Homemade Fish Food

For general aquarium maintenance, most of the commercial flake and pellet foods available to the aquarium hobbyist are adequate. However when breeding rainbowfishes, they require a highly nutritious diet in order to spawn and produce large numbers of eggs. Unfortunately, there is no single perfect food. Therefore, every serious aquarist should try to feed as wide a variety of food as possible to provide a balance diet for their fishes.

The best food for your fishes is, of course, to duplicate their natural diet. This is however, easier said than done. For the serious aquarist, it is a good idea to formulate your own captive diet. This diet can be supplemented with live or frozen food such as bloodworms and a good quality bite-sized pellet. The following recipe is one that I have been formulating for a number of years and have found it to be very satisfactory.

Vitamin supplementation is not necessary. Although, overdose of most vitamins is unlikely to occur as excess vitamins are removed from the body via the kidneys. However, fat soluble vitamins such as A, D, E, and K may cause problems if given in large doses. Brewers yeast, cereals, fish liver and various fish meats and oils contain most of the essential vitamins when fresh, and are the key ingredients in most commercial flake or pelleted foods.

When preparing a homemade diet, which includes fresh or frozen fish or fishmeal, be aware that certain fish groups contain thiaminase. Thiaminase is an enzyme, which destroys vitamin B1 (Thiamine), resulting in a deficiency of that vitamin. A deficiency can be avoided if a vitamin supplement containing B1 is used when preparing fishes such as minnows, herring, mackerel, smelt, whitefish (whitebait), and anchovy for use in your fish's diet. Sources of thiamine (B1) are dried milk, yeast distillers, and liver.

Optional extras can include: fish roe, mosquito larvae, spirulina, vitamin supplement or any other gourmet foods you can think of, but stay away from animal meats. Animal meats contain saturated fats, and most rainbowfishes are unable to utilise this form of fat. Fish, fish by-products and seafoods contain high levels of unsaturated fats. Therefore they are a good source of food for your fishes. Choose only good quality fresh/frozen ingredients, and avoid products containing preservative or other additives.

Preparation
Blanch beef liver in boiling water to seal in blood content, otherwise it will pollute the aquarium water when thawed. Prawns are prepared by removing the head and spiked tail, leaving the body shell intact. In a food processor, chop and blend ingredients 1 to 6 with a small amount of water to form a smooth consistency. Mix all of the above and add dissolved gelatine or agar. If you add a vitamin supplement then add it last and mix thoroughly.

Pack into freezer bags or containers to a thickness of about 12 mm and freeze. After freezing, remove from refrigerator, cut into convenient size such as a daily feeding block and store in air-tight container in freezer. The block can then be cut or grated into bite-size portions for feeding to your fishes. I have found this homemade food is readily accepted by all of my fishes including the smaller blue-eyes, and corydoras catfish.

© Copyright Adrian R. Tappin
Updated July, 2005.