+1 for snail jello

[Bijou88]

Well, snail jello was a hit. EVERYONE loved it which surprised me, even the cories!

 

[KarenLM]

What did it contain?

 

[Bijou88]

I made two batches with different flavors....

1. 1 container Gerber organic baby food (butternut squash), 2 envelopes Knox unflavored gelatin, ~1 tbs NOW brand powdered calcium carbonate, about 1/2 tsp omega one fish flakes.

2. The same as #1 except it was green bean baby food and I added ~1 tbs organic spirulina powder.

They seemed to prefer batch #2, I'll have to mix and match a bit to see if it was the green beans or the spirulina that they preferred.

 

[Dom90]

Snail jello? Never heard about this kind of thing before

 

[TexasDomer]

I'm going to have to try it!

 

[KarenLM]

Great thanks Bijou88. Did the platies try to hog all of it?

 

[Bijou88]

The platies definitely got some, I figure it's mostly veggies anyway so it would probably be good for them too. The snails got most of it, the cories were trying to body bump the snails out if the way though, lol. My pleco got very excited by the spirulina one too

To add, I didn't mix any water with it because I wanted it to be firmer and not break down quickly, it worked out great. It's about the consistency of a rubber bouncy ball, you can slice pieces off of it which is handy to spread it around. I used an ice cube tray with the silicone bottoms to set it.

 

[Dom90]

Where do buy the spirulina?

 

[Bijou88]

Snail jello? Never heard about this kind of thing before

That's because you don't have snails!

 

[Dom90]

That's because you don't have snails!

Haha I'm not allowed, the wife is grossed out by them. Wouldn't even touch the hitch hikers that came with the plants I bought.

 

[KarenLM]

I would like to try it for my cories, maybe add crushed shrimp pellets in for them. Did the cories seem to go for recipe 1 or 2?

 

[Geoff]

Jell-O shots for fish!

 

[Bijou88]

I got them both from Green Acres (health food type store).

The cories seemed to like both equally, I may have to do a batch with shrimp pellets too... you could leave the fish food out also, if you wanted to make it vegetarian etc.

 

[Dom90]

So would they sell it at Whole Foods? Would it be safe to just pour a bunch of that powder into the tank and assume the fish will eat it?

 

[Bijou88]

They should sell it at whole foods. I personally wouldn't just dump it in, both are suuuuuper fine powder, it would more than likely just cloud your tank and end up in your filter :/

If you're wanting to use just the spirulina, make that into jello. Just mix it with some (hot) dechlorinated water and unflavored gelatin, you don't HAVE to add all the other stuff. KarenLM

I forgot to say, you need to heat the baby food before adding the gelatin so it will dissolve, then add all the other goodies.

 

[KarenLM]

Thanks. I made a note of that.

 

[aliray]

I am going to try this. It looks like a feeding frenzy. I love the 2nd picture with the little magenta behind the pleco's fin scurry over to get some before it is all gone. Thanks for the answers to where to buy it and how to make it. Alison

 

[Bijou88]

No problem! I was really pleased with how much everyone seemed to enjoy it. It looked like a snail stampede with all the babies in there too, lol, I highly recommend it!

 

[Bijou88]

Just finished making a couple more batches with slightly different goodies and realized I'd forgotten to mention a couple things....

When you mix the gelatin in to the baby food it will clump like crazy, just use the back of a spoon to smash the clumps, they'll dissolve eventually.

Don't use a blender or whisk to mix everything up, it will just cause bubbles to form which will make the jello float (not what you want).

That's it I think.
aliray KarenLM