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Making your own feed
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For those in terested in making their own fish food.
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Latest Activity: Dec 18, 2020
Making my own fish food.
The reason I started making my own feed was because I wanted to know and control what my fish eat and lower that portion of my overhead.
There are several factors when dealing with making your own feed. Sometimes it is not cost effective for a business to make its own feeds, while some hobbyists will go to any extreme as long as they get results. I classify myself in the second category.
The first factor is to find the diet requirements for the particular species of fish you grow. Try to find out what they eat in the wild, when and how often. Are they plant eaters or carnivores? What is the protein content ratio?
The second thing I look at is maturity. What stage of maturity are these particular fish going through?
And the third question I ask is what season is the feed for?
To make things less artificial and more natural, I also ask what their natural environment is like. What do they like and dislike.
I started out many years ago raising Fancy Guppies and Siamese Fighting fish and supplemented their flake diet with mosquito larva I raised in a tank on the side. Live food always seems to perk them up so I have continued this practice to this day. Today I have a 10 x 20 “bug shed” attached to one of the greenhouses, raising crickets, red wigglers, meal worms, mosquito larva, grubs and black solider fly larva for my chickens and fish as both live and pelleted feed.
To be as sustainable as possible, I do not use wild or farm raised fish to feed my fish. The only way my fish get fed is through recycling of waste from another process. For example: By using aquaponics, I produce about three times more bio matter compared to field/ bed (dirt) raised crops. I divide this into four groups. One goes to compost, another to feed livestock, the third pile is for the insects and lastly a pile to make feed.
I try to follow natures lead and prescribe to her patterns so I use grains more sparingly as a direct feed and instead feed it to the insects that naturally consume them.
So the next thing to consider is what portion of what. After you figure what you want in the feed it is a simple matter to grind you ingredients with a food processor until you have a fine powder. Next is to choose what you want to use as a binder. I use a combination of seaweed and blue-green algae as my binder along with starches that come naturally.
Today I use a commercial bio-matter press to produce my pellets but you can do the same thing in a smaller scale with a spaghetti press.
I hope this interest some of you. Please feel free to contact me with any questions. I’ll try to respond in a reasonable fashion.
Cheers
Discussion Forum
mosquito fish as feeders
Started by Aaron Hardiman Apr 7, 2015. 0 Replies 0 Likes
anyone raise any feeder fish?Here is an abstract to a paper that fed mosquito fish to barramundi with positive results. Ive read mosquito fish are maybe the easiest fish to breed and require very…Continue
Brine Shrimp, Fairy Shrip
Started by Bob Campbell. Last reply by Michael Garver Jr. Mar 26, 2015. 7 Replies 0 Likes
I'm wondering if anyone has tried to raise brine shrimp for fish food. I found this paper which seems to have…Continue
thanks for the most usefull info source ive found yet :)
Started by larry poe May 30, 2014. 0 Replies 0 Likes
love the info and ideas from this group. already found lots of useful stuff for not only my AP but for the rest of the farm as well.Continue
Is it possible to reproduce Duckweed along with Tilapia in an IBC tank? Goal - Lowering ammonia & oxygination with DuckWeed, while avoiding over feeding.
Started by Irvin Carrero. Last reply by TCLynx Mar 4, 2014. 27 Replies 0 Likes
I could not make the duckweed proliferate in my Tilapia tank. They would not give it a chance to thrive if it was placed in their tank. This made me ask myself: What would happen if I added an…Continue
Tags: IBC, tank., Tilapia, a, proliferation
Comment Wall
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Comment by Chris Carr on May 4, 2012 at 3:47pm
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Has anyone attempted to breakdown the overall amino acid requirements for tilapia (or a specific type) and compared this with common feed sources? I assume the degree of error in the amino acid composition is going to be high however. I am going to assume carb and fat content sourcing is easy but you would require a minimum of 2 sources for protein and at least 2 more for required minerals to formulate a complete diet. What works and what is economical for producing a feed is going to very greatly based on location, or really a specific source, not the ingredient itself.
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Comment by marty lininger on May 4, 2012 at 3:29pm
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i have not spent much time considering BSF or worms because they seem to be labor intensive to remove from their grow medium. always looking for more info though.
as far as azolla goes, i would be interested to know what mineral advantage it has over duckweed.
what i like about DW is that it grows so fast, and has high protein (if you harvest it young - maybe that is why some believe azolla has higher protein, they compared to "old" duckweed?) also, Omega-3 i want to have high Omega-3 Tilapia and i believe it can be done with DW, many studies show DW given to chickens produce Omega-3 eggs, and now you can buy those in the local grocery store, for a premium of course, just like my hoped for Omega-3 Tilapia
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i have done some research on pellet mills. i am a little confused about the difference of pelletizing and extrusion though. some descriptions make them sound like the same process, and some make them sound different. my concern is that extrusion is touted as the way to make feed float, and pelletizing makes it sink.
