Reefs.org Forums

[catfish]

First allow me to introduce myself .

My name is william , ya can call me Bill .



This is my first time posting here and may I say it has been a pleasure to have read your forum for some time.

I found you folks on Twitter by the way.

I usualy dont join many forums as I have several hobies that I can spend my time enjoying, the most favorite ,, and heart breaking,,, has been reefkeeping,, or should I say fish keeping.

I have had a tank runing now for a few years as my Bio states , At one time I had several verry nice peices and alot of criters.

I have been verry carefull to where and what I bought , I also bought most of everything form one FS , he went out of business a few years back .

I had at one time a spectacular Hawiian tank IMO

To make a long story short , It crashed , This tank ws capable of supporting its self for a week or so at a time with out any help .



One summer I decided to take my family on a vacation , while we were off having a time of our lives somethng went wrong ,, terribly wrong. The plug strip on the tank shorted out and caught fire,I think the skimmer went wacky and somehow overflowed on to the floor and got into the plug strip,, I still have the spot on the hrd wd flr floor where it was setting.

This was many years ago.

Needless to say the water parameters went off the charts, When we returned and found out what happend about the only thing left was a few verry hardy fish and a couple small crabs that had a feast of their lives.

I didnt give up , I started it all again , slowly built the tank up again , everything was going great once again for nearly a year, then we lost all electrical power for several days.

I had no back up power at that time,,, and since I was on the road,, I drove truck OTR,, my wife didnt realise she needed to do a couple water changes to keep the tank in check , it wouldnt have saved everything however it may have saved some.

The tank was once again a disaster.
After losing a wonderfull tank 2 times I still didnt gove up but I just went to a FO tank and that is where it has been now for several years.

This summer I had a fgriend do some trading with me and ended up with the smaller tank and stand,,, and started it up in saltwater, .

I was origionaly going to use it for a breeding tank and start breeding a few criters , or use it as a sump for the bigger tank.

Here is my question , every since I started the first tank years ago I have made my own food specificaly for the inhabitants ,Under the sugestions of the LFS fella ,, I am just wondering how many of you folks do the same and what ingredients you use for your specific criters.

I have a few fish, nothing out of the ordinary just the usual LFS variety.

Here is my mix for my fish tank, if you can sugest adding anything to it feel free to sugest it.

I usulay go to the grocerie and get a refrigerated can of fresh oysters, since I am a inlander fresh ones are sort of tough to come by.

I pulverise them in a bowl,,ususaly use the wifes mixer,,, but dont tell her!!!

I also put in 1 row of frozen Mysis { sp} shrimp and a healthy squirt of Phyto.
1 row of frozen Brine shrimp,, these are both those frozen packages ya get fromt he LFS...
also about 1/4th cup or a little less of tank water,it thaws the frozen stuff and adds to the volume , yea yea,,, I know it contains salt,it takes a bit longer to freeze,, it also acts as a preservative IMO.
1row of Frozen kril.
I do use a bit of iodine in my mix, I am a believer that it does help the small coral .
I cant say that it has hurt anything so far so I will continue to use it ,

However it DO NOT use much , maybe 1/2 teaspoon in this mix.

I then put it into a small plastic bowl and freeze it, It is about 3/8 to a 1/4 inch thick and about 4 inches round.it actualy makes me about 3 or 4 of these,,,Then I seal it in a vacume bag or a zip lock and store till needed,,

Ya can make it however size you would prefer this is just how I do it,,,this mix usualy makes enough food for me to last several months at a time and the britle stars go ape over it, the damsles are on it befor it hits the water I think.

To use it,,, all I do is break off a peice and put it into a plastic cup with a bit of tank water and when is unthaws I poor it in the tank.

Does any one else make their own and if so what is your recipe for what type of criters??

Thanks

Oh yea be forwarned , I am not a good speller and at my age its too late to win a gramy. !!!!

Bill

[dupaboy1992]

Welcome to RDO, Bill.

[catfish]

Thank You.


Bill

[Louey]

I have made my own foods before.

I usually go to the seafood market and get a small piece of fish, a couple each of shrimp, scallops, clams, mussels, and whatever. I chop that up in a blender and add a little cyclopeeze, garlic extract, and anything else I might have around.

I freeze that mixture in a zip-lock back mashed thin enough to make it easy to break off a small piece for each meal.

I haven't done this in awhile. I should make a new batch soon.

Louey

[catfish]

I have heard of using garlic however never used it , what are you feeding in your tank?

Molusk/fish/inverts/corals?

How much garlic do you add in , is it just something that you guess at or is there a science to it?


Do you use fresh garlic or powderd?
Are you targeting any particular species ?

I am invisioning you smashing /pulverising it into almost a liquid and adding it in..

OOPS I see where you mentioned it is a garlic extract, My bad.
How many drops do you add in and appx how big a batch do you make at a time, just one small ziplock or a large ziplock?

I have tried mixing squid and frozen fish in myn hoping the serpant stars would eat it however they just dont seem intrested and I end up fishing it out of the tank .

Thanks for the reply.


Bill

[Saltlick]

Yeah, do you use italian breadcrumbs on your Oysters Mosca?

Hahahaha. Ur um, yeah, I used to make my own all the time. I used to go down to NO
for Mardi Gras every year and would bring back an ice chest full of shrimp. I would save
the ones that were already dead, they are the consistency of goop. There would usually
be a few shiners in there, maybe a blue crab baby, mantis shrimp, seaweed, sticks, all
kinds of carp, I mean crap. Back then people were using garlic for ich, so I added some
fresh minced garlic and whammied it in the blender and put it into ice trays. Every week
or so I would pop a cube out and feed it over a few days. But the flat ziplock is a much
better idea, cause the cubes dry out and freezer burn after about a month and a half.
Fish LLLOoove it. Hell, EVERYBODY loves it. ANd don't forget to use the shells if you are
feeding anemones, since anemone's really need to eat the whole animal.