DIY gel food: do most fish easily transition from pellets?

[venzi]

Hi.  I created some medicated gel food using knox gelatin.  It ended up being a bit thicker texture, but I didn't want to waste the batch so I've been experimenting with ways of serving it so that my fish will most easily consume it.  My general observation was that it was too hard for my 2inch comet fish to bite off chunks at least initially.  After sitting in the tank for a few minutes, then it softens up and also expands in size (seems like it absorbs water to expand).  Does anyone know if this expansion of the gel is problematic for the fish? 

Once it softens, then the fish can more easily bite chunks off, but it seems still not ideal b/c the cubes I cut for them (roughly 1/8" or 5mm cubes) move around quite easily.  So I can't tell if they're really biting a good chunk off or they're like slowly making progress (like tons of tiny bites).  I even experiemented w/ spearing a cube on a fork, but that seemed like too much work for a daily thing.

So I eventually started experimenting w/ slicing the gel up into thin strips, which works, but the strips were too long and most of the time the fish would swallow it, but it wouldn't be able to cut the strip and they'd have to spit it back out.  But after cutting the strips to a smaller (2-3mm) length, then I think I found the sweet spot.

Anyways, most youtube videos I've seen of people feeding gel food involved just tossing a roughly 1inch cube of gel food into the tank and the fish go crazy for it.  This hasn't been my experience yet.  Maybe partly b/c of the medicine in the food or b/c of the thick consistentency. 

I'm guessing for even smaller fish (less than 1 inch) the only option would be to make the gel more soft (like jello) so that they can bite off chunks (b/c cutting up small enough strips would be impossible for them)?

Fortunately, for my comet goldfish, they feed off the bottom and the gel sinks.  However, I was thinking for other fish that don't typically feed off the bottom, what are my options for using medicated gel food?  I found these feeder tray systems on amazon that look promising, but not sure how top/mid tank feeding fish will do w/ them.  Anyone have experience w/ a setup like this? Or do mid/top feeders not like to eat off a tray (in other words, does the food need to be floating or sinking)?

Any other general advice on gel food or your experiences with gel foods (expecially medicated gel food) would be appreciated.

 

[Anjum]

hmm so couple things: 

I feed repashy, but the gelling agent in that is locust bean gum. I don't think there's anything wrong w/ beef gelatin from a nutritional standpoint, unless you're feeding strictly vegetarian fish maybe. 

I'd be inclined to presoak your gel food so it's already absorbed all the water it's going to before putting it in the tank. 

I can get my water column feeding fish to eat the repashy by squishing it so that it dissipates like a powder in the water. But it still quickly sinks, so most of it ends up going to the corydoras anyways. 

I've seen someone here on the forum insert suction cups into repashy as it sets up so they have a cube of gel on a suction cup that can be attached to the side of the tank. In a similar vein, the tray feeders you showed could work well too, but I personally haven't tried it. 

[venzi]

Thanks for your feedback @Anjum.  

On 9/29/2022 at 5:07 PM, Anjum said:

I've seen someone here on the forum insert suction cups into repashy as it sets up so they have a cube of gel on a suction cup

wow that's like next level 🙂