Hi all,

So, I'm learning that my flakes are not ideal and I want healthy happy fish (but I don't want to waste either). So, I'm thinking of trying a gel food recipe that can use my flakes. We don't eat meat at all or use dairy, so I'm pretty grossed out by the idea of putting sardines or something like that in my blender. Can I make a mostly fruit/veggie gel food that uses my flakes if I offer brine shrimp and/or blood worms regularly? If so, does anyone have any ideas for a recipe. I'm scared to make somethign that might not give them the proper nutrition.

Thanks everyone!

Amy

I haven't tried making gel food yet, but there are a ton of recipes in this pinned topic:

http://www.kokosgoldfish.invisionzone.com/...?showtopic=2269

I had a quick glance through it, and some people use fresh fruit and veggies, plus crushed pellets or flakes, others use fish, krill, etc. The key is using unflavored gelatin to stick it all together.
You could probably get away with blending the fruits/veggies, then removing them from the blender and hand mixing in the flakes and gelatin.

Hope this helps.

That's right. You can mix in the flakes, fruits, veggies, crushed pellets, frozen or dried brineshrimp, krill, spirulina or even organic baby food (no salt or other additives). Anything. It's digusting to us, but goldies don't care that it's a mish mash of stuff. Right now, I have one gel food that's steamed peas and spinach that was whirled up in a food processor and unflavored gelatin added. The other is flake food, a dab of MetroMeds, I think some other dab of pellet food, frozen brineshrimp, banana baby food and tubifex worms. There is no rule as to what you can put in. Gel food, basically, is an experimental fun fest. The trick I found is how the gelatin is added. The first recipe I tried said to just add the gelatin straight to the mix and then refrigerate. The first time I tried it, it worked, but the second time I tried it, it didn't set up an I thought I ruined it. But, some logical thinking said, "re-heat." So, what I do now is get everything I want to put in mixed up well, whip it up in the food processor if necessary, mix in one packet of unflavored gelatin and then heat it in the microwave until it starts looking hot, but not a full boil. Then refrigerate. It will set up great once it gets that heat. Oh, and you're not feeding an army. You don't need mass quantities. You'll want to end up with like a cup or so of whatever goop you come up with. Oh! and another cool trick I discovered is the garlic press! I just didn't have the patience to cut the gel up as small as my goldies would eat it and if it's too large, they just ignore it. So, it dawned on me... garlic press. Cut off a small chunk, put it in the press, squish, cut off the gel food "worms" with a knife over the tank and voila! Perfect bite-sized bits of food!