Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

paprika is a source of beta carotine, and probably other stuff. Spirulina actually contains more beta carotine than the paprika (i believe) but costs more.....I was tempted to leave out the paprika and put in more spirulina last time, but the food became a lovely green goo, so i added it more for the colour, then anything else.

beta carotine is in Spirulina, carrots and paprika is it not?
I trust Spinach is for the heap of vitamins, which include beta-carotine
Prawns and beef heart are just for energy - prawns maybe cos they're aquatic have more beneficial ingredients.

Could you explain:
Why fish need so much beta-carotine
what the prawns give if not just taste and energy?

Paprika for colouring... I like that, can't have icky coloured fish food :-)

Yep, paprika is for colour more than anything... I haven't tasted the mix myself, but I am sure it would give it a kick.

Beta-carotene is mainly to enhance the fishes colouring, it won't effect the eating fish very much except make the flesh a bit more appealing.

The prawns are just for flavour and to get the fish into a bit of frenzy.

I think its just to make everything look red, I read somewhere the fish prefer that?

Daniel I found lamb heart for $2/kg at a pet butcher, much cheaper than beef heart.

Spirulina is the best food an earth, has everything in it, protein, lipids all the vitamins and trace element you could find. It also enhances the immune system, they give it mixed to honey to udernourrished kids in Africa.
25 g of spiruline with 15 g of honey gets them back to normal in 3 weeks.

The mexican indians used to eat it mixed with fruits and maize bread, it was a complete diet. They found out hat they fed a town of 120.000 people only like this with a huge spiral system that you still can see from the sky.

It is very easy to produce in a backyard with a bath tub with a pump (reminds me of another thing with bath tubs, but what...)

The shrimp give taste and the sea trace elements and the omega 3 and 6.
The paprika is also for the conservation of the food, because it has natural antibiotic composants in it. They are trying to do an natural antibiotic treatement with it, I've read this on the forum somewhere.

Hope this helps

Wow,
Tim and Amacafish, thanks both for detailed explanations.

KE: I get beef heart from my butcher for free :-) If you buy it when you're getting hald a freezer load, and ask nicely, toward the end of the week, and specify it's fish food (well I say it's for my dog) then they will often throw in whatever they've got, hearts aren't easy to move, especially just before their 1 to 2 day shutdown...
If your butcher wont do it, find a cheaper less miserly butcher... It makes mroe driving when doing your shopping, but I find I can save upwards of $100 per week, and only cost me 1 hr more time going to my shops and chatting to the owners/workers. It helps getting on a first name basis too :-)

Woudn't mind trying to grow some spirulina (just for fish feed) in one of my spare tanks. Does anybody know how one would obtain a culture or go about it?

I think you can get a starter culture from Aquasonics VB

You could eat it aswell!
And maybe sell it cheap too, I'm sure other aussie AP would be happy having dried through the mail.
I'll try to get the water parameters and the fertilizing process up on your topic VB, or do you want to start another topic?

feel free to start another topic amacfish

I remember going in to buy my spirulina from a health food store... The woman was very knowledge able and was telling me I can put it in shakes, on my cereal or in fruit juices....

I said... How interesting but its for my fish.

She did a double take on that one. Should have seen the look on her face. Classic. I did sorta promise I would try some myself... not in a million years.

Cool - start up a new thread Amaca. Reason I didn't suggest eating was because I figure that my culturing and growth of it is unlikely to be pure or sterile

So if you're all ok for another topic, i'll give it a go this week end.

And VB, for algae culture like spirulina in Afrcia they don't really do it a closed lab and sterile area, because there is so much spirulina in the water thet the other species of algae just die off. Most off hte time they do it behind the hospitals so that they have a contious source of it for the patients. As long as it is sun dried there shouldn't be a problem.

Tim C, i've met people who put it in pasta sauce, they say that there's no real taste and gives a nice colour.

bring on the new topic!

[quote="TimC"]I remember going in to buy my spirulina from a health food store... The woman was very knowledge able and was telling me I can put it in shakes, on my cereal or in fruit juices....

quote]

uh, she puts green goo in milkshakes?
i don't understand this health fad anyway, none of these god damn hippies can afford to live past 70 anyway!