Comments on: 3. Fish Food

By: Dave

Dave — Sat, 03 May 2025 08:37:47 +0000

Go ahead and email me at [email protected]

By: John Henry

John Henry — Fri, 02 May 2025 10:58:08 +0000

“In reply to John Henry ……… I don’t think its the food. Sounds more like a filtration issue. When I feed gel food it clouds the water a little bit but the filtration I have is huge so it rapidly clears.”

Is it possible to chat to you via email so I can send photos of my sump set up or do you prefer I describe my filtration in this chat? I seem to be having issues with my static submerged sump & not quite sure what is wrong.

By: Dave

Dave — Fri, 02 May 2025 08:20:32 +0000

In reply to John Henry.

In reply to John Henry ……… I don’t think its the food. Sounds more like a filtration issue. When I feed gel food it clouds the water a little bit but the filtration I have is huge so it rapidly clears.

By: John Henry

John Henry — Wed, 30 Apr 2025 07:18:06 +0000

Hello Dave,
I attempted your Gel Food recipe & used tinned salmon, dried spirulina & added some fish meal as per the recipe.
I wasn’t sure how much fish meal to add as it didn’t state the quantity & so I put an amount equal to the spirulina (about 50 grams).
After feeding a tiny amount, the tank went extremely cloudy & still hasn’t cleared after a couple of days.
I’m pretty sure I’ve overdosed on the fish meal. so can you kindly tell me the correct quantity?
I used 425grams of tinned salmon & 50 grams of spirulina, all mixed in with the plain gelatine.

By: Dave

Dave — Fri, 25 Apr 2025 09:03:47 +0000

In reply to Andreas H..

In reply to Andreas …… Food makes little or no difference to the ability of fish to spawn or raising the spawn. Just fed them the highest protein food one can find. Shredded frozen tilapia is excellent as is shredded shrimp. The various gel foods are also excellent. Food is just not the big deal everyone makes it out to be.

By: Andreas H.

Andreas H. — Thu, 24 Apr 2025 08:28:07 +0000

Hi Dave,
I was wondering whether the home made gel food recipes you suggest would be a good way to condition fish for spawning and to raise any subsequent fry?
Various online sources suggest live food, in particular live baby brine shrimp, as the best or only way to do so but as a father of three with a full time job, I definitely don’t have time for such things. I do however have the time to grind up offal, vegetable matter and various other ingredients and to freeze them in large batches once in a while.

Thanks for the very informative website.

Andreas

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 16 Apr 2025 11:56:44 +0000

This one looks good and quite cheap for commercial food:
https://www.sera.de/en/product/pond/sera-sterlet-pellets/
Crude Protein 50.0%, Crude Fat 15.0%, Crude Fiber 2.5%, Moisture 5.0%, Crude Ash 8.0%.

It says it is for sturgeons but I guess Goldfish and Ancistrus should like it?

By: Dave

Dave — Thu, 10 Apr 2025 00:19:22 +0000

In reply to Anonymous. In reply to anonymous ..... dried mealworms are an excellent food but kind of expensive. Can you find a pelleted food with over 45% protein? Or just shred frozen tilapia filets.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Mon, 07 Apr 2025 14:53:19 +0000

I see you talk about earthworms also being a good food, but all I find are dried mealworms, are these also good? I have been feeding Tetra Flakes to my fish, and it’s true it clouds the water after a while, even with decent filtration such as undergravel filter + hang on back filter in what should not be heavy stocking aquarium I think (4 comet goldfish + 2 clown loaches + 1 Ancistrus Gold) on a 65 Gallon tank.
Composition it says 51% protein + 29% fat + 2% fiber + 10% ashes, so being a really low amount of carbohydrates it should be good, right?

By: Dave

Dave — Wed, 19 Feb 2025 01:27:59 +0000

In reply to Han. In reply to Han ..... Commercial foods based on insect larvae are generally quite good food and can be used as the staple food. But note that the bug bites formula is only 20% insect larvae and only 40% protein. I personally like food with greater than 45% protein levels.