Eric's "famous" coral food recipe

[EricHugo]

As promised, here is my recipe for coral chow - with a bit of a preface.

I rarely have or use all of the ingredients listed, and I don't think it will make a difference over the long term. I also use this, or a variation of it, for my homemade fish food (I leave the fish food chunker and add various algae). Basically, I either use what is left over from the last round of food-making, or I go to a few stores and get whatever they might have at the time. I feed this to the tank at night, generally, and would add that for some of the ingredients, I have no idea if they have any specific role. Its just what I have done before. I have also changed a bit with some other foods now available (since I have written this last time)

I try to get a mix of particle sizes involved to accomodate not just all sizes of polyps, but also feed other inverts that filter feed.

Fresh seafood:

Some combination of the ingredients below and it makes up a relatively small percent of the total - maybe 10-20%?

shrimp (I squeeze the heads and usually use the "meat" in the fish food)
oysters - blend well and may have Vibriostatic properties
various other shellfish (mussels, clams, periwinkles, etc. - the bloodier, the better...live is great (shucking sucks but gives a good final product)
Fish roe (sometimes available at Asian markets)


Frozen foods

This makes up perhaps 20-30% of the mix - some are from an aquarium store, some from the grocer

Artemia - adult
Artemia nauplii (baby brine shrimp) (enriched, if possible)
Mysid shrimp
Sea urchin roe
Flying fish roe

Dried Aquarium Foods

this makes up the majority of my mix - probably 40%

Golden Pearls - all sizes available, but a majority of the smallest size
Cyclop-Eze
VibraGro
Powdered marine flake

Phytoplankton

makes up maybe 2% of mix or less?

Tahitian Blend (I use DT's seperately)

Supplements

makes up maybe 2-5% of mix?

Super Selco ( a big squeeze)
Sea Green Vitamin supplements - various brands, powdered, from Whole Foods market

I have also been known to add Echinacea capsules, the skins of colorful vegetables and fruits, various pigment complexes of carotenoids, etc. and/or antioxidants from Whole Foods market.

In terms of preparation, I puree the solid seaoods, mix in the frozen ingredients, soak the dry/powdered ingredients in the wet ingredients, combine them all together and let them sit for a few hours, and then freeze them into small flats in ziplocs in the freezer. I usually wind up with about 50.00 in foods per batch and make about a gallon or so of food that lasts a couple or more months.

I'll leave this thread open, but stuck, to invite comments and questions.

[zenya]

Thanks for posting,Eric. I never tried vibra-gro, does it come in pellet form?
I'll look for it regardless,it'll be ground into mush anyway

[EricHugo]

comes in a large and small pellet - I use the small pellet.

[Fishysan]

Great, thanks for the "recipe" update!

You know, that might be good on crackers!

I gather the various pigment complexes" are to enhance the available pigments for coral color?

BTW, the how many of the Echinacea powdered capsules are you adding to a typical batch? 1 or 2?

Thanks again Eric!

[EricHugo]

Last time I used it, I think I added about 10? Haven' t done it in awhile cause last time I bough Echinacea to stave of impending cold, I got an Echinacea/Goldenseal tablet with some fillers and decided not to use it. Yes, on the pigment rationale and for antioxidant benefits, if any. Like I said, I have no real evidence that it helps, but it seems to be a general truism in multicellular animals that such things are fairly conserved. I certainly never saw any downside from their use, but that doesn't mean it doesn't exist, too. Some of these things may be toxic...I have no idea.

[Fishysan]

toxic indeed.. who knows, we can be careful and resonably smart about a number of things, but who knows all the things we end up putting in our tanks. Things do survive though, and, as we do well prosper..

Of course, I had a little OOPs last night, in a clam crisis while being tired, I reached into the tank.. and my tank is still buggered tonight - a bit of a haze in the water and had a bit of an oil skim to the sump water surface. In my haste, my usual "rinse the first layer of skin off my arms" was omitted.. need to get some gloves!!

The skimmer's still not skimming, and I'm running carbon, hopefully it will clear up by tomorrow.

But I digress.. sorry. Who knows what "toxins" I've introduced.

