So what do you put in your mush??????

[Frank]

I have seen on a lot of the post about food and thing we feed are tanks. That a lot of pepole feed there tank and corals a blende mush so I want to know what do you put in your mush and were do you get it from.

[125G's]

Here's what's in mine.....

Mussels-market
shrimp-market
oysters-market
marine flake food-lfs or online
red and green Seaweed Selects-lfs or online
brine shrimp-lfs
selcon-lfs


Due to recently moving, I only have a few corals, but they are growing and appear to be quite healthy. I used this mix in my previous tank as well, similar results.

[ShirleyM]

Ditto what 125G's does, plus we also use Formula I and Formula II frozen. We mix it all up in either RO or s/w and put it in with a turkey baster. We use Julian Sprungs Sea Veggies on a clip, also.

Be careful not to overdo it or your nitrates may climb...

Shirley

[billc]

For mush I use the following..

Squid
Scallops
Cod
Shrimp
Nori
clams

heavy on the squid..

Just one thought clean the blender real well before using to make daquiries.. There was a post about this mishap posted a few months ago about not doing so..

[Junkzoo]

Ditto on all the above,,,,keep it light on the shrimp,,,,tends to be a binder,,,(Thanks , Jerel)
add what ever you think,,,ez on the shrimp,,,,add whatever you want else,,,mix/blend ,,,,enjoy!

[Stang69]

Just made my first batch tonight

Shrimp
Clams
Scallops
Sea Veggies
Garlic
Clam Juice

Smelled almost good enuff to eat

Jeff

[Spanky]

Just some quick pointers.

I notice you guys are using oysters and clams, these tend to be highly polluting. Even though the "soup" they create in the blender is great for SPS, gorgs, feather worms and other filter feeders, it's also highly concentrated a little goes a long way.
Also packaged oysters, clams, crab, even fresh shrimp are treated with ortho-phosphates (freshness and color) which can make "blender mush" a little higher in phosphates than packaged fish foods, so start out slow and gradually increase your feedings.

The biggest problem I see with people feeding blender mush is that they will feed way too much. This is a highly concentrated feed, much more so than prepackaged fish foods and just about anything else you could feed. Start out slow, you might discover that that's all you need to use long term. It's a real pain when you run into phosphate problems later and it's easier to avoid it from the get go.

Also vitamins, nori, salmon comes to mind too.

Spanks

[galleon]

Jerel drilled that speech into my brain when we started feeding it at the lab several months ago.

- pink shrimp
- krill
- squid
- quahog clams
- salmon
- cyclop-eze
- Artemia salina nauplii

As a result of following Jerel's splendid cautionary recommendations, are phosphates remain 0.01 mg/L on a low range spectrophotometer!

[tdwyatt]

Originally posted by Spanky
...it's also highly concentrated a little goes a long way.
Also packaged oysters, clams, crab, even fresh shrimp are treated with ortho-phosphates (freshness and color) which can make "blender mush" a little higher in phosphates than packaged fish foods, so start out slow and gradually increase your feedings.

...Also vitamins, nori, salmon comes to mind too.

Ditto, big problem, phosphates suddenly are through the roof and folks tell me they don't feed flake...

Keep in mind that although the reef is a rich source of food in the wild, it is "packaged" in the form of live creatures that don't immediately begin to decompose. Having a deep sand bed helps some to process the extra nitrogen and carbon, but even it must be ramped up to capacity by slowly increasing the feeding over time.

Just a side note on the topic, especially if you have Saddlebacks or Clarkii clowns and you feed fresh seafood to them (a common practice once the fry morph, as it increases the growth rate dramatically!). Fresh raw seafood may introduce a fungus that causes a lethal form of pop-eye in clowns in general, although these two species seem to be especially susceptible to it. The pathogen is Ichtyosporidium bofori and the infection is known as Ichthyophonus. It usually appears as a bilateral pop-eye and occurs within 2 or 3 months of feeding the seafood. The major difference between pop eye due to internal damage (i.e., the clown slamming into the tank wall or rock or another fish or whatever else it has decided to butt...) and the fungal Ichthyophonus is that the fish will continue to feed if it is just internal damage or water parameter problems. With Ichthyophonus, the gut of the fish is ravaged to the point that the fish will stop eating, after which the disease progresses rapidly such that the skim appears to be roughened as the fungus penetrates out to the surface tissue. Almost always fatal for clowns, but fortunately, the incidence is low. I would not worry about food grade seafood, but freshly caught wild fish may pose a potential threat when used as a food source.

Just my addendum 2 cents worth.

[Spanky]

Another funny (or not) thing about Ichthyophonus, is that it can be contacted and spread through all live foods. Including pods.

Something about the phosphates too. Unless you are using extremely large porous rocks or a deeper sand bed, they will not be processed either. If you introduce high phosphate loads into the system, eventually you will have to deal with it leaching back out too.

[cath]

What I want to know is ... (a little off topic..)

I have one lone wrasse in my tank and the only thing I feed him is a shrimp pellet, broken in half. I've fed him like this for maybe a year or more. Does this provide enough nutrients for him?