Carol's beefheart - will not disolve in tank!

[Blackwater Aquaria]

I have been using Carols method for sometime now and it is by far the best way to feed BH. No more mess in the tank and all is consumed. I add a little twist I add garlic power,peprick,boyds vita chem. Thanks Carol Mike D. BWA

[MotorCityAquatics]

I make beef heart that won't dissolve in the tank. It's very easy to feed and stores really well in the freezer. It's especially good for growing out small discus and angels because small fish can eat it and, considering the growth the fish experience, it's CHEAP!!

I usually make around 12 pounds at a time. It ends up costing about $3 per pound when I'm done:

I take beef heart chunks which I can buy at a local grocery store, and cut all the vicera off the meat so that it is perfectly clean and lean. This usually accounts for almost 1/3 of the weight of the original meat.

To the beef heart I add shelled shrimp at a little less than a 3 to 1 ratio (about 3oz shrimp to 13oz B H). I do this because I am told it helps the fish color up.

I keep a pot of water boiling on the stove and add two packs of geletan to each cup of water.

Put the beef heart/shrimp into a food processor and add the gelatin mixture to the meat, about 1/2 cup of liquid gelatin per pound. The trick is to not add it boiling hot or it will cook the meat. I keep some in a measuring cup on the counter. The water helps the meat to process and the gelatin makes it hold together in the tank.

To this I add 1 1/4 oz of a good quality flake.
The flake helps it bind and rounds out the nutritional values a bit.

I usually put in 1/3 teaspoon of repti-vite.
Repti-vite is a supplement for desert-dwelling lizards. It adds vitamins and calcium to the diet which I have been told is important to modern discus who have been bred to have larger finnage and therefore longer bones and a greater need for calcium than the wilds. I also figure the natural diet consists of lots of bugs and insect shells contain a lot of calcium.

Run the processor until the meat has the same basic consistancy as pudding.
Dump each processor load into a stainless steel bowl. I do this until I have the whole batch made then I stir it together so it's consistant.

It's important to stir slowly from the bottom up and AVOID introducing air into the mix or the food will float and that will suck.

Probe the mixture slowly up and down with a potato masher being careful not to lift the masher out of the goop. This gets air out so the food won't float.

Spoon the food into zipper bags at 4oz per bag, stack them flat in the freezer.

The gelatin holds it together in the water and makes it easy to tear into flat chunks even when it's frozen. The food floats on the surface for a few seconds then it sinks as soon as it melts. Even if the bag sits out too long and melts while you are feeding your tanks the food stays in it's shape, just like a Jello mold.

I sometimes add some frozen blood worms or color bits to one or two bags after I am done processing which helps to acclimate new fish to this food. I have also added Gel-Tek parasite medications to it when I was feeding it to new wild hypancistrus plecs.

Most of my tanks are bare bottomed. The ones that have gravel also have corys and usually a couple of clown loaches to clean up any bits stuck in between rocks and other hard to get places.

It's still not as clean as bloodworms. I don't think anything is.

Now, you can do all this OR

you can just get a salad shooter

[MotorCityAquatics]

A tip for cleaning beefheart:

If you have to clean a whole heart the easiest way I have found is to let it get half frozen first. Then slice it like a loaf of bread.

Lay each slice out on the cutting board a use a sharp knife to cut the vicera off the insides of the ventricles and the outside edge.

Having it partially frozen makes it half as difficult.

[Eddie]

I make beef heart that won't dissolve in the tank. It's very easy to feed and stores really well in the freezer. It's especially good for growing out small discus and angels because small fish can eat it and, considering the growth the fish experience, it's CHEAP!!

I usually make around 12 pounds at a time. It ends up costing about $3 per pound when I'm done:

I take beef heart chunks which I can buy at a local grocery store, and cut all the vicera off the meat so that it is perfectly clean and lean. This usually accounts for almost 1/3 of the weight of the original meat.

To the beef heart I add shelled shrimp at a little less than a 3 to 1 ratio (about 3oz shrimp to 13oz B H). I do this because I am told it helps the fish color up.

I keep a pot of water boiling on the stove and add two packs of geletan to each cup of water.

Put the beef heart/shrimp into a food processor and add the gelatin mixture to the meat, about 1/2 cup of liquid gelatin per pound. The trick is to not add it boiling hot or it will cook the meat. I keep some in a measuring cup on the counter. The water helps the meat to process and the gelatin makes it hold together in the tank.

To this I add 1 1/4 oz of a good quality flake.
The flake helps it bind and rounds out the nutritional values a bit.

I usually put in 1/3 teaspoon of repti-vite.
Repti-vite is a supplement for desert-dwelling lizards. It adds vitamins and calcium to the diet which I have been told is important to modern discus who have been bred to have larger finnage and therefore longer bones and a greater need for calcium than the wilds. I also figure the natural diet consists of lots of bugs and insect shells contain a lot of calcium.

Run the processor until the meat has the same basic consistancy as pudding.
Dump each processor load into a stainless steel bowl. I do this until I have the whole batch made then I stir it together so it's consistant.

It's important to stir slowly from the bottom up and AVOID introducing air into the mix or the food will float and that will suck.

Probe the mixture slowly up and down with a potato masher being careful not to lift the masher out of the goop. This gets air out so the food won't float.

Spoon the food into zipper bags at 4oz per bag, stack them flat in the freezer.

