grinding up and drying live foods for fish?

**ganoderma** · 12-10-2007, 12:35 PM

quick question. is there anything wrong with taking various feeders (worms, daphnia, shrimp etc) and grinding them up all together (in various proportions depending on fish specie) and drying them up in flat sheets then breaking them up to make "home made pellets"? is this an ok thing to do? i was thinking just letting them dry in the hot sun, or oven (on low).

also wondering if it is ok to use shrimp that are meant for human consumption. not store bought and chemical filled, but those species. i sometimes go shrimp "fishing"...."shrimping"?....and wonder about grinding some of them up for fish food....ok or no?

i am mainly wanting to use things like fruit flies (i breed them for frogs), red worms, black worms, earthworms, brine shrimp, spirulina and some vitamins, and real shrimp if its ok...? and is beef heart really good? or just cheap and common? lastly, would it be good to add some greens to a carnivores diet?

i cant find the food section on the nav bar here :(

**Lady Hobbs** · 12-10-2007, 02:14 PM

There's a section the administrator wrote about making your own fish foods in the left hand menu.

I can't see drying them unless you had a dehydrator because leaving them out to dry would just cause them to rot.

Beef heart really is not cheap. The butcher has to remove every bit of the fat and muscle and grind it a few times. Time on his part costs more but one beef heart could make a bunch. Fresh shrimp or fish can also be used ground up with vegetables but you don't want various kinds of meat in one receipt. Fish get bloat given too much meat.

One of the ways I've seen how it's done is filling ice cube trays with the mixture then adding clear gelatin to hold it together. Carrots, spinach, and other vegetables are just as important as the meat so make sure those are added as well.

**lasm** · 12-10-2007, 03:27 PM

if you want to solar dry them, you should have a solar dehydrator, they are easy to build. If you leave it out uncover, flies and other animal may me attracted to it contaminating it and putting in risk the health of your fish.

If you do really have the time and want to do it. Here's an useful link for building a home made solar dehydrator. http://ecostudio.com.au/self-relianc...ehydrator.html

Keep us post if you do it. Would be really nice to read your experience. The only thing that I might be concern... is how will you balance the pellets. You may want to review this other page

http://www.ntwrks.com/~mikev/chart1.html

there are the nutritional content of several foods, so that you can balance the nutritional content of your pellets.

It would be a nice personal project.

**ganoderma** · 12-11-2007, 09:23 AM

ok i see. before i get too in depth with lots more questions (they are coming, trust me lol!) is there a reason i need a dehydrator? the back deck here gets up to 50 Celsius right now, and i am planning on making a thin sheet (half cm thick) and letting it dry. is that possible? as long as they are VERY *dry*, its all good right?

thankfully fresh shrimp, beef hearts etc are all very cheap where i live.

firstly though is my drying question :) i got class so i will be back with more q's :)

**lasm** · 12-11-2007, 03:31 PM

You don't really need one. but at least protect it from flies or other insects to prevent diseases and infections when feeding your home made pellets.

**Incredulous_Ed** · 12-11-2007, 10:33 PM

I wouldn't feed beef hert as a regular diet. It will lead to fish obesity.

**ganoderma** · 12-13-2007, 12:53 PM

mm, yes of course :) i will keep things very clean, no worries about that.

so beef heart is bad (in excess) because it makes fish fat, or animal food in general should be limited?

is there some kind of safe filler that is a good all around one (ie for most kinds of fish).

most of my fish are catfish (especially cories), tetras, barbs, danios.....most common type community fish :)

is it ok to add things like carrots even to carnivores diets? and on teh flip side, is it safe to allow say a pleco to eat these foods which are heavy in insects and worms etc?

was also thinking using mosquito larvae.

**Incredulous_Ed** · 12-13-2007, 07:21 PM

Here is a link about homemade foods. They say it's for cichlids, but it will work well for other types of fish too:http://www.cichlid-forum.com/articles/food_recipes.php

Beef heart is fatty. I would only feed it very sparingly to very carnivorous fish.

You can add veggies to Cranivore diets, but make sure they get enough protein. Same things for herbivores, except less protein and more plant matter.