Aquaponic Gardening

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High-quality natural feeds: not made primarily from wheat, corn or soybean!

I've been on the hunt for a more natural and complete source of packaged fish food in order to cultivate healthier plants with fewer mineral deficiencies.  Here is what I've found so far:

http://www.miraclekoifood.com/home.html

More expensive, but made from all-natural ingredients, mainly bugs, that fish would actually be eating in their natural habitats!  Only available in 1-lb quantities.

 

http://www.fosterandsmithaquatics.com/product/prod_display.cfm?pcat...

A little cheaper and available in larger volumes; more like your typical fish food, but with better ingredients.

 

I'm going to try out the Foster and Smith feed and see how it goes.

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Let us know how it goes as many of us are interested.

Hi,

I have been making my own feed, from peas, shrimp, and spirlina and knox jell.

 

The first batch went great.   The second batch went even better when I added garlic, the fish went crazy over the mixture.    I did run into problem with mold on the batch in the fridge so for the next batch that I do I will use smaller sizes for the mixture.

 

Since I plan on doing plenty more of this, I have decided to buy the jell in bulk, So I went with this ->

 

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000MGOYPO

 

This should give me a huge supply of fish food in jell form.    Next I intend on growing my own peas, then will consider using the BSF I have for protein.   Or perhaps might go back to duck weed for a protein source.

 

While I was waiting for my jell to come in I did order this fish food ->

 

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0002DK91U 

 

I got it because it had high reviews, and I have noticed a big improvement both in my plants and the fish.   Floating pellets is great because you can see how much they eat verses the Jell, but  with time I am betting I can get just the right amount of my homemade batch.

 

I have been buying Rice in 20 lb bags, and making up like 20 gallons of rice to spike my BSF production.    If I get enough BSF, I should have enough for fish food,   Freeze the BSF, add to the food mix instead of the shrimp.    I am considering switching to squash instead of rice, just need to get my gardening skills down for that.

 

But I guess you are avoiding wheat, corn for the GMO's / GE ?

 

Cheers

 

 

 

 

Oh yeah, another thought is to use dog food, perhaps puppy chow.    It is sometime easier to find natural food for a common feed available all ready.

Halemart,

   You might try growing some Lufa to feed your BSF bins too, the few chunks of lufa that were kinda nasty that I cut out and didn't wash for sponges seem to be well enjoyed by my BSF and the skins I pull off the ones I harvest go to my bins now too.  They are a great monster vine plant that grows great in our long hot summers (just gotta give it some regular water.)  They do need a good trellis and don't let them climb a tree near the power lines.

Thanks TC,  got a link where I can get some?   or maybe I can get some seed from you?
Yea, I got lots of seed around.

Halemart,

I'm avoiding Kaytee koi pellets and dog and cat foods simply because I don't believe that fish are their healthiest eating food fit for cows and goats.  All of those products and most fish food too, is simply agricultural byproducts consisting of large amounts of starches from corn, wheat and soy combined with a potpourri of animal parts.  In general, I prefer to emulate nature, believing that she knows best.  It is more of a personal feeling based on years of experience as a biologist/ecologist than any real quantifiable reason.  My theory is that my fish and plants will be happier, healthier and more robust on a natural diet.

And I'm not interested, at this time, in producing my own feed, thus the search for a packaged alternative.  I really like the ingredient list for the Miracle Koi food....similar to your own feed, made from bugs and plants not cheap starches and land-animal flesh!

At some point I'm sure I'll start experimenting with growing fish food myself; algae, duckweed and insects should be all you need to provide a complete diet for most of the fish that we are raising.

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