Making your own fish food

[MRowsh]

Good information foodchain.

Have you tried to use fresh garlic and blend everything in a blender?
I think a Colanders can be used to squize the dough consistancy fish food through it in order to pelletizing it.

[foodchain]

Too much water in my experience to do it that way. Also, concentrations of vitamins, filler, etc will be inconsistant that way. Freezing it makes it float more too. My Tilapia eat more from the surface than anywhere else. But the cats eat from the bottom only coming to the surface when there's a big feeding frenzy. I think the comotion brings them up.

[MRowsh]

foodchain, where di you buy your Tilapia from?
Did they reproduce yet?

[foodchain]

Yup, been reproducing a long time. I have been selectively breeding/culling for an orange/red Tilapia. They are easier to see in the water, easier to count orange fry than grey ones, and are cooler looking when I pull them out.
Seems though that I always end up with all white ones in there too. Must be some kind of recessive gene. Either way I expect in a few more generations they won't be around much.

I am starting to work on breeding for an increase in brood size and colder tolerance. I have mine down to 40-50's degree air temp now before ill effects start showing.
Yes I know they aren't supposed to tolerate that. But for the last month my Tilapia have been in the outdoor ponds here in TX and we are getting a couple nights in the 40's and to date I have lost only two of them.
First I thought the pond was insulating and not losing heat fast enough to have serious effect on them, but then I went back and checked water depths, lots of surface area, and deepest point is 3ft on the deep end, and 6 inches on the shallow. I don't believe its deep enough to hold enough heat long enough to make much difference. I just replaced the pumps on it, and at over 2500 gallons per hour it circulates/turns over the water fairly well.
I will probably add another waterfall this year, but that's down the list.

[foodchain]

I run the first water fall through a man made bog system of assorted water plants, water lillies, etc, then over another waterfall and into the main pool. Roughly 2,000 gallons in the main pool. The skimmers take care of leaves, etc from the Pecan trees. And in the main pool I have more water lillies...though the Koi keep them trimmed. And the catfish are eagerly cruising the bottom.
Water is then pumped from main pool again as needed for the AP system.
I use gutters with a fair amount of success, and the usual blue barrel 1/2's for the deeper beds.

[bcotton]

My tilapia wintering tanks get water into the mid to low 50's for a few days at a time. The fish stop eating. I havent lost any but my hypothesis is that they can tolerate the low temperatrues for a limited amount of time.. Here in north texas we dont really have a sustained winter. it's just a few days of cold front then it's back up to 60 degrees.


brian

[foodchain]

This makes sense, that's how other species work. So then the million dollar question becomes....what controls the amount of time they can tolerate it? If we know that the better the condition they are in to tolerate this stress...it seems though that condition can't be the only concern. How do you MAKE the fish tolerate more? Other than just breeding the stronger more tolerant lines....this works but is slow for my tastes.

[MRowsh]

My fish food seams to be working all right. It has been 7 days now that I got my fingerlings, and as of this morning when I fed them, they have grown at least twice as much. They are just some eating machines now!

[Lordshandyman]

Has anyone had success using a pasta machine to make fish food noodles, then when dry, just break to small pellets? I have it in mind to do this as I too want to make my own food. I hate the thought of adding preseritive to my AP system.

[foodchain]

A pasta machine is an extruder. Same thing, different name.