My EZ Medicated Frozen Fish Food Recipe

[polyppal]

Wanted to share my simple recipe for medicated frozen food with the community.

I feed this to all of my fish through QT, and my DT on occasion, and have been very successful in treating bacterial/fungal/internal parasites/worms with it. Its nothing particularly unique or special, but I have found preparing it this way makes the whole process of dosing medicated food much easier.

Without further ado, the recipe:



Medicated Fish Food
Serves: Lots of Fish

• 7 Cubes Frozen Fish Food (Whatever your fish like)
• 2ml Selcon Concentrate
• 2 Scoops Seachem Metroplex
• 1 Scoop Seachem Kanaplex
• 3 Scoops Seachem Focus
• Additional Seaweed/Pellets/Etc

Add 7 Cubes (Standard Size) of frozen food to a glass. You can use whatever foods your fish prefer (In the photo above, I've used Hikari Spirulina and Omega Brine)


Add to the cubes pellets and/or seaweed if your fish eat it. For my Tang, I cube up small pieces of nori with a pair of scissors. I have found that my Bristletooth will not go for pieces that are too large (however larger tangs likely would).


Add the powdered medication. I use 2 scoops of Metroplex, 1 scoop of Kanaplex, and 3 scoops of Focus for 7 cubes of food. Metroplex treats a broad range of bacterial issues, Kanaplex treats fungal issues, and Focus is a antibacterial polymer that binds the medication to the food. These medications are very safe for nearly all fish and are hard to overdose.


Let the cubes thaw at room temperature. Add the Selcon and swirl the slurry around until well mixed (you'll know its ready when it smells like the dumpster behind a Captain D's)...


Pour the food back into the empty portions of the blister pack and return to the freezer to set up.


Once frozen, cut cubes into portion sizes you prefer and store in the freezer.


Bon Appetit! Garnish with a nice demi glace and pair with an aged Malbec

 

[Idoc]

Nice writeup... very good directions.

 

[polyppal]

Nice writeup... very good directions.

Thanks Idoc!

 

[Jay Hemdal]

Here is my take on medicated foods:

Proper Dosing of Medicated Foods

This article offers information about developing medicated foods for aquarium fish

www.reef2reef.com

The biggest issue is that most fish medications are fed on the basis of xx mg of medications per XX weight of fish per day. Therefore, you need to know the exact concentration of the medication in your food and then estimate the weight of the fish so that you feed the correct amount. Obviously, too little meds will be ineffective, but too much can be toxic.
There is also the issue with metronidazole, it has a very wide range of toxicity, but it is extremely distasteful - if you go to high with the level, the fish will take one bite and then avoid that food altogether.

Jay

 

[Reef pete]

I spoke to seachem and they said not to use kanaplex with corals

 

[greetl01]

This has been the ONLY thing that’s worked to rid my gramma of parasites. Not a bath in GC, Prazipro, or other food soak methods. They wouldn’t touch them. They devour this. Thank you!

 

[polyppal]

This has been the ONLY thing that’s worked to rid my gramma of parasites. Not a bath in GC, Prazipro, or other food soak methods. They wouldn’t touch them. They devour this. Thank you!

Your welcome!

 

[polyppal]

I spoke to seachem and they said not to use kanaplex with corals

This is more of a QT food regimen as opposed to what youd feed an established reef. I doubt the tiny amounts of kana would do anything, but you could omit it from the recipe if you have corals in the tank.

 

[Jay Hemdal]

This has been the ONLY thing that’s worked to rid my gramma of parasites. Not a bath in GC, Prazipro, or other food soak methods. They wouldn’t touch them. They devour this. Thank you!

