Fish Food Formulas for Membership Review

[charlie]

Thanx Lee, I appreciate your help here. I do know one thing for a fact tho. I am gonna have to go out and buy my own blender. I f I use mama's blender for this, I'll be sleeping outside with the deer and birds.
Thanx again.

[leebca]

More than that Charlie!

It stinks the house up something royal. I don't what it is, but when I make fish foods I smell it on or in myself for a couple of days.

The only real trick in this whole effort is to not throw up during the process.

BTW if you're buying a blender I recommend a real tough one. Don't go too cheap. You want something close to an industrial strength.

You're welcome!

[charlie]

More than that Charlie!

It stinks the house up something royal. I don't what it is, but when I make fish foods I smell it on or in myself for a couple of days.

The only real trick in this whole effort is to not throw up during the process.

BTW if you're buying a blender I recommend a real tough one. Don't go too cheap. You want something close to an industrial strength.

You're welcome!

I don't think I'll tell her how much I am gonna spend

[dreams]

this is my recipes for food....not sure of quantities...i wing it

fresh halibut
fresh table shrimp
fresh cod
fresh clams
frozen brine
frozen mysis
frozen blood worms
fresh baby spinach
dried algae
bio-blend herbivore
formula one
selcon
phyto
garlic extreme

[leebca]

Thanks for your post!

You have a good variety.

I would drop the land vegetables (spinach) and freshwater foods (bloodworms) and the nearly useless brine shrimp (unless they are gut loaded). Increase algae and/or add kelp meal to improve veggies.

Since I assume the halibut and cod are not whole fish (guts, eyes, bones, etc.) but just the meaty flesh, I would replace both with shucked scallops. If you are going to use a fish flesh, use one that contains some carbohydrates, like scallop.

I'm unsure what 'table shrimp' means. Is that the tails of saltwater or freshwater shrimp? I'd drop that in favor of whole shrimp-like foods like frozen marine krill and/or frozen marine plankton.

Formula One just adds more meat to a heavily meaty formula. I'd switch to Formula Two.

Then, add a vitamin and it would be a good formula for carnivore and omnivore marine ornamental fishes.

[dreams]

thanks lee...i will make the appropritae adjustments:-)

[Ixthys]

Thanks for a great write-up!

You mention agar-agar. Is this the same thing as gelatin?

Also, I've noticed that my carnivores and herbivores eat each others foods. In your reply 2 posts up you mention that the recipe that Dreams uses would be a good combo for both of these types of fish. While I definitely see the benefits of target feeding to the specific type of fish, when they eat anything in the tank, I would think its best to optimize a "combo" food. In other words, turn all our fish into omnivores (without them knowing it). What do you think?

[leebca]

WELCOME TO REEFLAND !

Watch when you quote the Lee. I wrote that Dreams formula would be good for Carnivores and Omnivores (not herbivores).

I understand the desire to have a one-fits-all food, but Nature didn't arrange life like that. Every fish has its group and within that group has preferential foods it eats. If it wasn't arranged like this then sections of reef would only have a single family of fish in it, since they would drive out their competitors. Humans would be saddened by the lack of diversity and the fact that the more than 6,500 different fishes in the ocean might turn into just a few hundred. Fishes have their niche (thank goodness! )

What drives a fish to eat abnormal foods is starvation. I posted a new sticky today on this subject. It is:
Does Your Fish Eat Like a Pig? - Not so Good?

Like I point out in the above post, starvation doesn't necessarily relate to volume, it more accurately relates to nutrition. If a fish isn't getting its proper nutrition, it will eat almost whatever comes into the tank. We need to follow Nature's guidelines:
Feeding Marine Fish and Fish Nutrition

In my FOWLR tank the fishes get their nutriiton. So my Regal Angel passes up the Herbivore food (and some Carnivore foods it doesn't like). Likewise my Tangs pass up the Carnivore food (chopped whole fish, or living hermit crab sans shell, which my Harlequin Tusk patiently waits for, after the Herbivore feeding).

You can indeed do as you propose, force the fish to eat foods they wouldn't in nature, but you will ultimately be condemning the fish to a shorter and less healthy life in your tank. Nature isn't forgiving to those fish that would not follow their purpose in life.

Thanks for your post. Hope you'll stick(y) around. ;;

[Ixthys]

You can indeed do as you propose, force the fish to eat foods they wouldn't in nature, but you will ultimately be condemning the fish to a shorter and less healthy life in your tank. Nature isn't forgiving to those fish that would not follow their purpose in life.

Thanks for your post. Hope you'll stick(y) around. ;;

Thanks for your insight.

I'm not sure that "condemning" is the best word. For instance, humans that are vegitarians are fighting their omnivore nature, but clearly can lead a healthy lifestyle if the right nutrients are added to their vegan diet. By encapsulating the food for fish, I can provide both meat and veggies (and vitamins, etc.), and allow their body to select out the proper nutrients it needs, regardless if it is a carnivore or herbivore.

Just some "food" for thought! ;;

[leebca]

You bring up a good issue --- human diets.

Humans are the only animal, to the best of my knowledge, that has the free will to set aside what is natural to its well being. We are omnivores, no doubt in my mind (though others might disagree).

But what makes us omnivores? It is primarily the length of our intestinal track. A carnivore (e.g., lion) has a very short intestinal track. A herbivore (e.g., cow) has a long (and complicated) intestinal track. The omnivore has a medium length. Humans have a medium length intestinal track.

The fundamental length difference relates to health. The short intestinal track is meant to extract nutrients from the food quickly, because meat putrefies in the intestinal track. Thus, the track must be short to avoid poisoning the carnivore. The herbivore track is long because it takes time to extract the nutrients from tough plants. This, and plants are not quick to putrefy in the system makes it all work out.

But if you make a herbivore eat carnivore foods, the foods that would pass quickly through the carnivore digestive track are now 'stuck' in the herbivore track, leading to intestinal disorders.

The herbivore will eat it and it will contain the nutrients you mention, but the food will be bad for its intestinal track and thus the diet does indeed condemn the fish to a shortened, unhealthy life.