# Shrimp mix recipe - Step by step



## Pali

Howdy fellow troph keepers, here is a step by step recipe to homemade Shrimp mix.

First a big thanx to billansor for the recipe.

ALL INGEDIENTS SHOULD BE FRESH AND WASHED SEVERAL TIMES!
I prefer to use organic grown veggies, as they are free of additives. If you canÃ¢â‚¬â„¢t get fresh veggies, frozen will do the job out of season.

Ingredients:
1 lb spinach
1 lb mustard greens (I use kale, as mustard greens isnÃ¢â‚¬â„¢t available here)
1 whole garlic
1 lb natural peas 
1 lb natural green beans 
42 oz frozen shrimp 
4 to 6 heaping tablespoon of Spirulinia powder
Small can of Paprika

Tools:
Blender
Food processor / veggie shredder
Freezer

Other stuff (you should find in most kitchens):
Large kitchen knife 
Long wooden spoon
Large bowel or pot
Soup spoon 
Freezer Zip-lock bags or Ice trays

Work time approximately 3 hours incl. cleaning.










Step #1
I removed the shrimp tails quick under cold running water, as IÃ¢â‚¬â„¢m going to freeze them again and itÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s not safe to freeze shrimps again after they have been defrosted. So back into the freezer with them as soon as possible
 

Step #2
Wash your veggies, I also was the frozen peas and green beans, getting them ready to use in different bowls. Peal the whole garlic I use Egyptian garlic, the cloves are not covered with skin, so itÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s a lot easier to peal then regular garlic. 
 

Step #3
Blend the peas, beans along with a little water, I add Ã‚Â½ cup of water for the peas and Ã‚Â½ cup for the beans give or take. ItÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s better to use a little too much water then to little, as your blender will heat up and you risk killing it. Chop the spinach with a big kitchen knife and blend it with the garlic and mix in pea and bean puree or make it into puree with a food processor, then mix the whole deal together in the big bowel.
  

Step #4
Shredding the frozen kale and shrimps, this is why the shrimps were returned to the freezer. The kale have been removed from the stalk, chopped and frozen in small balls, they are not as good as fresh kale but a lot easier to work with. The shrimps need to be frozen solid to be shredded, but itÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s a very easy job done.
  

Step #5
Everything should be blended and mixed together in the large bowel or pot, now you add the paprika and the spirulina. Stir a little, till itÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s no longer dusty.
  

Step #6
Now we are almost done, last before I bagged it all I gave it a last run thru the food processor. Smoothing the kale and shrimp out, mixing the spirulina and paprika well into the whole deal. 
Last I pourd the mixture into zip-lock freezer bags, sucked the air out of the bag and flattened it before I put them in the freezer. You can use ice cube trays if you like


Step #7
After 5-6 hours freezing time, give it a feel once in a while as every freezer is different. The bags shouldnÃ¢â‚¬â„¢t be solid frozen yet but getting there and you can easily cut the sheets into squares, put them in a zip bag and in to the freezer and the next day itÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s ready to feed with. 
  

Good advice Ã¢â‚¬â€œ clean up as you go from step to step! Everything is very easy to wipe up and clean up when you spill it, but once itÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s dry it sticks like glue.

I have ordered some agar home as gelatin isnÃ¢â‚¬â„¢t good for trophs, agar is gelling agent made from red algae and should be okay to feed the fish. With this I hope I will be able to make it into a gel that I can cut in squares and freeze, and that way jump step #7.

Hope someone out there can use this


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## UMphreak

I am gonna try this for my Trophs. Using this recipe exactly, how much agar should you use. I have some spirulina powder and agar on the way. Thanks for the info.


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## Pali

@UMphreak
I have not tested the agar myself yet, but I would devide the shrimp mix in portions and test a little. There is most likely a direction on the agar on how much you should use per gallon of liquid, go with half maybe as the shrimp mix is already more or less gooey when done.

I have been feeding my trophs this mix some time now, used a different mix earlyer and this batch have no agar and they still stay in a cube hape in the tank and don't desolve that easy. The fibre from the peas and beans is holding everythig together very nice, but im still gonna try agar too on my next batch.

The tank do get a little cloudy for a hour or so after eating, my overflow is'nt moveing more then 500 gph. So it takes a little time for all the left overs to exit the tank, but on the other hand I have had some fish that did'nt eat well after the trip from africa. They have picked up eating slowly as they pick all the small stuff floating around, rather then "fight" the group for food.

I feed em aprox 3 or 4 1x1" squares for 35 adult trophs 2-3 times a day, still adjusting to figure out if I need to feed more.

4 squares in the morning around 10 am, 3 squares around 4 pm and another 3 or 4 squares around 10 pm.

Let us hear how it turns out and what you think of the mix, several I have talked with who use this recipe claim there spawning have increased and stonger colors in the fish.