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Comment by Dave & Yvonne Story on May 4, 2012 at 2:41pm
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duckweed vs azolla
a friend, Maynhia, turned me on to azolla as a better choice to duckweed. A little research showed me: azolla has higher protein and other minerals compared to duckweed.
My first try of azolla: My fish prefered the azolla to duckweed. I had to purchase it again. Now I have azolla growing good.
My source. http://jandjaquafarms.com/
Now I am growing chaya and moringa.. suggested by Gil Romero Yucatan.
easiest plants to grow.
passing it forward,
Dave
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Comment by TCLynx on May 4, 2012 at 1:33pm
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Have you done much research into pellet mills yet Marty? Here in Central FL if you have a huge source of bio waste or food waste you might be able to use bsf larva and or worms as a animal protein source to make an alternative to fish meal after rendering but the processing is probably a bit more than the average backyard enthusiast is up for. (note to self, the cook won't let me render worms in the kitchen.)
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hello, my name is Marty Lininger. i live in central FL. i am interested in producing my own pelletized Tilapia feed using duckweed as a major component. i also hope to process my own fish. that would give me fish carcass to add to the feed.
i am interested to know if anyone is pursuing similar ideas.
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Comment by Carey Ma on March 4, 2012 at 12:23am
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This is what I do to grow sprouts. Get a trusted source so you know it's not contaminated internally.
I fist wash my seeds in a container that holds twice the amount of seeds in a weak hydrogen peroxide. Then I pour this water out and replace with fresh water. The seeds then are poured into a clean pillow case, then placed in the soaking container where water is circulated over the seeds for few hours (4 – 8) depending on type of seed. Once the seeds begin to crack they are poured onto trays that are on scales to determine amount. I use commercial restaurant glass trays that are about 1.5’ times three feet, which holds about 2.5 pounds of seed. These trays are placed in the bottom slot of portable racks, which are placed in the shade side of the greenhouse. Each day the trays are moved one slot up and at the end of the cycle (top trays) we have ten pounds of edible (feed) product.
Cropking offers a similar set-up.
Common causes for sprouting failure:
- Dirty equipment
- Insufficient air flow/ humidity too high
- Insufficient rinsing
- Contaminated source of water or seeds (internally)
- Roots/ shoots are allowed to dry out
- Seeds are left in standing water (not enough oxygen)
- Air or water temperature is high or too low
- Poor rate of germination of seed
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Comment by David Owens on February 22, 2012 at 1:07pm
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That's true! My bad, we do rinse the wheat berries and seeds we buy in a very light vinegar/water solution and then rinse well before during and after sprouting. You should really do some research on the topic before feeding your loved ones any "experiments." Sorry to leave out a very important step
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Important thing to know for growing sprouts (where you eat the seed and root and all) is you want seeds that are clean of any seed born pathogens so you either need to sterilize the outside of the seeds before sprouting or get seeds that are For sprouting. You need to do the rinsing regularly (or set up some means to automatically do it) with clean water since raw sprouts grow quite nicely right along with some of the bacteria that can be less than comfortable to consume/eliminate.
The Shoots like David describes where you are cutting the shoot above the seed is far safer and easier but definitely different than sprouts.
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For most of my sprouts I use a standard black seedling grow tray that I get from my local hydroponics store for a dollar each: http://www.4hydroponics.com/growroom/items.asp?ItemNo=blackPropTray The humidity dome is about $5 ea. http://www.4hydroponics.com/growroom/items.asp?ItemNo=tallDome They come in black and white and I use a simple 4' shop light from Home Depot $10. I used to use sure to grow pads as a media but through trial and error I have found using no media works just as well. My wife does bean sprouts in Mason jars but it seems like a lot of work as she washes or rinses the sprouts out a few times a day as they are germinating. Any time she forgets to do this or we leave town for a day or two we lose the sprouts. Otherwise it's pretty basic. The best trial would be to go get some wheat grass seeds from the supermarket/organic grocery store's bulk food section, lay them across the bottom of a tray, mist with water and cover with humidity dome. Wait about 4 to 7 days and you will have 4" to 6" tall wheat grass. cut with scissors and juice in juicer...delicious and nutritious!
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