Tank Journal Archive

[MagicJ]

My Banggai's have not been spawning as regularly as I would like and I suspect it is because of their current diet. I get a bit lazy at times :rolleyes and have just been serving up the standard pellets with a couple of feeds a week of frozen lobster eggs or plankton. I have tried then with frozen mysis but they just spit it out.

I would like to get a couple of successful spawns completed over the next 2-3 months so with that I mind I made a small purchase of marinara mix yesterday - 100g for $2 is pretty good value considering the cost of frozen fish food.

The mix consists of squid, prawn, fish, muscles and I added a couple of scallops.

Threw it all in the blender (my wife was interested how it was going to turn out so I had her approval). It was a bit dry so I added some Nannochloropsis together with a sheet of nori and a fair amount of pellets.

Put it all in a clip lock bag, squashed it out, and threw it in the freezer.

I tried it in the tank and they all love it :). I plan to feed this everyday for the next 2 weeks to see how the fish react. My guess is that they will spawn within a week (hopefully).

 

[ezza]

Great idea! It will be really interesting to follow. I tried marinara mix way back at the beginning but had no luck with it. I never blended it though, just finely chopped with a knife. It may certainly be a better and cheaper option for feeding. I recently tried the ring type food you suction onto the side of the tank and the fish think absolutely nothing at all of it. They won't touch it. Total waste of money.

 

[leodb89]

Saved as a bookmark for me :)

 

[Str8edge]

I use home made frozen food the main ingredient being marinara mix and find the fish love it my rough recipe is as follows
Marinara mix (washed)
1 packet frozen brine
1 packet frozen mysis
1 packet frozen cylcops
Garlic extract
Vitamen c
Amino acids
Reef roids
Nori sheets
+ what ever the supermarket has at the time I buy the marinara eg. White bait, scollaps, muscles etc..
I get a great feeding response much better then I ever had with purchased frozen/dried foods..

 

[leodb89]

I use home made frozen food the main ingredient being marinara mix and find the fish love it my rough recipe is as follows
Marinara mix (washed)
1 packet frozen brine
1 packet frozen mysis
1 packet frozen cylcops
Garlic extract
Vitamen c
Amino acids
Reef roids
Nori sheets
+ what ever the supermarket has at the time I buy the marinara eg. White bait, scollaps, muscles etc..
I get a great feeding response much better then I ever had with purchased frozen/dried foods..

What vitamin c do you use?

Also the packet of frozen foods to you thaw them in RO first?

 

[curly747]

The fish better love your mix. That beautiful looking plate of seafood is better than what i am eating tonight and probably all this week for that matter. Good luck with it. I loved your photos of your last batch.

 

[MagicJ]

Thanks @curly747 - hopefully there will be another spawn soon.

The mix does look pretty good - as @Str8edge mentioned it does need to be washed as mine was covered in parsley and maybe some other herbs.

 

[Str8edge]

What vitamin c do you use?

Also the packet of frozen foods to you thaw them in RO first?

Brightwell vitamin c there was something else we used to but I can't remember it.. We didn't thaw the frozen food just through it in the blender when and added a little RO to that just to help mix it all together.. The girlfriend did make me buy my own blender though.. :)

 

[macca_75]

Looks great @MagicJ

If you want to make "blocks" that are easy to snap off, just use a skewer and press it down when layed flat (as per your picture) to make a grid pattern when it is 1/2 frozen. The indentations are where it will snap when frozen (if that makes sense)

 

[MagicJ]

Looks great @MagicJ

If you want to make "blocks" that are easy to snap off, just use a skewer and press it down when layed flat (as per your picture) to make a grid pattern when it is 1/2 frozen. The indentations are where it will snap when frozen (if that makes sense)

Great idea ;) Another plan would be to use a piece of eggcrate or something similar ...

 

[Buddy]

Ive always just made flat sheets but I got over cutting it up after it was frozen. Then I tried the egg crate but it breaks way to easily when you try and push a frozen block from it. On my last batch I bought 6 ice cube trays and it works heaps better like this.

 

[leodb89]

Looks great @MagicJ

If you want to make "blocks" that are easy to snap off, just use a skewer and press it down when layed flat (as per your picture) to make a grid pattern when it is 1/2 frozen. The indentations are where it will snap when frozen (if that makes sense)

:poidh

 

[holly]

Great idea! It will be really interesting to follow. I tried marinara mix way back at the beginning but had no luck with it. I never blended it though, just finely chopped with a knife. It may certainly be a better and cheaper option for feeding. I recently tried the ring type food you suction onto the side of the tank and the fish think absolutely nothing at all of it. They won't touch it. Total waste of money.

Same here. Even the fat blenny won't eat it

 

[macca_75]

:poidh

It took me a year @leodb89 but here is the pic I was thinking off (Good old Facebook - regurgitating the same crap over and over.



OK - now I can finally get some closure....

 

[MagicJ]

OK - now I can finally get some closure....

I hope you have a good sleep tonight :p

 

[curly747]

It took me a year but here is the pic I was thinking off

......... well worth the wait