So far my W/C Red Rainbows have picked up in colors, still waiting for them to start spawning frequently. I have had them about a month, so I hope it will pick up soon.


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## UMphreak

Thanks again for the info. I have been reading about this stuff and this recipe seems to be the best to me. Alot of Tropheus keepers say this stuff is great for conditioning them to breed. I have only had my colonies for a short time and they are really young. I am currently trying to switch them over to a couple kinds of Kens flake and NLS. After I get that accomplished then I will start adding this in their diet. When I actually get around to making this stuff I will post back my results.

Peace


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## 24Tropheus

Boil agar before use (as it usually says on the instructions) otherwise some types do not set fully.
Thanks for sharing the recipy. :thumb: 
Depends on type how much you need to use. You are going to have to experiment I think but the instructions on the pack should be a good guide.
I see it has a lot more ingredients in it now, than when published in the Enjoying Cichlids book. Classic European Shrimp Mix.:wink: 
Dunno but I would still use whole shrimps carapace eggs eyes and all, blended in a food processer. The carapace guts eyes etc have some colour enhancers etc in them that help give colour and vitality I hear.
Usually best to change diet slowly. As they will need time for thier gut bacteria to regrow safely to digest high roughage/fiber, frozen/fresh foods.

All the best James


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## UMphreak

Good call 24Tropheus on the whole shrimp. It seems most recipes call for whole shrimps. Gotta find a food processor.


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## semihardjo

nice recipe..thanks for sharing..


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## Pali

Im happy others find use of this, yesterday I tryed to make a batch with agar with great success.

I have made a DIY video on timelapse, to cut it down into one video.

Homemade Shrimp Mix with Agar

Same recipe, I just added 45-50 gram of agar to the 9 lb recipe. But as i just made 9 lbs the other week, I only made a 3 lb mix with 16 gram of agar this round.

The agar mix have some serius benefits, the food sink (IMO it's good, the food don't get sucked into the powerheads). It takes alot longer to eat the cube of food, as it's eaten and not spred out in the tank nearly as much as the regula mix.

So it's only 1/3 of the mess - still take in mind it's still gonna cloudy your tank a short while after feeding, so I hope my mechanical filters will stay cleaner for a longer time.

Also i used whole raw shrimps this time around, dunno what kinda shrimps they where tho. I took some with a lot of color as some mentioned there are coloring pigments in the shells the trophs use or something. So I got some funky blue shrimps with bright yellow bands on there legs, have no idea if it will do anything or not, but they where funny enough the cheapest shrimps I could find.

Have any of you guy's tryed the recipe out yet, let me know what you think.


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## Pali

*edit The agar shrimp mix don't sink to the bottom as I said above, now it's frozen it's floating but still it don't break up as easy.

I made a video trying to show the difference in the two

Feeding: Regula shrimp mix vs. agar mix


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## D-007

Hi Pali,

Didn't know you had posted this recipe until I saw your link on another thread :lol:

Great writeup - but one question: where did you get your Agar from?


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## Pali

@D-007 I order it from the nearest health food store - Just follow the first hippie vegan chick you see and she will direct you LOL :lol:

It's commonly used by vegans instead of gelatine og there are som asian deserts where it's used too, so a good size asian foodstore should have it too.

If you can't find either near you, you should be able to find it online no problem.

Good luck !


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## D-007

Pali said:


> .... Just follow the first hippie vegan chick you see and she will direct you LOL :lol:


:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :thumb:

Thanks bud,
D


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## 24Tropheus

On a more somber note you can get it from most chemical supliers and Microscopy supplie shops as it is used on agar plates for growing and Iding bacteria and even school labs have it. That is if you want to avoid the vegan wierdos and health food (rip off) shops. (I sure do)
eg http://www.keywordspy.co.uk/overview/ke ... r%20powder

All the best James


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## Pali

Be shure it's pure agar from the chemical supliers, here you can get all kinda agar medias thats pre made. PDA for one is popular (potatoe dextrose agar) and there are several others for tissue culture ect. ect. that can contain vitamins, medical chemicals, hormones and other stuff that promotes different things, like plant cells to grow/split and so on.

They are useualy higher priced then pure agar, but just to let everyone know there are different kinda agar mixes for lab use. So you don't end up with something odd, containing hormones for skin cell mutations or antibiotics, we don't wanna feed that stuff to our fish :thumb:


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## tokyo

Thanks for the recipe *Pali*.

I'm curious, why paprika?

also, anyone every try adding dried egg or corn meal to enhance yellows?


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## Pali

Hi Tokyo good quetion mate, now I can't be 100% as I did not compile the whole thing on my own. I got the recipe from another tropheus keeper and changed it a little.

