beefheart recipe

[dean_alicia]

does any1 have a good beefheart recipe. i want to make a good qualitly mix for my discus.

[joz]

Yes I'll get back to you soon with it.

But just make sure you can get fresh beef heart from your butcher.
When you clean it you'll have lots of waste left over and make sure you have a very capable blender or food processor.
I know I have killed a few vitamisers,thank god for warranties.

But I will post back with a few options for you.

[joz]

Ok,this is a guide only you can add more things if you want.



DISCUS BEEF HEART MIX

I kg of cleaned beefheart
......make sure all the traces of fat and sinew are removed.

200g of raw prawn meat

100g of spinach leaves,(blanched and squeezed dry)

100g of green peas (boiled) drained

1 tablespoon of spirulina powder

3 tables spoon of minced garlic

Liquid vitamins PENTAVITE

Gelatine,approx 25g of dissolved gelatine/kg of food mix.


additional mixes can be made in smaller batches adding flagyl or praziquantal ( for worms) to the mix.

If you use a blender the mix can become very very fine almost a slurry,but with the addition of enough gelatine it will hold the mix together and the fish love the stuff.

You could you a food processer as it will leave the food a bit courser
or even a meat mincer if you pass it through enough times.

add the galatine only after all the mix is finished
I would keep the finished mix in flat packed zip lock bags,the smaller the better.Its a pain to break up once frozen.

REMEMBER TO FREEZE THE MIX AS SOON AS IT'S MADE::::IT WILL GO OFF FAST!!!


By the time the mix is done it will be very very green

And yes it stinks of garlic!



EDIT::: this is only a guide vary quantities any way you want,just make sure the beefheart is the major component.


MEDICATED FOODS

if you're wanting to medicate food,set

aside some mix from the main batch for this,


Flagyl
Then add 1 x 200mg tab to 200g of food mix,best the blend or finely crush it into a powder the mix it through.

This is if your discus have clear/white feaces that look like white cotton thread.

Feed 7-10 days

Praziquantal
for treatment of cestodes and digenic trmatodes (tape worms)

If your fish have these worms you will find them being excreted in a mass after this treatment.

also added at 200mg/200g food

feed 5-7 days

"Praziquantal is also used to treat gill flukes in a water treatment,but that gets a bit more complicated":o


Drontal
Treatment of worms

One 10 kg Drontal dog tablet /100g of food.

feed 5-7 days


Note: if your feeding your fish more than once a day it's not needed to feed them the medicated food for every meal,just once a day.


Remember that you can add more or less of the quantities suggested.

Imo the liquid vitamins are a great additive.Discus seem to appreciate vit's E,B+C very much.

Also some people add some dried fish food like Colorbits,this will not hurt either.

The garlic added also seems to have quite a bit of value in their food with keeping gut bugs at bay.

Just remember what ever you put in, weigh the final mix then add approx 10-15g of (Dissolved) gelatine/kg of food to the mix.


Also remember the mediacted treatment only works if your fish are eating.
If they are on a hunger strike due to illness then a water treament with Flagyl is suggested.

Two treatments one week apart at a rate of one 200mg tablet /20 litres water.
Thats 20x 200mg tablets /200 litre tank

or

10 x 400mg tablets/ 200 litre tank

[wombat1100]

Excellent post as always Joz, you dont add any of your guppies do you?????????
lol just jokin hehe

[dean_alicia]

wow. thanks for the info Joz.... sounds yummy... for a fish... im sure my discus will love it.
i have never heard of spirulina powder & Gelatine. where do you get it from?

thanks again joz

[joz]

Excellent post as always Joz, you dont add any of your guppies do you?????????
lol just jokin hehe

Thanks.

Now there's a thought!:D



wow. thanks for the info Joz.... sounds yummy... for a fish... im sure my discus will love it.
i have never heard of spirulina powder & Gelatine. where do you get it from?

thanks again joz

Spirulina powder from the health food shop,good for fish good for you.;)

Gelatine is available from the the supermarket in either powder or leaf form,I prefer the leaves because (irrc) they are about 7g each.
So 4/5 of those / kg should suffice.

Gelatine is the stuff used to set jelly and other foods such as deserts.
Here we use it to hold together the slopppy muck known as beef heart mix.


But I I must stress that those quantities are just a general guide.

The main component is beef heart,the rest is put in to balance the meal.
Though thats not important if your feeding other things eg, commercial feed, frozen and live foods.

[dean_alicia]

thanks for that Joz, how much liquid vitamins do you put in??

[cichlidboy]

are these your own recipes?
pretty crazy mixes! I wouldn't have ever guess we could use drontal for fish!
sounds soooo crazy yet believable!

[cichlidboy]

the DIY things we come up with these days

[joz]

thanks for that Joz, how much liquid vitamins do you put in??

I'll have to get back to you with that.
But a small bottle of Pentavite into 1kg or 2 of mix wouldn't be very over the top or to little.

It's just in there for a boost really,not something thats critical.

But garlic on the other hand is something thing else.Don't be afraid to add heaps and heaps.Just remember that garlic is a food that has medicinal properties.Its not a drug.
I was reading the other day that Jack Wattly (discus breeder) would and make a mix of food with 50% being garlic.
And found by using it at that level his discus became parasite free after a few weeks.


are these your own recipes?
pretty crazy mixes! I wouldn't have ever guess we could use drontal for fish!
sounds soooo crazy yet believable!

Yes it does,it was given to me by an aquatic vet many years ago (for worms).

But Praziquantal is better if you can get it.Some aquarium parasite treatments use it as an active ingredient.Praziquantal hits more worms than Drontal.

[GoGuppy]

Hey joz,
that quantity of food should last about ten years, or are you raising baby gray nurses?:eek:

[joz]

Haha! you're right.Ofcouse it can be scaled down easily.
But I used to make it up in bulk when breeding and had so many tanks.
but these days with only a handful of fish it definately be overkill.

[costatoolio]

i purchased spirulina from the health food shop a few months back to make up a batch of a seafood based mix and the lady gave me the weirdest look when she heard it was for my fish! since ive been feeding this to them they have put on a lot of growth compared with normal foods. ive heard the beefheart mix is great too so watch those discus grow..