food mix recipe

["Simon" <svavev@hunterlink.net.au>]

I make my own food because I do not trust many of the prepared foods. Some
studies have shown that the vitamin content of some of these prepared foods
such as flake and pellets can decrease by as much as 30% per week after
opening making a jar that's been open for three weeks almost useless for
anything except roughage. So I make a frozen blend containing;

* whole shrimp -the whole shrimp - in particular the shell seems to bring
out better colour - don't know why - but shelled shrimp didn't seem to have
the same effect- maybe it was the kerotene in the shells ?
* whole small bait fish ( called white bait here in Australia ). I prefer to
use whole fish, guts and all, because the liver provides all the vitamin D
and A they need. I am a bit wary that there may be parasites in these fish
but the freezing process should kill them all ( my freezer has a snap freeze
button which allows me to crash the temp down to -30deg celcius in a very
short time ).
* Brewers yeast for vitamin B ( in the form of thiamine ).
* Egg yolk as a binder and a source of carotenoids for colour.
* beef heart for protein and iron
* peas - cos they all need their greens ! 8-)

When poured into broad dishes and frozen, it's easy to cut up into cubes
which float to start with and roll around in the power filter outlets
breaking into nice bight sized morsels over about 10min. All the fish eat it
well - including various geophagines, severums, krib, apistogramma,
parachromis sp., herotilapia, convicts ( there babies are also excellent
food supplies and breeder conditioners ! ), various species of Australian
native catfish and various misc. others. It is real cheap only costing me
about $10 every 8 weeks. I started this mix when I had oscars because I
found there vitamin requirements were higher than any of my other fish and
deficiencies in some vitamins caused hole in the head to develop. I had no
more trouble with HITH after I started feeding this mix and the earthworms.
So now all my fish get the frozen mix every day, small earthworms and
bloodworms a couple of times a week and mosquito larvae when they are
available n the warmer months. The allergy to bloodworms is interesting -
I've found lately that I'm getting very itchy bloodshot eyes after feeding
time so maybe this is what's doing it.

Regards,

Simon Voorwinde

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svavev@hunterlink.net.au
http://thecichlidtank.cjb.net
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