Here in Utah, just about every year, a guy named “Joe” calls out to the fish-community that he has to move a ton (literally) of fish food. You see, he buys fish food from a major supplier in bulk and sometimes accrues too much. He then puts the word out, and the hordes start coming…for $11/case food! Some people that waited til the end of the day even got it for free!

Now, in case you don’t know, a case of food like brine shrimp is 36 blister packs or at least 9 pounds of food! What can the average hobbyist do with all that before it goes bad? Some of this food will get freezer burned in a matter of months – especially the bulk packs (like krill) that do not have the cubes. Additionally, some of this food was huge…the krill were at least 1″ each, some almost 2″!

Anyways, I had a half case of “Super-Shrimp” (brine with HUFA additive), and a half case of bulk packed krill. I decided that in order to more easily feed my fish, to prevent freezer burn, and to set me up with a years supply of fish/coral food that I had to finally take the plunge (literally) and make my own food.

So, I went to my freezer and to my tank stand and collected up the following:

10 packs of Super Shrimp

10 Packs of Krill

10 packs of Mysis Shrimp (from last years Joe-purchase)

5-8 partially used blister packs of miscellaneous frozen foods like brine, mysis, cyclops, coral food, etc.

1/2  tube of freeze-dried rotifers (BSD)

1/2 tube of arctic copepods (BSD)

1/2 tube golden pearls (BSD)

3 Tbsp misc fish flake food

2 Tbsp Coral Frenzy coral food

8 sheets of Nori (broken up into 1/2″ pieces)

2 Tbsp of left over unflavored orange sushi eggs (Tobiko)

1 Tbsp Garlic Extract

So, to concoct this smelly witches brew I first went for the Kitchen-Aid blender…caught! Nancy (my wife) saw me and gave me the word that this was not happening. So the next option was the old food processor handed down from my grandparents. This would work.

The only thing I needed the food processor for was to break down the krill into more manageable size – say 3/8″ maximum. This way there would be small particles of krill but also larger pieces for the anemones and larger fish. I put all the krill in the food processor, waited for it to thaw for a while, then used the pulse and low speed to get’er done! Smell is now filling the kitchen…

Next I had to pop out all the food from the 20+ packs. I popped them into bowls and put them in the kitchen garden window to thaw…more smell fills the kitchen. I love my wife for putting up with this crap!

Once everything was thawed it was time to get the wife’s favorite salad bowl and mix it all together. Then I just put two ladles worth in each Glad sandwich bag and stacked them flat in the freezer. Once frozen they were about 1/4″ thick.

Now, when I need to feed my tank I simply break off a couple of square inches, hit the feed button on my Apex, and toss it in…everything gets fed at once…Excellent!

See you next year Joe…Thanks!

Related posts:

1. UTMAS & Suzy’s Reef–Breeding Fish presentation
2. Eric Borneman on Coral Fragging
3. Overclocking your saltwater tank with a Sulfur Denitrator
4. August Meeting – Coral Fragging Demo and More
5. Free Food, Free Corals, and an awesome COOKIE EXCHANGE!