But id be happy to try to awnser the question anyway 



> From Drug Digest
> http://www.drugdigest.org/DD/DVH/HerbsW ... ka,00.html
> 
> Paprika (scientific name: Capsicum) is an herb used not only in
> cooking, but also for its medicinal qualities. It can be taken orally
> or applied topically depending upon the desired results. Oral
> preparations include capsules, fresh or dried peppers, powder and tea.
> Potential uses for paprika include the following:
> 
> *colic
> *gas
> *indigestion
> *poor appetite
> *cold symptoms
> *fever
> *headache
> *general pain
> 
> Paprika, or capsicum, contains a number of active ingredients. The
> most useful of these ingredients are known as ?oleoresins.? They are
> oily substances that have various effects.


Along with Garlic paprika is a good herbal "medicin" as you can read, so im guessing this is the reasons to add it to the food.


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## D-007

Wow, agar sure is EXPENSIVE!!


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## tokyo

Thanks Pali, I never knew paprika had so many uses!

I tried out the recipe yesterday and man did I make a mess. I also burnt out my blender's motor. So I wasn't able to blend the spinach or kale. I also failed at letting the agar set correectly. I think I will try again later in the week and this time I'll use my cuisinart. I think it would have been slightly more successful if I had a meat grinder, but I could not find one that was affordable.

I also added about .5-1lbs of frozen corn for the Xanthophylls, which should enhance yellows. I'm not posative how well this will work, but I have alot of yellow in my tank so I thought I'd give it a try.



D-007 said:


> Wow, agar sure is EXPENSIVE!!


I thought so too at first when I saw that it was $50 a pound(powder, not flakes) at the healthfood store. But a little goes a long way. I bought a quarter pound and I don't think I'm going to need to buy more for a while.


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## D-007

Thanks for the info Tokyo, that's good to hear that it lasts a while. I was looking at the online prices. I think I'll be better off going to a health store like you did :thumb:

When I do my food concoction  I use a food processor. The one I have is a GE model that I picked up from Wallyworld for $50. I find it works a lot better than a blender - yeah i burnt out one too :lol: 

Another food/vegetable you can try for yellow pigmentation is squash (pic of what I'm talking about is below). I cut off about half an inch from either side, discard them and then use the rest of it; sliced up of course.










Regards,
D


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## dainiusiva

Thanks for the detailed info,i will try it soon with the yellow enhancing ingredients and let you know the results


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## Pali

I have never seen yellow squash here, they only sell the green once.

Let's hear how it turns out with the yellow enhancing, as I plan on growing most my veggies myself in the garden, im shure I can find the seeds online.

It's nice to see this is helpfull to a lot of people and thanx for all the positive feedback!


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## dainiusiva

i am very sad to anounce that all my fish are dead because of high temp,so i will not make the shrimp mix


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## Pali

dainiusiva said:


> i am very sad to anounce that all my fish are dead because of high temp,so i will not make the shrimp mix


What a bummer, very sorry to hear that. It must be a hard blow, I have never lost cichlids like that myself but it must be absolute horror. I feal bad for the fish when I have lost a single one, but a troph colony is also a big amount of money.

So get a chiller before buying fish again, when you get back on your feet again.


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## swetygrace

nice recipe


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## siklidluvervu

my mom uses agar to set her desserts. u can find it relatively cheap from asian grocers. makes great cambodian coconut jello too!


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## exasperatus2002

Great information Thanks!!


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## Pali

siklidluvervu said:


> my mom uses agar to set her desserts. u can find it relatively cheap from asian grocers. makes great cambodian coconut jello too!


Mmmm coconut jello sounds nice, how are your trophs takeing that :lol:

Sounds really nice with the jello, would like to try that stuff myself and yeah asian grocers should have agar too. Unfortunet where I live there are no asian markets around, so I go to the health food store to get it.

Thanx for the posetive comments everyone, I was working on a new and improved video/recipe, but my GF's computer took a dump on me and all my files where deleted :x 
Next time I make a batch of food, I will reshoot the whole thing. I got a food processor and that have really improved the food and make it much easyer to make, so forget the blenders and find a food processor.


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## siklidluvervu

i have dont have any tropheus. been in the hobby for awhile now and have kept and bred other african cichlids and really admire tropheus. i read that their name comes from greek and it means to nurture because they brood their young in the mouth. right now i'm just reading up on care and dietary needs. thinking T duboisi would be a good start. i've heard T moori are more sensitive.


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## Jacobgoblin

I feed Shrimp mix to my Trophs all the time. The only part of the shrimp not used for my mix is the shell behind the head, do to it seem thick. Head, tail, shell, and all go into the mix, the nutritional value is greater this way, and I've read that the shell helps the digestion.
I've always used non flavovored gelitan mix in my batches of shrimp mix. The only thing I've read is that it is not good if your gelitan mix has clumps in it. All that is needed to prevent this is to stir the gelitan completely.
Food for thought. LOL I really was not even trying, kinda funny.


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