimp: 86% moisture (that's 14% non-water)
SF Brand brine shrimp: 92% moisture (that's 8% non-water)

You get nearly twice as much for pound for the Hikari, and they are essentially the same price per pound (Hikari is 20 cents a pound cheaper).

So, I buy:

Hakari Blood worms, brine shrimp, mysis and SF/Sally's plankton. Pretty much in equal parts except brine, which is about 50% more than the others.

Avoid the cubes - when you are dumping into a bucket, your fingers will freeze painfully quickly enough, especially with the cubed products below. Oh yeah. When doing cubes, keep the packages frozen until you are ready to "pop" THAT package. They don't work well softened or melted. At all.

For the coral food, I also make up some of the above and add:

Daphnia
Baby brine
Cylops/cyclopeeze (either - when it came out, the SF brand was on sale and cheap, and I bought 50 boxes)
Rotifers
Dried Zoplan and Phytoplan
Coralfrenzy

Personally, I avoid the bottled products - for instance, Marinesnow, which is nearly $1 an ounce, is 99.6% water.

As for fw vs sw foods, the bloodworms (mosquito larvae) are a real favorite. I also like the white larvae, but they are hard to find. They float too.

BTW, Bob Fenner says I should be feeding New Life Spectrum, so I do a couple of times a week. Just recently started.

[princer7]

Thanks Bill. I'm feeding the NLS Cichlid pellet which has the same ingredient order and content as the saltwater pellet - checked line by line. I bought the big pale and have plenty - If you want to give some a try, I could send some your way.

I am really kicking myself for missing the meeting with Bob Fenner.