# Tadpole food (Pumilo's recipe)



## Pumilo (Sep 4, 2010)

*Pumilo's Tadpole Food*

Note: This is the tadpole food I've developed. I make it for my thumbnails, but it works equally well for Tincs and other dart frog tadpoles. I should clarify, when I say "Pumilo's Tadpole Food", my DendroBoard name is Pumilo. I am NOT claiming this will work for Pumilio. Pumilio are obligatory egg feeders that need to be raised on mom's food eggs.

Treat it like you treat your dusting supplements for maximum freshness. This means keeping the main supply in the fridge, NOT the freezer. Keep in well sealed and protect from moisture and light. A smaller amount, perhaps a couple weeks worth, can be kept down in the frog room

Just like your dusting vitamins, for maximum freshness it should be replaced every 6 months.

My recipe is as follows. 2 parts Omega One Marine Flakes, 1 part Omega One Veggie Flakes, 1 part Freeze Dried Argent Cyclop-Eeze. I choose these ingredients because Omega One uses more, high quality protein sources than any other flake food on the market. Here is the breakdown of the ingredients my tadpole food contains:

Marine Flake
Guaranteed Analysis
Min. Crude Protein….43%
Min. Crude Fat………11%
Max. Crude Fiber…….2% 
Max. Moisture………. 8.5%
Max. Ash……………..8%
Min. Phosphorus…….(.5%) 
Min. Omega 3 ………. 2%
Min. Omega 6………...1% 
INGREDIENTS: Whole Herring, Whole Salmon, Halibut, Black Cod, Seafood Mix (Whole Krill, Rockfish, Whole Shrimp, Squid, Clams, Salmon Eggs, and Octopus), Wheat flour, Wheat Gluten, Fresh Kelp, Spirulina, Lecithin, Astaxanthin, L-Ascorbyl-2-Phosphate (Source of Vitamin C), Natural and Artificial Colors, Vitamin A Acetate, Vitamin D3 Supplement, Vitamin E Supplement, Vitamin B12 Supplement, Riboflavin, Niacin, Pantothenic Acid, Folic Acid, Biotin, Inositol, Tocopherol (Preservative), Ethoxyquin (Preservative).

Veggie Flakes
Guaranteed Analysis
Min. Crude Protein….37%
Min. Crude Fat………10%
Max. Crude Fiber…….2% 
Max. Moisture………. 8.5%
Max. Ash……………..8 %
Min. Phosphorus…….(.5%) 
Min. Omega 3 ………. 2%
Min. Omega 6………...1% 

INGREDIENTS: Whole Salmon, Black Cod, Halibut, Whole Herring , Fresh Kelp, Spirulina,,Wheat Flour, Lecithin, Astaxanthin, L-Ascorbyl-2-Phosphate (Source of Vitamin C), Natural and Artificial Colors, Vitamin A Acetate, Vitamin D3 Supplement,Vitamin E Supplement, Vitamin B12 Supplement, Riboflavin, Niacin, Pantothenic Acid, Folic Acid, Biotin, Inositol, Tocopherol (Preservative), Ethoxyquin (Preservative).

Argent Cyclop-Eeze
This is "the good stuff"!! Nothing I say can do it justice so here is their home page to check it out for yourself. CYCLOP-EEZE® : Home

Supplied pictures show a single, 1/8 cup portion. Portion is shown on a standard, 3" Post-It note. The second picture also shows a portion sealed up and ready to go.

A minimum investment to try making this yourself is as follows.
Local pricing on 2.2 oz Omega One Marine Flake runs about $7 to $10
Local pricing on 1 oz of Omega One Veggie Flake runs about $5 to $7 
Local pricing on 30 grams of Argent Cyclop-Eeze runs about $14 to $16
Total price to put together a batch runs $26 to $33. Don't forget about gas, and shipping if you can't find it.


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## carola1155 (Sep 10, 2007)

This is a thread that I extracted from Doug's sale ad from a while back to share his recipe in the Food & Feeding area. I did a little bit of editing to make suitable for this area of the forum, but it is mostly Doug's wording.

Big thanks to Doug for all the info!


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## Pumilo (Sep 4, 2010)

Thanks Tom, I appreciate the time saver.


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## carola1155 (Sep 10, 2007)

I did it the other day and added it to the Popular and Helpful Food & Feeding Threads sticky... but I forgot that since I "copied" your original post it would get buried since it was written in a year ago. 

So, figured I'd give it a fresh bump 

Either way, don't be thanking me... We should all be thanking you for sharing this!


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## Otis (Apr 16, 2006)

Another good fish food for protein is New Life Spectrum. I forget if they make a flake form but the small fish pellets (very small) have 45% min protein.


