Don't it make my blue-eyes -- - Orange ?

[jewels]

Yellow and black psuedomungil furcatus are nice enough; this is a photo of them last fall. Seemingly healthy and doing all the things fish do.
Both of the fish in this photo had eaten nothing but NLS since day one.

Earlier this spring I pulled off a trade. It was the best kind of deal - we each thought we had robbed the other !
I sent a few plants off in the mail and managed to get some ingredients for homemade fish food.

I was so hesitant to feed my fish homemade. How could little old me - a Mr. Nobody improve on unlimited research?
It turns out all : the research dollars are in marketing !!
You can google search all you want , they all look washed out now
- it is tough to find this vibrant colour
look at those pectorals !! I thought these were yellow fish!
Now I realise the first photo is in focus, well framed, well timed and so on , , , BUT;
you should see 'em on Melody's Krill

_The benefit is not only for the forktails. I can identify improvemenys in ALL my fish for example

• Instead of one dominant (coloured) Ameca - I now have a half dozen males all showing blazed yellow tails
• My sons barbs look like gold coins swimmin' around in there, you should see the bellies ; now I recall why we used to call them the 'footballs'
• the first time my shrimp spawned it took me a few minutes to spot any baby when I approached the tank.
• Now the back and front glass are littered by the dozens with new hatches
• My wild caught pl*co comes out for feeding time
• I realise my common pl*co was slowly starving to death.
• He went from a decoration; that moved every other day , to a ferocious hand feeder.
• Before he only would crawl from point A to point B.He now swims about freely about the tank in the current - all the time
• both of my pl*co's bellies show scribbling they never had before.
• I even saw ( an Invisible) kuhli loach - fat as the cat
• Plants - well , , , what can I say - krill ain't for everyone , , , they are stilll plants

I can not say enough about how glad I am to be off the store bought feed. At one time I thought Twenty bucks was a good deal for a container the size of my fist.
Now the math has changed
The bag of krill I traded for will last me a few more months. The veg content is table scraps bound for the compost so I consider that free.
The only other ingredients are on hand at all times, ( don't tell the wife)
baby formula and multi- vitamins. So the cost is minimal
And the benefit ?
If you are a skeptic - like me
here's the dealy-o
multiple photos - taken months apart
No photo touch up -
no digital coincedence of flash
you be the judge
-click on the photo and then just follow the album
( yellows , last fall ) _

Oranges (current- on the krill )

I do not think I will ever buy manufactured fish food again

[Melody]

Still amazes me to see transformations, they look fantastic! It's really not difficult to make your own food or feed whole foods. As you say, leftovers can be chucked in without a prob. You do need a basic understanding of their requirements but like I always say to manufacturers who insist we can't formulate our own pet food, if I can learn what it takes to keep a child healthy, I'm pretty sure I can handle the cat's diet.

I'm glad you're keeping an eye on the whole picture, including level of activity and weight (although too much of the latter isn't a good thing either). Too many rely on colour, but that's an easy one to accomplish with colour-enhancing ingredients and doesn't necessarily mean the fish is getting everything it needs.

You need to include Calcium Montmorillonite Clay for the plants .

[Dan_G_Calgary]

wow. those are amazing!

[CACAdmin]

I'm a lazy bum who doesn't make my own food but relies on Melody's Bottom Bites and Pam's Critter Crumbs. However, you don't have to make your own food and still have your fish benefit from Melody's Krill Crumbles. I feed it to all my tanks and even the largest (5 in) mollies and BNs devour them with enthusiasm. (One of these days I'll get around to making my own foods. ) Have you tried the seaweed? My BNs just love the stuff.

[Melody]

Thanks for the kind reviews. The whole nutrition thing fascinates me to no end so for me it's a hobby in itself. My fishies like Pam's food too .

It makes me so happy to hear about hobbyists feeding their fish real food. As I mentioned to Mr. Jewels, a lot of farmed fish go their whole lives without having one single naturally sourced vitamin - they're all synthetics added after the extreme heat processing in manufactured food. Can you imagine raising a child on synthetic vitamins? And what if we're missing a crucial nutrient that we haven't discovered they need yet?

Most omnivores/herbivores will eat vegetables and of course, seaweed. They really go nuts for peas! Don't miss the recipe section if anyone wants to make their own fish food.

I also got a whole lot of very nice plants out of the above mentioned deal! This guy has a green fin that you would not believe.

[Pamelajo]

I have not tried the krill yet, but have tried the seaweed which my bns and snails love and of course the bottom bites. Been eying the clay, though.
Getting back to real foods or foods with real ingredients in them is a major step towards good nutrition for fish, and humans too!.

[Melody]

Remind me the next time we're shipping, Pam, and I'll send you samples of whatever you'd like to try. Fish can be unpredictable and I know I hate throwing food out because they've decided it's not good enough for them .

Speaking of which, I wonder if your turtle would eat tomatoes, Jay? I have some dried tomatoes that even the snails aren't crazy about. They're a good source of nutrients but not if the creatures won't eat it. If you want them, let me know before I throw them out. They're human grade but we found them to be a bit sour tasting for some reason.... maybe I used too much in the spaghetti. I already hide seaweed in Spaghetti so maybe I was just pushing it....LOL.

[CACAdmin]

Don't throw them out. What the heck, I'll give it a try on my shelled-beast. The worst that can happen is that they get ignored.

[CACAdmin]

If anyone has been following this thread and is wondering where to get any of the aforementioned foods (Krill Krumbles, Critter Crumbs, Bottom Bites, Seaweed, etc.) ...with the exception of the dried tomatoes , those foods and many more are usually listed under the food category of the CAC Auction.

[Melody]

Originally Posted by CACAdmin

Don't throw them out. What the heck, I'll give it a try on my shelled-beast. The worst that can happen is that they get ignored.

Good, I hate throwing stuff out!