Many thanks to Michael Seltenright, and others, who have asked me recipes for making their own foods. This in no way disparages the many good foods commercially available and the efforts of others.

When I first started out, most if not all the then commercially available fish food was really designed for FW and re-labeled for SW use!

Being a prolific reader, I read articles, stating how public aquariums, with their huge population of animals, made their own foods. I thought "that's a neat idea". However, it seemed like a lot of work, and it was so much easier just to buy the stuff.

Now, if you remember, there was a huge upsurge in the price of things (inflation galore!) and some really good fish foods disappeared, like Mono Lake frozen brine shrimp (not your average brine shrimp). Seeing what was then available, and having 8 tanks and lots of fish, necessity became the mother of invention! So, I started making my own fish food! I was also buying Tetra brand flake food by the bucket! The price of that stuff went out the roof! I paid less for a bucket, what I now pay for Eleven ounces (320g)! egad!!!! Back to the recipes: The differences between fish and invert foods is the inclusion of dried Nori (for fish) and the re-pureeing of the mixture and feeding for inverts.

Fish food: 1/2 pound raw, de-shelled shrimp (next time I will leave the shells on, and see what happens). 1/4 pound raw scallops (get the small ones, frozen, from places like Trader Joes, less then $10 per lb. Mine are from Argentina) thaw.

Cherrystone clams (get the cheap stuff, less then $2 per lb. I open them in a vise in my shop!) I buy ten or twelve (actually all they have) and use 1/4 of them, making 4 batches all together, of food.

1/4 pound of any fish meat (Halibut, SeaBass, etc.) In my last batch, I used pieces of Thresher Shark! 1/2 of a package of dried Nori (seaweed) from a Healthfood store. (I buy two packs) Before adding, soak in warm water. Don't forget some liquid vitamins (Selcon).

WARNING: You must have a really powerful blender, as this mixture will severly load any home blender you have. I burned out 2 of them, myself!

Bring all these ingredients together in your blender, slowly, adding warm water (yes warm) until the entire mixture is the consistency of mud.

I generally lay out this mixture, pancake style on aluminum foil, cover completely and freeze. Once totally frozen, I then remove and slightly thaw, peeling back the foil, cube with a large knife, and place the cubes in a transparent freezer (one gallon size) bag. I make 4 batches total, and only cube when needed. I leave the remainder in aluminum foil, frozen. Each batch almost fills up that one gallon freezer bag!

When I kept inverts (LPS Corals, Feather Dusters, Atlantic and Tube Anemones, etc. the low light stuff) there wasn't any Nori (before it became available in the US), in the mixture, and I used Baby Vitamins (no Selcon then, either). For inverts, thaw several cubes, re-puree them, adding additional water, until runny. I poured this mixture in a bottle that had a eye-drop dispenser (I was inventive) and dispensed the mixture directly on my inverts. (careful with those tube anemones, boy their tentacles are 'sticky'!) A small bottle of this stuff lasted several weeks, kept in the fridge.

You will need to experiment, as to the batch size, ingredient assortment, consistency, methods of cubing. (someone suggested small sized ice-cube trays, which I will try, next time, thanks). You can now get turkey basters to feed, instead of eye-drop dispensers.

Just as an aside, I found out that my large angel (Annularis) did not see 'white' very well, as most of the mixture was, so in the next batch I made, I added some paprika, for color.

I do enjoy the DIY aspect of this hobby, besides saving money (lots). If your inclined to do this, then I'm glad to help, but if your not up to it, there are still lots of commercially available foods.

I still give my fish Tetra brand flake food, and even throw in some Romaine lettuce for my herbivores.