[michaelg]

Eric- you forgot the second part of the disclaimer in the fish recipe- that you are not accountable for any resulting divorces/whaps upside the head- after the spouse sees, smells, and realizes you used the margahrita blender. Also, most food processors do not seal well enough on the top to prevent spills. The mix gets pretty thick and more liquid needs to be added through the process or you will burn out the blender motor (I already killed one

I noticed that you still do the fish food seperate from the coral mix. I never quite understood this, though I have relatively small fish species in the tanks. I grind heavy at the start and then slowly less as more is added, finishing with a some handchopped to give some decent chuncks for the fish. Also, I make it by the blender, which gives about 8-12 baggies. I keep 3 and sell the rest at cost or trade. The 3 bags last me 3 months, though I have a relatively small system. Point is, it makes a lot of food just from a standard blender. The home brew is loved by fish- I have used it for fist foods for bangaiis and other fish, and have received great reports of the fish going nuts over the stuff. For shucking clams and mussels, I have an old hammer head and just crack them right open.

Michael

[EricHugo]

Michael:

Good points.

And, to be honest, whether I do coral food separate from fish food depends on what's available, how much, and how much effort I decide to put in it that go round.

[ReefHobbyist]

I have a question about feeding time. You said you feed at night, but do you target feed or just put it in the water column and let the current deliver it?

Thanks,
Scott

[EricHugo]

I just put it in the water.

[Harpo]

Hi Eric

Thanks for the recipe!

I also have koi-- I was wondering if a high end koi food based on shrimp would be suitable for the dry component of the recipe?

Thank you, Mark

[EricHugo]

I know nothing about koi except that Larry Jackson has a cool pool full of them and I see them at some Chinese restaraunts, they seen to poop a lot, and there was a "rogue" koi in a funny scene in the movie, Duece Bigalow, Male Gigolo.

Seriously, I can only imagine there is room for improvement in all prepared animal feeds...but I have no idea what is appropriate for koi.

[michaelg]

I think he was asking if the dry koi food could be used in the marine recipe. I would say look at the ingredients in the food. Personally, for feeding animals from the ocean, I try to use mostly ingredients from the ocean. The only dry ingredients I put into my mix are some golden pearls, spirulina powder, and nori sheets. I have been also throwing in some Hikari freeze dried plankton cause it was onsale, but probably won't regularly include this.

Michael

[EricHugo]

Yeah, I know...but have no idea what's in koi food or what their requirements are in terms of providing equivalent nutrition to marines...likely to be different in needs for various AA's. should have made that more clear.

[Harpo]

The koi food in question lists ingredients of white fish meal, wheatgerm meal, red shrimp meal, skimmed soybean meal, skimmed rice bran, yeast. 35% protein 3.5% fat.

I'm wondering how that compares to the powdered marine flake listed in the dried ingredients part of the recipe.

Mark

[EricHugo]

I don't know. A list of ingredients and the nutritional profile might show them to be similar or very different...and I suppose it depends on which marine flake we are talking about. As I said, that recipe is far from cast in stone. Try the koi food...I doubt its going to kill anything. OTOH, a can of flake food for marines costs about 2 bucks.. The time its taken for us to reply to these posts probably isn't even worth that two bucks, you know?

[BLUE LAGOON]

Eric
I want to say thanks for your visit to St.Pete that the Tampa reef club had.ENJOY

But on your food for your corals goes.By feeding your fish,then adding your exotic coral food into the system.Do you have any problems with and out break of unwanted algaes?

You we were envoled in another thread,about the guy in Puerto Rico.About him having the Elkhorn coral in his tank?The thread seemed to stop for now.I would love to have this coral in my reef tank someday,like all other reefers.But he seemed the ONLY one having it in a reef tank.And keeping it ALIVE.If it's the real deal,would like to hear the update on this coral.
Thanks
Curt

[EricHugo]

>>But on your food for your corals goes.By feeding your fish,then adding your exotic coral food into the system.Do you have any problems with and out break of unwanted algaes? <<

LOL - if I had algae problems, why would I use this food? I haven;t had algae probelms in my tanks for ..well, ever. At least not since the first time I ever set up a reef for about three months afterwards. I get seasonal cyanobacteria blooms every year that last about a month and go away all on their own.

