A question about "homemade" fish food ingredients (the gel kind)

[Mmathis]

@Dave54

When I was making my gel food, I came across a few recipes that said to crush and add a VITAMIN to the mixture. No other explantion. Did they mean a HUMAN vitamin? Is that OK for fish, or are there fish vitamins out there, and that's what they meant? I have powdered vitamins & minerals that I add to my turtles' food, but I would think that fish & turtles would have different dietary needs......

BTW, these recipes make a TON of food that will last a while, frozen.

 

[Dave 54]

Not having made homemade fish food I was very much in the dark on this matter TurtleMommy so I did a bit of investigating for you and these are the sites I came up with for you , I must admit I found the whole exersize quite pleasing and informative to say the least
I was lead to believe that vitamins are vitamins just remember they are formulated for humans and as such you'd have to work out just how much to put in but I would not use not to use the whole tablet perhaps make one feed up with a quater of a vitamin tablet and another with say half a tablet , remembering that your vitamins are being spread throughout your mix .
How to prepare them could be a problem , how much heat would destroy the goodness of them a low heat is suggested on one of the sites , I would also suggest adding Propolis to any of the recipies as an added health boost for your goldfish
It appears that Gelitine is the magic ingrediant then its in reality up to you what you put in it
The bottom two websites I think would be the best two for you to follow and as to your vitamin worries I think that the second to the last has a good take on this by adding baby food to the mix
But I feel that the last site is about the very best site out of them all simply because of the detail and studying that has gone into the correct mixture and ingrediants and you;'ll do well studying it
You can even make your food either sink to the bottom or float by adding air to your mixture before it sets
They should between then give you some very good ideas for your own recipes which we hope to read about in the not to distant future about your findings :-

http://aquariadise.com/gel-fish-food/

http://www.petplace.com/fish/healthy-food-for-your-goldfish/page1.aspx

http://www.wikihow.com/Make-Gel-Food-(for-Goldfish)

http://www.instructables.com/id/Gel-Fish-Food/

Dave

 

[Mmathis]

Not having made homemade fish food I was very much in the dark on this matter TurtleMommy so I did a bit of investigating for you and these are the sites I came up with for you , I must admit I found the whole exersize quite pleasing and informative to say the least .
It appears that Gelitine is the magic ingrediant then its in reality up to you what you put in it
The bottom two websites I think would be the best two for you to follow and as to your vitamin worries I think that the second to the last has a good take on this by adding baby food to the mix
But I feel that the last site is about the very best site out of them all simply because of the detail and studying that has gone into the correct mixture and ingrediants and you;'ll do well studying it
You can even make your food either sink to the bottom or float by adding air to your mixture before it sets
They should between then give you some very good ideas for your own recipes whih we hope to read about in the not to distant future about your findings :-

http://aquariadise.com/gel-fish-food/

http://www.petplace.com/fish/healthy-food-for-your-goldfish/page1.aspx

http://www.wikihow.com/Make-Gel-Food-(for-Goldfish)

http://www.instructables.com/id/Gel-Fish-Food/

Dave

Thanks a bunch, Dave! I'll start going through those sites! Yep, baby food is the way to go -- no preservatives, no cooking or other prep on my part [the BEST part, LOL!]. It was really easy to make, too. I'll definitely have to read the part about making it either sink or float! The batch that I made will slowly sink -- for the babies, that's good as I put a tiny bit in a little bowl at the bottom of the tank, and I can monitor how much they've eaten. Also makes it easy to remove what they don't eat. Of course, I made this batch primarily for the babies, but I give the grown-ups some, too, and they inhale it! So I've found that I have to cut it into very tiny pieces before I give it to the big guys, LOL!

In fact, I was mixing up some food for the boxies last week and the thought occurred to me.....why not! I usually put their veggies & fruit through the chopper/blender, then mix it with softened store-bought food and their reptile vitamins. So, I mixed in some gelatine, poured it into a baking dish, and put it in the fridge. After it hardened, I cut it into cubes and fed some of it to them to see, AND THEY LOVED IT! Since they get fed every-other-day, I bagged the rest up and put it in the freezer -- it made enough for several meals. And with each batch I can modify the ingredients for variety. It sure makes feeding time easier [and a lot less messy], not having to mix up a new batch every time!

 

[Dave 54]

Sounds yummy cant wait to hear about your experiments with these ingreadiants some of which you'll find in koi Pellets like Paprika, Garlic, Propolis.
To give you a few more ideas as to what use what vitamins are present etc why not take a look at our alternare food thread and use some of those ingreediants in the mix as well , easpecially the freeze dried insects like meal worm or silk worm pupea:-

https://www.gardenpondforum.com/threads/updated-alternate-food-for-koi-and-goldfish.14217/

The list of possibilities that you could use are endless if you think about it

Dave

 

[Mmathis]

Sounds yummy cant wait to hear about your experiments with these ingreadiants some of which you'll find in koi Pellets like Paprika, Garlic, Propolis.
To give you a few more ideas as to what use what vitamins are present etc why not take a look at our alternare food thread and use some of those ingreediants in the mix as well , easpecially the freeze dried insects like meal worm or silk worm pupea.
The list of posibilities are endless if you think about it :cooL:

Dave

Where is the "alternate food thread"? As to the freeze-dried critters....have a lot of those around to supplement the turtles' diet (live ones just don't work, LOL!).

