Prawn shells and fish waste as fishfood

[gavinl]

Hi

Still thinking about alternative feed for fish.

I was wondering if using prawn shells and heads, as well as, fish heads and bones very well ground up, would be possible ie. my own fishmeal. There are heaps of fishers where I live and what ever they don't stick in crab pots, usually gets thrown away. I reckon it would be quite easy to organise a collection after fish have been filleted.

Any suggestions/advice would be appreciated.

Thanks

gav

[Murray]

Hmmmm. Sounds like a great idea, but I don't know how practical it would be in the long term.
I can't think of any reason why it would not work, except for the time it would take.
Also the energy to cook, store etc.
I guess if one was in a developing country and pellets were not easily obtained it would be a wonderful resource to have avbl.
I have found that with the normal pressures of life (most of us are time poor), it is easiest to throw a measure of pellets into the fish tank every day.

[gavinl]

Hi Murray

Just wondering whether I would need to cook everything up or could just mince up the heads and bones and freeze the result. Time would be painful, but if it worked it might be possible to use the 'organic' seal

Thanks

gav

PS: just wondering whether you reckon your sleepy cod would eat duckweed mixed into the head and bone mixture. Also, did you have any trouble weening them onto pellets?

[Murray]

Yes Gav, the "organic" tag would be good to have that is for sure. The pellets I use are the best I can find with no land animal content, fish and soy meal only. I feel comfortable using them for my fish, and it is so convenient.
The Sleepy Cod were easy to get onto pellets. Started them on blood worms and ground up pellets mixed together. Gradually increasing the proportion of ground up pellets until there was no blood worm in the mixture. It only took a couple of weeks.
They are lazy little critters, just lay around all day sleeping. A bit like my dog.