DIY African Cichlids Fish Food Recipe

You can make your own DIY African Cichlids fish food with this easy recipe. Since there is so many bad African Cichlids DIY fish food recipes on the net I figured I would pass on Rich Stephenson's DIY African Cichlid recipe. A lot of the ingredients such as Carrots, Lettuce, Peas, Broccoli, Apricots, Tomatoes and Yams, Spinach are all really high in Beta-Carotene so those are all natural color enhancers.

First boil 1 Yam or sweet potato and 1 Zucchini and let it set while you prepare the rest of the ingredients and add to your food processor last. Make sure to take skin off first.

Add the following ingredients in your food processor.

1 Apple - cut in chunks first.

1 1/2 cups Broccoli or 8oz package frozen Broccoli

1 1/2 cups Romaine Lettuce ... I know hard to measure a good hearty handful will do.

1 - 8oz package of frozen Spinach .... I usually let it defrost for about a 1/2 hour before I prepare recipe.

1 - 8oz package Green Peas - blanched

Optional Ingredients:

1 Cup Red or Green Cabbage - use red to enhance fish with red colors

1 cup Red-Leaf Lettuce or Green-Leaf

1 Medium size Tomato

1 Kiwi

1 Apricot

1 Pear

1 Mango

1 Papaya

1 Peach

1 Bell Pepper

1 medium size Cucumber

1/2 pound shrimp

1/4 teaspoon Astaxanthin Powder - this will enhance the red colors in your fish. This can be found on ebay or yourfishstuff.com

1/4 teaspoon Beet Powder

1/4 teaspoon Paprika

2 tsp Minced Garlic - Why garlic you ask? Garlic is an additive for there immune system and helps them to fight off parasites, and over come stress naturally.

Now add all ingredients including the Yam and Zucchini to your food processor and blend until it's paste texture.

Now put all ingredients in a big bowl and add the following.

2 tsp of the spirulina powder - You can find it cheap on eBay

10 drops of the vita chem

1 cup of 100% all natural carrot juice.

Now you will prepare the Gelatin using agar agar powder. Don't use Knox gelatin as most DIY recipes tell you to use as Knox gelatin contains bones and is not easy for your fish to digest. I buy my agar agar powder on eBay and it is cheap and it does not contain ground up bones.

Boil 1 pint of water in a small saucepan. Stir in the 2 tablespoons agar agar powder and reduce the heat to a simmer. Simmer for 2 to 3 minutes, stirring well so that the agar doesn’t stick on the bottom of the pan.

Now add to your bowl with the rest of the ingredients and mix well.

Now pour a good amount in zip lock baggies and flatten with your hand before you zip up the baggies. You will need about 10 to 12 zip lock baggies. Now you can stack them in your freezer on top of eachother.

I let the bag sit out a 1/2 hour before I feed the fish so it's easy to break off chunks and add to the tank.

This will last about 6 months for a fully stocked 60 gallon tank.

To find out more and get the latest information on African Cichlids please Join the African Cichlid Breeders group on Facebook.