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## Pumilo (Sep 4, 2010)

Sorry, but my name is on this thread, so I have to argue.
These are the ingredients for New Life Spectrum small pellet formula. I am highlight the high points of the protein in green. I reluctantly gave them 2, even though they are both "meal" rather than higher quality food. Fillers should be very low in the ingredients list. The fillers will be highlighted in red. I chose red because in my head, red means stop. Once I hit fillers, I'm done reading. 
_Ingredients:Whole Antarctic Krill Meal, Whole Herring Meal, Whole Wheat Flour, Algae Meal, Beta Carotene, Spirulina, Garlic, Vegetable and Fruit Extract, Ginseng, Vitamin A Acetate, DL Alphatocopherol (E), D-Activated Animal-Sterol (D3), Vitamin B12 Supplement, Niacin, Folic Acid, Biotin, Thiamine, Riboflavin Supplement, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride, Calcium Pantothenate, L-Ascorby-2-Polyphosphate (Stable C), Choline Chloride, Ethylenediamine Dihydroiodide, Cobalt Sulfate, Ferrous Sulfate and Manganese Sulfate. _

Now lets take a look at the ingredients list of possibly the only quality dry food remaining on the market. This of course would be the Omega One Marine Flakes that I use in the recipe I've given you. Same rules. Green is good, red means filler and I'm done. (You better sell me before you list your first filler!)
Ingredients:Whole Herring, Whole Salmon, Halibut, Black Cod, Seafood Mix (Whole Krill, Rockfish, Whole Shrimp, Squid, Clams, Salmon Eggs, and Octopus), Wheat flour, Wheat Gluten, Fresh Kelp, Spirulina, Lecithin, Astaxanthin, L-Ascorbyl-2-Phosphate (Source of Vitamin C), Natural and Artificial Colors, Vitamin A Acetate, Vitamin D3 Supplement, Vitamin E Supplement, Vitamin B12 Supplement, Riboflavin, Niacin, Pantothenic Acid, Folic Acid, Biotin, Inositol, Tocopherol (Preservative), Ethoxyquin (Preservative).

Now lets jump back for a minute. The protein in New Life Spectrum, which many people think is a high quality feed, consists of Krill Meal and Herring Meal. That's it. When the tag the word "Meal" onto a word, it means byproducts. It means the part we would normally throw away. It includes bones, scales, organs etc. It has often been pressed first to remove the quality oils to sell elsewhere. Basically, if it says "Meal", it means it is the "hot dog" of fish. Do you want to know what's in a hot dog? (you don't)
Back on track, the proteins in the foods that I suggest you feed to a hundred dollar tadpole are a little higher quality, and a little more varied.

Let me ask you this. If you had to eat one yourself, which would it be? Straight up, there are ingredients in Omega One that I cannot afford my own family very often!
There is no comparison. It's not even close.


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## Otis (Apr 16, 2006)

Hmm, which one would I eat? the new life food smells like garlic, so maybe that one! 

I'm not challenging the ingredients of Omega One or your mix either as they look great.


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## TonyI25 (Sep 18, 2013)

I was wondering if algae wafers would work for feeding tadpoles?


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## Pumilo (Sep 4, 2010)

TonyI25 said:


> I was wondering if algae wafers would work for feeding tadpoles?


I used to feed mostly algae feeds, but that's kind of old school. I mean, I suppose if you are adding to it with something high in protean. It's fairly well accepted that our tads need protein. Why do you think so many can be cannibalistic, if they are vegetarians? That kind of points towards a need for protein. Particularly when you back that with some of Ed's information. He has raised Ventrimaculata tads in groups, all the way to adulthood with no cannibalism, by supplying them with enough protein.


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## TonyI25 (Sep 18, 2013)

Good to know. Will take that into hand. Thanks for the input. 

Sent from my LG-P930 using Tapatalk 2


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## Pubfiction (Feb 3, 2013)

The name of this is asking for trouble. No matter what disclaimers you put in it's going to cause problems. You should consider a rename.


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## BristolDartGuy (Sep 22, 2016)

Argent freeze dried cyclopeeze is discontinued? So what is everyone using now?


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## phender (Jan 9, 2009)

The big deal about cyclopeeze was the high levels of astaxanthin and other carotinoids.

Omega One Color Flakes has higher levels of those two things than their normal foods. At least I assume it does, it could be just a marketing thing. 

Either way, any of the flake foods by themselves or the pellet food mentioned in this thread do a good job of raising quality tads.


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## goncalo (Jun 28, 2010)

phender said:


> The big deal about cyclopeeze was the high levels of astaxanthin and other carotinoids.
> 
> Omega One Color Flakes has higher levels of those two things than their normal foods. At least I assume it does, it could be just a marketing thing.
> 
> Either way, any of the flake foods by themselves or the pellet food mentioned in this thread do a good job of raising quality tads.


As i noticed they are not selling Marine Flakes anymore, they have Marine Flakes with garlic is this the same as before ? never saw the previous one so cant compare it.


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