Homemade Food

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Prepared foods have been a reliable food source for aquarium hobbyists for decades. These products have been designed to last long term on shelves, and suit a variety of fish. It is only in the last 20 years that the hobby has seen a marked improvement on prepared foods nutritiousness, as scientific knowledge of biology and physiology migrates from novel scientific research to the marine aquarium industry. As of today, more independent brands are available, and cover different types of food. The home aquarist has also evolved, and more hobbyist are now creating their own food.

Benefits include the knowledge of how fresh ingredients are, knowing where these ingredients come from (Australian caught seafood offers safer and more ecologically friendly insurances due to our increased regulations and awareness), can be custom made to suit the tank inhabitants (more herbivorous, carnivorous or omnivorous fish species) and can be custom made to suit the feeding type of fish (surface feeding fish, midwater or planktonic fish or grazers). Coral specific foods target the smaller polyps of SPS, and are therefore of smaller size (unsuitable for most fish). These foods often contain zooplankton and microplankton. Fish food targets fish which can move towards their food. They therefore contain large and small particles to suit multiple fish mouth sizes, and contain fish, meat and plant material.

Common ingredients include: - Fish flesh - Shellfish (whole) - Algae (e.g. Nori, sargassum) - Prepared foods (e.g. flake foods, pellets) - Supplements (e.g. spirulina, omega 3, asxatanthin)

A range of methods can be used, but most commonly, a range of ingredients are added into a blender, mixed until the desired texture and particle size is reached, and placed in zip locked bags before being frozen.

Resources

• Wade's Homemade Mash Recipe - reefs.org
• Reef Aquarium Food by Dallas Warren - OZ REEF