Recipes for Sachs Systems Aquaculture

   Larval Fish Food suspension - Flake Fricasse

   Ingredients: freeze dried flake food, water.

1. 4 OZ. of Water.
2. 1 Tbsp of premium Flake food (or any specific flake desired.)
3. Blend ingredients in Blender on Medium Speed for 60 Secs.

I use a 4 oz bottle with a poptop cap (old stress coat® bottle) - squirt bottle, vitamin dropper bottle... etc. Shake before using, and sprinkle desired amount. For 400 larval fish, 6 drops does the trick. Of course this kind of feeding is highly dependent on number of larvae in a given situation. Observing consumption and growth are two methods for determining a fair feeding amount. Pay attention to water quality too. One doesn't want to feed so much as to cloud the water, or simply feed too much more than the fish are eating. I look for consumption in the little fishes tummies when I suck them up in my 5 ml pipette for closer examination. Sometimes I add vitamins to the solution which allows the vitamins to soak into the flake particles. The usual amount is 1/4 of a regular multi-vitamin like Nature's Harvest, or "one a day".

   Ingredients: Ground Shrimp Meal, water

1. Blend 1 cup Shrimp meal in 16 oz of water for 8 minutes (more if you desire)
2. pour through 100 micron filter, and rinse shrimp meal into a 2 gallon bucket.
3. retain left over shrimp solids for further feed to larger animals (like penaied shrimp)
4. Feed supernate (thick vanilla colored water) to rotifers and brine shrimp.

Water quality is tough here. feed only enough to give a slight tint to the water, and repeat feedings as needed (water clears then feed a little more.) This stuff works best with a gravity feeder and dripped over a day. Rates, and amount of feed depends strongly on the size of pool or container and number of animals one is feeding. The supernate only lasts a couple days even when refridgerated. Freezing extends the life to several months. A vitamin pill is also added from time to time, to enhance the mixture, but the benefit is undocumented. Still the supernate will grow healthy shirmp and rotifers. I use it only as an additional food or supplemental food to algae.

   Frozen Grind Delight

   Ingredients: 1 lbs shrimp (can be fish, shrimp, any organism that is palatable to fish), 1 package CERTO™ Liquid Fruit Pectin, 1 vitamin.

1. cook shrimp until done (to kill any pathogens, and make easier to blend.)
2. Blend in 2 cups of water (actually top off with water until about 34 oz of total volume) for approximately 5 minutes
3. mush multi-vitamin and blend into mixture 2 minutes.
4. blend in CERTO™ 2 minutes.
5. Pour into ice cube trays and freeze

Take an ice cube of this stuff and use a grater to shave bits into your aquarium. The fish will love you for it. The Pectin acts as a nice binder, and the freezing keeps this stuff good for weeks and weeks. After the cubes are fully frozen, take them out of the cube tray and put them in a baggie to keep them from freezer burn.

I like to use grass shrimp and little fish such as salt water killies, sheepshead minnows, and little mullet to make the main meal, and I use Nature's Harvest™ Multi-vitamins.

   Delightful Digestion - YTC - Rotifer/Brine Shrimp feed/Daphnia

   Ingredients: Trout Chow, Water, Yeast (this is know as YTC.)

1. need to get the directions
2. I don't remember them off the top of my head
3. I figure if I did remember them, then I was sick
4. because, I Never use
5. it.

I got this recipe from a local lab.

   Roticious Feed - General Plankton feed - Rotifers/Daphnia/Brine Shrimp

   Ingredients: Floating Catfish food, water.

1. Blend 6 oz water and 1 even tbsp of finely crushed floating catfish food for 40 seconds. on medium speed.
2. feed 1-6 drops per every 2+liters AM/PM using eye dropper.
3. Last three+ weeks in fridge.

I experiment with mixture all the time, adding torula yeast, bran, flake food, shrimp meal, cooked/blended greens (salad type things) and other fun stuff. But, this mixture will keep rotifers growing and happy forever. Although packing them with fresh algae before feeding them to a predator is advised and beneficial.

1. 1 teaspoon of microalgae growing solution to 1 gallon room temp sterile fresh/salt water (microwave water at 7 minutes to sterilize before adding the growing solution.)
2. Add algae from petri plate (rub clean finger over surface of plate after adding a little culture water then pour into culture jar.)
3. Aeration is moderate to strong using rigid tubing.
4. strong light for 16 to 24 hours but keep heat down.
5. Culture will get a strong green color.

5-6 days (color should get greener) new cultures can be started. Remember to clean items used in the culturing. Heat is better to use in sterilizing than bleach/chlorine. Keep the temperature between 70⁰ and 80⁰ degrees fahrenheit. Some algae species like it colder, and a few hotter.