Well, I finally got around to making some gel food this evening. And I wanted Dataguru to go into his scientific mode and cruch some numbers for me (Or anyone else who can do it

I'm starting simple and will try something more complex later. Here is my recipe:
2 pkgs gelatin
2 cups water
3/4 cup broccoli
1/4 cup mustard greens
1 tsp paprika
1 can sardines in water

I filled 2 ice trays with the mixture and it's in my fridge "gelling" right now. I'll leave one or two cubes out and freeze the rest.

It seemed to turn out well. I even tasted mine too. All natural ingredients. Tasted like liquid green sardines

Nummy nummy! *laugh*

I don't see sardines packed in water in the USDA database, so I'll use the info I have on sardines packed in oil. So the fat levels in your food should be a bit lower than listed below.

It'll be interesting to see if your nitrAte goes up faster... kinda high in protein.

Nutritional Breakout per 10 grams food
63% Protein (1.5 grams)
18% Fat (0.43 grams)
7% Ash (0.2 grams)
12% Carbohydrate (0.3 grams) [8% fiber, 3% Sugars, 1% Complex]

10.7 Calories per 10 g food

Minerals
17.5 mg Calcium, Ca
0.2 mg Iron, Fe
2.7 mg Magnesium, Mg
20.7 mg Phosphorus, P
28.4 mg Potassium, K
20.2 mg Sodium, Na
0.07 mg Zinc, Zn
0.02 mg Copper, Cu
0.02 mg Manganese, Mn
2.2 mcg Selenium, Se

Vitamins
2.9 mg Vitamin C, total ascorbic acid
0.01 mg Thiamin
0.02 mg Riboflavin
0.2 mg Niacin
0.04 mg Pantothenic acid
0.02 mg Vitamin B-6
4.7 mcg Folate, total
0.3 mcg Vitamin B-12
181.2 IU Vitamin A, IU
0.2 mg Vitamin E (alpha-tocopherol)
9.6 IU Vitamin D
8.3 mcg Vitamin K (phylloquinone)

Fatty Acids (*=Essential)
0.06 g Saturated Fats
0.14 g Unsaturated fats
0.06 g Omega 3 linolenic acid *
0.13 g Omega 6 linoleic acid
5 mg Cholesterol

Amino Acids (*=Essential)
0.01 g Tryptophan *
0.04 g Threonine *
0.05 g Isoleucine *
0.08 g Leucine *
0.1 g Lysine *
0.05 g Methionine *
0.01 g Cystine
0.04 g Phenylalanine *
0.04 g Tyrosine
0.05 g Valine *
0.07 g Arginine *
0.06 g Histidine *
0.06 g Alanine
0.14 g Aspartic acid
0.18 g Glutamic acid
0.09 g Glycine
0.14 g Proline
0.11 g Serine

Other
102.7 mcg Beta Carotene
7 mcg Cryptoxanthin, beta
153.6 mcg Lutein + zeaxanthin

If I understand things correctly, that recipe would be good for growing goldies, cuz it's fairly high in protein. the fat is used for energy which allows the protein to be used for growth.

You used 1.25 cups foods, 2 cups water and 2 packs gelatine.
I usually match the amount of water to the amount of foods added and add 1 extra gel. so I would have added 2 cups foods, 2 cups water and 3 packs gelatine. Be sure and let us know how it holds together.

you used 4 oz sardines to 16 oz veggies.. that's a 1 to 4 ratio.
I'll try and remember to go see what my gels look like on that.

It would be neat if we could come up with some general guidlines for the gel to ingredients ratio and the protein to veggie ratios.

when I make it I line a 9x13 pan with plastic wrap and let it set up. After it sits I score it edge of a butter knife. It is very thin and breaks apart easily when frozen. After I freeze it I break it up in to small cubes and put it in a container in the freezer. I drop it in the tank frozen - it thaws quickly.

Also note the tip of the month - it's easier and less messy to use babyfood!

Thanks for the info guys! I need all the info I can get on this topic.

Yea, I was kinda confused and just really experimenting. I had no idea what sort of ratio I should be using. I wanted something to help my goldie grow so I'm glad that this food will help out. I also wanted something to help with his SBD problem. And since he's been having floaty problems on regular food I don't know if I'm feeding him as much as I should be.

And also I figured the sardines in water would be slightly healthier than in oil. Or is that wrong thinking for a fish?

So far I find that it's holding together fairly well. Since I've never used it before I have nothing to compare it to. But it doesn't fall apart when I cut it up in bite size pieces or drop it in the tank. The only thing that I did notice, which is where the extra gelatin may come in handy, is that I want it to sink. My goldie doesn't understand the concept of floating food. And since I poured it in ice cube trays, I found that the little air bubbles rose to the top and the bottom of the cube is more solid. I assume my mixture would have done that no matter what container I chose to store it in. So anyway, the bottom half of the cube which is more dense will sink and the top half floats. So any suggestions to correct this problem? Better ratios of ingredients? More gelatin?

I do think that a standard ratio guide would be useful to everyone making gel food.

And I did see the tip of the month using baby food. However, they didn't have baby food in the ingredients that I wanted. Don't think they have baby food broccoli, and they have no baby food fish products. So I would have had to have used the blender anyway. So I just used regular products for everything.

Here are several recipes: http://www.kokosgoldfish.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=2269

I am very sure they make baby food broccoli - they make baby food everything! I just thought of the idea so I didn't have to cook the veggies and didn't have to shell the peas. I use tuna and it does not need blended. I think Koko said she has used some of the meat baby foods.

Yea that's the link where I learned everything I know about gel food....lol.

I couldn't find baby food broccoli and I even checked the Heinz and Gerber baby food websites and didn't see broccoli as one of their products. I'll keep looking for it though. And also I wasn't sure about using chicken or beef. Just didn't know if that was good for goldfish.

And I decided to go with the ingredients I used by reading some of Dataguru's earlier posts. He seems pretty knowledgable on the subject. So I picked only 3 items to start out simple. I don't really want anything high in carotene. I don't really want the gold/oranges having help in bleeding through on my chocolate pearlscale. lol... But after I use up what I have I'll try a more complicated batch.

In fact though, the blender thing wasn't messy at all. But I'll definitely try the baby food thing if I ever need any of those ingredients in my food.

My first batch of gel floated. I added the gel to the blender and it whipped a bunch of small bubbles which set up in the food. I put in the microwave, heated it up and then stirred it gently to free the air bubbles, let it gel again and it sank.

Glad yours is holding together well.

OH...yea that must be what happened. I remember all the bubbles from the blender. I'll try the microwave thing next time. Thanks for the tip And I do think I will use at least 1 more pack of gelatin next time. But this batch is holding up the way it is. Thanks for all the hlep