Apistogrammas fed with spirulina supplement

[illumnae]

i'm gonna be mixing up my spirulina frozen brine shrimp this weekend. gonna take a 100g tab of frozen brine shrimp and defrost in a bowl, then mix in with 2% spirulina and 1% astaxathin (2g and 1g) then put into a plastic bag, roll flat into a thin slab and refreeze. that way easier to break out smaller quantities of frozen bs without me having to defrost and refreeze repeatedly. hope it works out!

[leeruisheng]

Not a bad idea. Should work.

[illumnae]

i'm just afraid of everything falling apart once it thaws in the water, then the spirulina and astaxathin will detatch from the frozen bs and dissolve instead

when i mix beefheart i use binders to hold everythinng together, but it might be unsafe for apistos as it might contain salt and MSG keke

[leeruisheng]

How about after mixing, allow time for the blood worms/mysis to soak first. Maybe for 4 hours then freeze them. Mysis shrimp should turn green by then. Better probability.

[illumnae]

yeah i'll probably do that =) i've also heard tetrabits or other dried fish food works to bind as well (in beefheart) so i might try that out as well...if that one works there's less wastage than soaking i think =)

i'm looking forward to see how an astaxathin enhanced caca would look. i know with 1% in beefheart i'm seeing very obvious results in about a week for discus, though in discus case i feed 4 times a day la...my apistos only once

[leeruisheng]

One week? That's pretty fast man. Do take photos of before and after to see if there's improvements in colouration. I mean if you've got time.

[celticfish]

may not be a good idea to defrost and refrost.
the mix will crumble as you suggest.
and the precious stuff will just dissolve into the water.
soaking won't work as the "food" is not alive to ingest it.

may be better to bind your mixture using agar-agar.
just have to get the mix so that its not too hard and not too "soft" to dissolve in the water.
this way you can mix practically anthing under the stars!

for the base mix how about just prawns?

[valice]

Will they eat it? The agar agar part?

[illumnae]

agar agar is just a binder so they'll eat it...as long as you don't go buy those flavoured one la haha =) agar agar is what most people use to bind beefheart too, but it's hard to get it to the right consistency that's why i use fishball meat instead for my beefheart - but i suspect got alot of salt and MSG inside, which the discus don't mind at all but i'm afraid apistos will mind.

as for prawns...they foul the water very fast, much worse than just beefheart, so it's not advisable for sensitive fish unless you are willing to do a large water change daily

[valice]

So refreeze the whole mixture? Can put in the icecube containers right? How to add the agar agar powder? Need to boil water first like making the agar agar? Or just mix the powder into the food, add abit of water and then freeze?

[illumnae]

you need to boil the water like making agar agar, let it cool abit then mix in all the ingredients you want to add before freezing. usually icecube containers aren't used, but the whole mixture is put into a plastic bag, then rolled out into a flat slab before putting into the freezer. this would make it easy to break off small amounts of the prepared food for throwing into the tank.

the problem, as mentioned earlier, is determining the amount of agar agar to put into the food, as you don't want too much or too little...need just enough to bind the food together...very troublesome haha

[celticfish]

the main "trick" to it is using just enough agar-agar to bind the mix.
too much/thick and it may get to hard for some fish to eat.
too soft and it won't hold the mix and dissolve causing a BIG mess in your tank.
i have been researching and thinking about doing this...
but as you can tell procrastination got the better of me!

i think with apisto you would need some "training".
those i had generally didn't take well to dry food till i starved them.
but if reckon its worth a try by first getting them use to the food you will use for your base mix.
for example, if you are using tetrabits, get them use to this first.

i'm sure they can "smell" or "taste" the tetrabits through the agar-agar.
so it will only take the first taste for them to start at it.
but they need to like/accept the base food first.

most people seem to use shrimp/prawn as the base.
then add flake/granulate fish food, fresh spinach or green peas.
and enhancers like vitamins, paprika, spirulina, astaxathin, etcetera.
the sky is the limit, literally!

[illumnae]

and eventually you'll find yourself arriving at beefheart, like what happened in the discus world there's good reason why beefheart has been the acknowledged best base for discus feed...and let's not forget discus are S.A cichlids too just like apistos

[valice]

Something which is bothering me is that how do you add frozen stuff into warm water containing the gelatine? Wouldn't you be cooking them abit?

Or, can I add the gelatine powder into the mix, and then add water? Will it work?

[illumnae]

you need to let the warm water cool abit first such that it is viscous but not yet hardening...then you mix all the stuff in before freezing. not a very easy task and probably takes quite abit of practice before getting it to work