You can make your own fish food

EDIT: Although this recipe does work, I have since experimented some more, and found out that Agar works best when it reaches a boil. I recommend therefore to boil it in some water, before mixing it into the blend. Also use more agar than suggested here.

Although it may be daunting, making your own fish food is not that complicated. Making your own fish food, allows you to use fresh human grade materials and fine tune the ingredients to suite your fish. It is also quite affordable!

I did some research and got a lot of qualified help to get this recipe for fish food right, but you can change it, depending on your needs and what is available to you. I would not skip the spirulina and kelp though, because this wraps up many of the important nutrients that any fish needs (not only goldfish).

How to do it

Chop the carrot and squash into rough pieces and boil for 5 minutes. You don’t want to boil them but just make them tender. Add the peas and boil a few minutes more. I mostly did this because they were frozen and I wanted them to thaw. If you have a powerful blender, you may not even need this step, as your fish can eat the ingredients raw. I just needed them to soften for my smoothie blender to cope.

Add the vegetable, fish (in chunks) and shrimp into the blender. Add 1½ dl of water, as well as the Kelp and Spirulina powder. Blend until you have a lean mix. You may need to add more water if it won’t blend properly. I used some of the water that I boiled the vegetable in.

Pour the mix into a pot and heat it up, without boiling. You don’t want to cook the mix, but simply dissolve the Agar powder into it. I used 1½ teaspoons this time, but I will use 2 or 2½ next time, to get a more firm result. Stir for 3-4 minutes and let it cool for 10 minutes (this may vary if you use more Agar, so keep an eye on it).

Before it settles, pour into zip lock bags. Make a rolling movement, to get rid of all the air in the bag, before closing it. You can decide the thickness of the final plates, but don’t make them too thick, because they will be harder to break into chunks once frozen.

Let the bags cool, until he mixture settles and solidifies into a gel type of texture. Put the bags in the freezer and place them flat until they freeze.

How to use

When you want to feed your fish, simply break off a chunk, let it thaw and let the fish take bites off it. I used to break it up into smaller pieces, but this resulted in even more loose food.

My fish will spend hours cleaning up after feeding time, but will be ready for more food by the end of the day. I feed twice a day, some times changing it up with sinking pellets, or frozen artemia (brine shrimp) or blood worms.