The gelatin holds it together in the water and makes it easy to tear into flat chunks even when it's frozen. The food floats on the surface for a few seconds then it sinks as soon as it melts. Even if the bag sits out too long and melts while you are feeding your tanks the food stays in it's shape, just like a Jello mold.

I sometimes add some frozen blood worms or color bits to one or two bags after I am done processing which helps to acclimate new fish to this food. I have also added Gel-Tek parasite medications to it when I was feeding it to new wild hypancistrus plecs.

Most of my tanks are bare bottomed. The ones that have gravel also have corys and usually a couple of clown loaches to clean up any bits stuck in between rocks and other hard to get places.

It's still not as clean as bloodworms. I don't think anything is.

Now, you can do all this OR

you can just get a salad shooter

You leave the shells on your shrimp?

Eddie

[TankWatcher]

I keep a pot of water boiling on the stove and add two packs of geletan to each cup of water.

about how many teaspoons would you say are in each gelatin pack you use?

[MotorCityAquatics]

I use shelled shrimp (meaning the shells taken off, like a peeled orange has no peel) I don't leave the shells on the shrimp and I only use the tails.

The gelatin I buy comes in a box of 32 packs. it's pretty standard stuff. They measure out to 2tsp. That's a pretty high concentration. It could be that somewhat less works too.

Originally I learned to make beefheart from a very successful breeder in Columbus Ohio. He feeds it to his discus exclusively. His recipe is simply the beefheart, and 1 1/4 oz of flake per pound of meat with enough water to make it process. I liked it but found as soon as it melted it disintigrated. I saw that some commercial frozen foods had gelatin so I tried it.

[Eddie]

I use shelled shrimp (meaning the shells taken off, like a peeled orange has no peel) I don't leave the shells on the shrimp and I only use the tails.

The gelatin I buy comes in a box of 32 packs. it's pretty standard stuff. They measure out to 2tsp. That's a pretty high concentration. It could be that somewhat less works too.

Originally I learned to make beefheart from a very successful breeder in Columbus Ohio. He feeds it to his discus exclusively. His recipe is simply the beefheart, and 1 1/4 oz of flake per pound of meat with enough water to make it process. I liked it but found as soon as it melted it disintigrated. I saw that some commercial frozen foods had gelatin so I tried it.

LOL, I was about to say...your fish probably hate you, and hate to poo!

Eddie

[waters10]

I take beef heart chunks which I can buy at a local grocery store, and cut all the vicera off the meat so that it is perfectly clean and lean. This usually accounts for almost 1/3 of the weight of the original meat.

Hey, since you're SE Michigan, could you tell me where you get BH chunks? PM me, please! I can only get 1 whole heart frozen and depending where and price, I might go for chunks instead! Thanks!

[MotorCityAquatics]

I am new I and unable to send PMs until I have posted to the forums at least 5 times. This is my 5th posting so I will PM the info to you.

Heartland Foods Grocery in Westland on Ford Rd.

Any Arab butcher carries lambs heart and often beef heart

[waters10]

I am new I and unable to send PMs until I have posted to the forums at least 5 times. This is my 5th posting so I will PM the info to you.

Heartland Foods Grocery in Westland on Ford Rd.

Any Arab butcher carries lambs heart and often beef heart

Thanks! 10 minutes from home! I'll check it out next time I need it.

[TankWatcher]

Hi MCA:
so 2 tspns of gelatin for each cup of water;
1/2 cup of liquid gelatin per pound

it's pretty standard stuff

I guess you're right, but the gelatin I'm buying here in Australia doesn't come in individual sachets. It's in a container & you spoon the gelatin out in the amount that you need. I remember seeing the sachet type here years back, but they don't seem to have it packaged that way anymore in stores near me.

[MotorCityAquatics]

Yeah, that's all I do. The gelatin plus the 1.25 ounces of flakes per pound bind it together. Like I said, it could be that a little less gelatin is effective.

I put 4 ounces of mix into each sandwich sized zip-lock bag, purge the air, and lay them flat and stack them in the freezer.

You could try mixing some blood worms into one bag which may entice some fish that are new to beef heart into trying it.

[TankWatcher]

Thanks MCA

All my discus love the stuff. It's just I'm trying to get the gelatin mix right. My very first batch I made was perfect, but I didn't write down the amount of gelatin I used. Since then, I have always used too little gelatin & get a lot more mess that my first batch - which made no mess at all.

[MotorCityAquatics]

That's great!!

I played around with it for awhile before I got the gelatin right. My problem was I never wrote down my recipe, and since I was making so much at a time it was a while in between times. This lat time I wrote it down.

If I crush it into small pieces in my hand I can feed it to dime sized fry. It's faster and easier than brine shrimp.

[Jhhnn]

After attempting to shred the frozen beefheart cubes with a food processor, which doesn't work worth a damn, I tried to obtain a salad shooter locally w/o any luck. Broke down and ordered one off the net, which works beautifully for the purpose...

With some of the beefheart, I was quick enough refreezing it that it stayed in individual curlicues, making it really easy to feed... I'll use that up first, since it's obviously more susceptible to freezer burn.

I've been feeding it as a daily meal for a couple of weeks- the fish go for it enthusiastically, and it isn't messy at all. I think the pieces would be too large for smaller fish, but it's obviously great for 3-1/2" fish and larger...

Beefheart, blood worms, mysis, brine shrimp, Eddie's seafood mix, and occasional freeze dried tubifex... maybe I should add some poultry to their diet...

Thanks, Carol!