Last week, a R2R member posted a medicated food / fish weight calculator here - it is something never really been done before and it is going to be a game changer:

Fish Weight Calculator / Medicated Fish Food Mix Calculator

If you follow threads on the Fish Disease Treatment and Diagnosis forum, you know that whenever oral medication is the recommended treatment, @Jay Hemdal cautions that achieving the proper dosage is critical to success. He often refers to his article Proper Dosing of Medicated Foods. That...

www.reef2reef.com

Jay

 

[JumboShrimp]

‘Until it smells like the dumpster behind Captain D’s...’ PRICELESS!!

 

[greetl01]

Last week, a R2R member posted a medicated food / fish weight calculator here - it is something never really been done before and it is going to be a game changer:

Fish Weight Calculator / Medicated Fish Food Mix Calculator

If you follow threads on the Fish Disease Treatment and Diagnosis forum, you know that whenever oral medication is the recommended treatment, @Jay Hemdal cautions that achieving the proper dosage is critical to success. He often refers to his article Proper Dosing of Medicated Foods. That...

www.reef2reef.com

Jay

I saw that, but I could not figure out . u have to realize we’re not all professionals like you are LOLLL! I had no idea how that that worked and Couldn’t waste time waiting in replies with help. The gramma would not come out her cave unless to scratch which was all day. I needed to try SOMETHING before she stopped eating since the baths were not working. This was laid out, I had all I neede already, and easy to prepare. Treated 3 days and I think I’ve seen her scratch once. I’m just happy she’s better

 

[polyppal]

‘Until it smells like the dumpster behind Captain D’s...’ PRICELESS!!

unfortunate, but true!

 

[Jay Hemdal]

I saw that, but I could not figure out . u have to realize we’re not all professionals like you are LOLLL! I had no idea how that that worked and Couldn’t waste time waiting in replies with help. The gramma would not come out her cave unless to scratch which was all day. I needed to try SOMETHING before she stopped eating since the baths were not working. This was laid out, I had all I neede already, and easy to prepare. Treated 3 days and I think I’ve seen her scratch once. I’m just happy she’s better

Yep - it's complicated, but that's the nature of the beast. Adding some medication to some amount of food and just feeding it to the fish is like if your doctor handed you a bottle of pills and said, "here, take some of these every day or so" (grin).

Jay

 

[hawk82]

How long should you feed the medicated food? I notice on the back of my Focus it says 5 days, but the Metroplex does not say.

 

[Jay Hemdal]

How long should you feed the medicated food? I notice on the back of my Focus it says 5 days, but the Metroplex does not say.

Each medication is different. For metronidazole, if the dose is too high, it is so bitter that fish won't eat it. A good dose is 25 mg of metro per kg of fish body weight per day for 5 days.

Jay

 

[hawk82]

Each medication is different. For metronidazole, if the dose is too high, it is so bitter that fish won't eat it. A good dose is 25 mg of metro per kg of fish body weight per day for 5 days.

Jay

Mine ate it for 5 days. I just used one scoop of Metroplex and one scoop of Focus and mixed with a LRS frozen food with some garlic guard. I was just wondering how long to give it to them. I was worried my Midas Blenny had an intestine worm, because he was really skinny. Is 5 days enough for something wrong with the intestine?

 

[Jay Hemdal]

Mine ate it for 5 days. I just used one scoop of Metroplex and one scoop of Focus and mixed with a LRS frozen food with some garlic guard. I was just wondering how long to give it to them. I was worried my Midas Blenny had an intestine worm, because he was really skinny. Is 5 days enough for something wrong with the intestine?

Metroplex is an anti protozoan drug, does the label say it is effective against worms?
Jay

 

[hawk82]

I dont know about worms, I just read it was good for Internal parasite and I assume that meant some kind of worm?

 

[Jay Hemdal]

I dont know about worms, I just read it was good for Internal parasite and I assume that meant some kind of worm?

I’ve seen a lot of Midas blennies get skinny, I wish I could tell you why, but I don’t know. It could be parasites or it could be malabsorption.
Praziquantel in food is what is typically used to treat worms.
You can sometimes balance the parasites by feeding the fish more frequently - remember, they live with these in the wild.
Jay