I messed up - the fish hate my new BH mix

[tcyiu]

Actually, I hate it too because it disintegrates and completely mucks up the water.

My very first BH experiment was a success. (Beefheart, shrimp, banana, spinach, garlic - in order of weight).

The fish attacked it like piranhas. When the cubes are dropped in the water, it held together reasonably well. Actually, because I did not mix it thoroughly, some cubes did not have enough binder so those fell apart in the water.

So riding on the winds of success, I made another batch - not paying attention to the proportions. This new batch is horrible. The fish hesitate before biting into it. Then they spit it out. It takes them forever to finish the cubes.

Now I don't know what to do. Feed it to the dogs when my wife is away???

A couple of thoughts as to why this new batch is not working:

1. In the second batch, I completely pulverized the BH and shrimp. I tried to make a paste of it. Perhaps this was a bad idea.
2. I did not have a ripe banana. So I microwaved the one I had. But it was not slimey like the the banana in the first batch. The banana in the first batch was frozen. When I nuked it to defrost it, it turned gooey. Perhaps this is more effective as a binder.
3. Not enough shrimp??? I wasn't really paying close attention to the proportions so this may or may not be it.

Sorry. Just kvetching.

Tim

[Eddie]

Hey Tim, no worries.....I've mad a bad batch here and there. Sounds like a combination of issues that you mentioned exactly, pulverizing too much, no ripe banana and less shrimp. My latest mix has no banana and its more shrimp based, it holds together very well, really sticky.

Sorry to hear the don't like it. :(

Take care,

Eddie

[brewmaster15]

Tim,
1. In the second batch, I completely pulverized the BH and shrimp. I tried to make a paste of it. Perhaps this was a bad idea. my guess..thats the problem. Bananas are definetly not needed.

Suggestion... thaw it in the fridge and try a gelatin binder..or thaw it in the fridge...add it to anew batch...This time around..don't mush it to pulp. IME many people do that unnecessarily..I don't use a blender for EX..I use a grinder. if you can get it to the consistency of ground meat as you would buy in the store..you are on track...basically 1-2mm particular size..thats one pass thru a meat grinder with the small "ground meat" sieve/plate in place.


hth,
al

[tcyiu]

Thanks Eddie and Al.

I thought that if I made a paste, then it would be like Chinese fishcakes or Japanese tempura (no, not the deep fried entree). BTW, I think they are reacting to the shrimp. In the past, I manually chopped up raw shrimp. They did not like that one bit. In fact, now I think of it, their reaction is the same as now.

I like Al's idea of folding it into a new batch or using gelatin. But question: if I thaw it and re-freeze, won't that just destroy whatever nutrients are left (since the shrimp has been thawed and re-frozen at least once).

BTW, just as an experiment, I nuked a cube. i.e. cooked it just a little. It firmed up. A LOT. To the point that the discus could NOT take a bite. So I broke that into crumbs. They would suck it down and spit it back out. Do discus have any teeth??? LOL

Tim

[brewmaster15]

Tim,
One freeze-thaw should not affect the over all nutrition of the food much especially if you maintain it cold (fridge thawed)and are mixing it with a new batch......keep in mind we tend to over load these mixes with nutrients and vitamens to begin with....theres also big difference between freezing and thawing causing some nutrient loss and it causing wholesale loss of nutrients..

hth,
al

[tcyiu]

Thanks Al. I guess I'm primarily concerned about lysis - the rupture of cell walls due to the repeated crystallization from freeze, defrost, re-freeze cycle. But I guess if we're "binding" all the stuff with gelatin anyway, the leaching off of nutrients into the water should be a minor issue.

Tim

[Cakes]

so what exactly do your finished recipes look like, and how to do you feed it?

I am thinking about placing an order with Al but I need to find someone in the DC area to split it with. Unless I get some new fish to share the 180 with 16 Discus ranging from 3" to 5" it would take them forever to eat 10 lbs.