Here is the recipe I used for the fry food.

But back to that ingredient, "multivitamins"........ ????

 

[Dave 54]

The links in the last Post TurtleMommy :Confused: gives you most of the vitamins and protiens on it as to the multivitamins I suppose its as it says but as to if all those vitamins suite your fish I cant answer that .
But if you want to get some any health food store or chemist should stock them again I'd only use part or half of the tablet to be on the safe side

Dave

 

[Usman]

i used to add human supplements , its safe as far as safety but i dono if it actually has any effect or not , for a small jam bottle i added 2 caps gridded , now depends how powerfull is ur vits ... dont over dose , keep it low as u can , i make food from kidney liver and i have to restrict it after 2 days and in gap i give them carbohydrates , if igive them alot of proteins , they grow like a baloon very fast i can even notice every next day difference but it needs more maintainence of water too if u feed high protein alot of nitrates and harmfull waste , since my pond is small i cant affort to grow them quickly and maintain water so i keep restricted diet . once i bought normal koi like 1.5inch and it exceeded 8 inch in only a 2 or 3 months , had to remove it

i prefer dry food , not gel type , i dry the boiled kidney of cow or chicken then dry it in sun and chop in small pieces from chopper or any machine then mix it with some flour then micro wave it , then stir it with spoon it shud break in to small pieces but not in powder shape then i dry it further , dry food is better since it dsnt dissolve in water as fast as gel one . that means some particles r in watrer that can decay and produce harmfull chemicals

 

[Dave 54]

@Dave54

When I was making my gel food, I came across a few recipes that said to crush and add a VITAMIN to the mixture. No other explantion. Did they mean a HUMAN vitamin? Is that OK for fish, or are there fish vitamins out there, and that's what they meant? I have powdered vitamins & minerals that I add to my turtles' food, but I would think that fish & turtles would have different dietary needs......

BTW, these recipes make a TON of food that will last a while, frozen.

Ah what a senile person I'm getting here TurtleMommy , I had the answer to the vitamin problem all along in my first aid kit
For many tears now weve been using a product called koivits made by NTLabs which you use by simply spraying over your pelleted foods allow to soak in and then feed :-


http://www.ntlabs.co.uk/products/Koivits.html

You could do the preperation of the food take it off the heat then allow to start to cool then when you think its cool enough spray the koivits or US equivulant over the mix and mix it in well
Then all you have to do is freeze your food ready for when you wish to feed your fish and you'll have vitamin impregnated food (end of your problem)
Thus I think the vitamins will stay active rather than be cooked out if you see where I'm going here ?
Yes the koivits is formulated for koi but koi and goldfish are cousins so I cant see it being a problem
I hope this meets with your approval TurtleMommy now all you need do is buy it online and get it sent to you

Dave

 

[Mmathis]

Ah what a senile person I'm getting here TurtleMommy , I had the answer to the vitamin problem all along in my first aid kit
For many tears now weve been using a product called koivits made by NTLabs which you use by simply spraying over your pelleted foods allow to soak in and then feed :-


http://www.ntlabs.co.uk/products/Koivits.html

You could do the preperation of the food take it off the heat then allow to start to cool then when you think its cool enough spray the koivits or US equivulant over the mix and mix it in well
Then all you have to do is freeze your food ready for when you wish to feed your fish and you'll have vitamin impregnated food (end of your problem)
Thus I think the vitamins will stay active rather than be cooked out if you see where I'm going here ?
Yes the koivits is formulated for koi but koi and goldfish are cousins so I cant see it being a problem
I hope this meets with your approval TurtleMommy now all you need do is buy it online and get it sent to you

Dave

Yes, Dave -- thanks! I will look for that or an equivalent, but I guess in the end, if you feed nutritious foods to begin with, and feed well, you shouldn't need to add vitamins unless there was a medical reason that indicated a vitamin/mineral deficiency. I was just REALLY curious about using people-vitamins......

I found this article [I'll also post it in a separate thread] just now, while searching for vitamin supplements. It was a good read and in language simple enough for me to follow, LOL! It goes into a breakdown of what to feed, but I enjoyed the beginning where it explained the differences in the way koi and goldfish feed.

http://www.aquascapeinc.com/index.php?page=articles&a_id=28

 

[Dave 54]

Yes, Dave -- thanks! I will look for that or an equivalent, but I guess in the end, if you feed nutritious foods to begin with, and feed well, you shouldn't need to add vitamins unless there was a medical reason that indicated a vitamin/mineral deficiency. I was just REALLY curious about using people-vitamins......

I found this article [I'll also post it in a separate thread] just now, while searching for vitamin supplements. It was a good read and in language simple enough for me to follow, LOL! It goes into a breakdown of what to feed, but I enjoyed the beginning where it explained the differences in the way koi and goldfish feed.

http://www.aquascapeinc.com/index.php?page=articles&a_id=28

Normally when a fish suffers vitamin deficiency you'll see hat the tail will start to bend upwards and keep benfing upwards sadly there is nothing you can do when a fish gets to this stage it will eventually loose mobility and die adding vitamin suppliments does not harm your fish .
Propolis as I previously said can be added to give your fish that added boost health wise , personally I'd buy some and try it and see how things go

Dave