A couple things here...first, there is a relatively low correlation of nutrients and algae if there is adequate grazing. If you have an algae problem, unless the tank is seriously set up wrong or mismanaged, or its a very unpalatable algae, more grazers will fix the problem. Second, I don't have high dissolved nutrients (my tank was one in Ron's first article in his series on metals...you can see the data points - very low nitrogen and phsophorous). Therefore, no algae problem related to nutrients, even if algae were directly related to nutrients. Finally, it is my distinct impression and experience that our tanks can ordinarily handle rather monstrous loads of food if you either have good uptake or export or both. Most people that begin to up their food inputs quit if they see a hint of algae starting. Its like when you first start a tank...algae respond to an increase in nutrients quickly...as do bacteria and cyano - they eventually reach a new stable level and the nutrient levels in the water drop back down again....you can do this over and over if the tank is set up right until you see the amount of food you can put in a tank till you eventually max out your uptake and export...at that point, you stop, or you increase uptake and export and feed even more. Or, you add more grazers. You force the bioload in tanks anyway...why not force the grazine, too, of it means keeping the energy available through food in the water higher. Personally, I don;t think I have really high grazing in the tank, I just have a good feeling already what my inputs can be without causing a problem. Sometimes, I may go several nights without feeding, and then decide to dump a bottle of DT's in the tank (32 oz) and a 1/4 cup of Golden Pearls. Or take half a flat of the food above and add it all at once. (No, I'm not kidding in the slightest). Best case scenario is not add foods that tend to cause higher dissolved nutrients (live foods) - and ideally, I'd be culturing live foods and keeping a steady flow into the tank. Time and practicality limit my ability to do this.

Its no magic...just ecology and biology in action. and...as has been said over and over again by myself and many others.....patience. Lots of it.

[EricHugo]

Just another hint from what I can say in retrospect of all these years...In general, most folks tend to sweat the small stuff....

What's the best way to add calcium
What K rating is the best for lighting
What's the best brand of additives.

These are non-issues. All the big issues, at least in my mind, have very little thought paid to them, and relatively poor solutions available.

The algae thing has plagued so many people with well maintained and set-up tanks for so many years and its a small thing to fix. Do a water change, increase the flow, buy more snails and tangs and blennies, and sit back and relax

[SawCJack00]

Hi Eric, I just made up a batch of "Borneman's mush" this weekend and thought I'd ask a question as well as present a tip if you think what I'm doing will not harm the fish or corals (I'm fairly certain that it doesn't because I've been doing it for almost 2 years now ). What I do is to mix my mush then pour it (or scrape it) into ice cube trays. I then feeze it and put the food cubes into ziplock bags for use. One thing that I noticed with my first batch was the "distinctive" smell that it left on my hands after feeding. In my second batch I decided to add cloves of fresh garlic as a preventative measure for ich (I figured it couldn't hurt). I found that by doing this, the fishy oder left on my hands was now garlicy instead. To me being Italian and all, this is much more palatable, because even though I was vigorously before and after feeding, that "distinctive" smell didn't always come all the way off. Now if there is any remaining oder, at least, I like the oder! My question is do you see any harm in adding fresh garlic to the mush? I hope not as I just made up about 2 gallons of the stuff

[BLUE LAGOON]

I also used the Garlic, for 2 years now.And since then,there has been no Ich.But you might to want to try this instead.Instead using garlic cloves.You can go to grocery store,where they have vitamins.They sell Garlic tablets in the ( gel form).Just cut the capules, or puncher them and pour in.This makes it a lot easier than try to blend whole cloves of garlic.The gel will give you a better mixture.
Curt

[BLUE LAGOON]

I had been reading on the boards.That you can't get Golden Pearls.Does anybody have an up date on this?
Curt

[SPC]

Originally posted by EricHugo
Finally, it is my distinct impression and experience that our tanks can ordinarily handle rather monstrous loads of food if you either have good uptake or export or both.

Hi Eric,
I agree with this statement but was wondering if you would be a bit more specific on what you mean by "uptake" and "export"?
For instance, how do you get the detritus out of your tank?
Steve

[EricHugo]

Garlic shoudl be fine, though I am unawware of any direct proof of its utility against ich. As for uptake and export...ptake is when organisms use nutrients and produce biomass...i.e. growth and reproduction or sequestration into non-living mass (skeleton, etc.) - export is removal - via harvesting, skimming, water changes, etc.

[SPC]

Eric, I have read where you have stated that you don't use a skimmer, what would you say your main export is on your system?
Steve