Title of Invention	A PROCESS FOR MANUFACTURING HIGHLY NUTRITIOUS FEED FOR AQUARIUM FISHES
Abstract	A consumer can get a fresh batch of the product at a cheaper rate as the product would be produced within our country.

Full Text

This invention is concerned with processed food technology & processed food industries. Inparticular this invention is concerned with processing technology developed for producing feed for fishes. More particularly this invention relates to process for producing a highly nutriteous processed fsed for aquarium fishes. All carnivorous and omnivorous fishes would feed on this product and drive optimum nutrition. This product is a substitutes for live feed and forms an invaluable feed material during off-seasons, when the live feed is not available. This product according to the invention would be an import substitute and would also have an export value. OBJECTIVES OF THE INVENTION The following description traces various objects of the invention. Aquarium fishes feed on a variety of live organisms and formulated feeds. They always prefer natural live feed to formulated feeds, and some species of fishes do not consume formulated feed at all. The live feed (eg: Daphnia, Moina, Tubifex worms etc.) have to be maintained in water in live condition which is a very tideous process. This makes it difficult for transport and storage. Live feed can be frozen and kept in deep freezers which partially solves the problem of maintaining live organisms. But the shelf life of the product decreases rapidly and the nutritive quality of the product may also decrease due to autolysis. An aquarium keeper may not always have a deep freezer with him. Any deep frozen material has to be transported only in a cold-chain, which again is difficult in our country. Besides the live and frozen food may also have the risk of spreading diseases to the fishes. An alternative and safe method is lyophylizing the product. Lyophylization or freeze-drying is a very expensive process. This method is not feasible for ornamental fish industry in India. In countries like Malaysia, Taiwan and USA, Tubifex worms and Daphnia are freeze-dried in large scale and marketed all over the world. India also imports about 3-4 tons of these product each year. The following description traces the prior art methods, the advantages, disadvantages of the prior art methods, the need to surmount the problem associated with the prior art methods and the non-availability of feed in the off season and how the invented process effectively surmount the problem associated with the prior art methods and processes. Lyophilization is a freeze drying method. Any organic material consist of living or dead tissue can be dried using this method. Lyophilization is done in lyophilizers or freeze dryers. This is a very expensive machine. In this process a biological material is frozen to sub zero temperatures. During freezing a vaccum is simultaneously created in the chamber in which the material is kept. At very low temperatures the vaccum removes water molecules from tissues. This process is very quick so the consistancy, texture and chemical composition of the material is retained. About 95% of the moisture is removed through this process. Freezing the material to subzero temperatures and creation of vaccum consume considerable power also. In my novel process, similar composition, texture and consistancy is achieved without using the expensive machines and complicated process. This is the main / salient feature of the invention. Formulated feed for fishes are produced by different manufacturers using different processes and ingredients. However, a few ingredients are common to most of the formulated feeds. Formulated fish feed will have about 30-35% protein. The main sources of protein are fish meal, soyabean meal and ground nut oil cake. The next major ingredients is fat (8-10%), which is supplied through fish oils. Generally cod liver oil is used in feeds. Crude fibre level is maintained at 2-5%. A small proportion of vitamins and mineral mixtures (1-2%) os also added along with the above ingredients. The ingredients are mixed well and a binder is added to retain the ingredients together. Tapioca flour and plant gums or commonly used binders. Tapioca flour may also serve as a source for carbohydrate. The mixture is cooked well and pelletised with the help of a pelletizer. Some manufacturers make feed in flakes form. Whatever is the process, all the formulated feeds will have atleast 4-5 costly ingredients and adopt a complicated preparation method. Despite this all aquarium fishes do not consume formulated feeds. On the other hand, my invented composition is preferred by all ornamental fishes and aquarium keepers. The reason for the said preference is as follows 1. A consumer can get a fresh batch of the product at a cheaper rate as the product would be produced within our country. 2. Unlike the larger packs of the imported product, a consumer can buy smaller quantities Qf the product. 3. The product is available throughout the year. 4. It has a very long shelf life. If kept in a dry place. This novel feed composition can be stored for several years without spoilage and fungal growth. 5. A consumer can economise his feeding schedule. One can overcome the over feeding problems in aquarium with the novel feed composition. An aquarium keeper can feed a few pinches of this novel feed composition to fishes at a time, thereby avoiding the risk of polluting the water. In contrast the imported freeze-dried product comes in cubes. Some large fishes (eg.Gold fish) can consume one whole cube or several cubes at a time causing over feeding consequently more defecation which affects water quality of the tank. 6. Because the product according to invention is parts of dehydrated worms which are not attached to each other, all fi&hes in a community tank get their share of feed at the feeding time. On the other hand when the cubes are feed only a few large fishes take the lion's share and others are left to starve. 7. The product is free from chemicals. It is absolutely safe to handle and totally free from pollution. 8. Power consumption for the production of the product is also minimum. 9. The entire production process is labour intensive, therefore more suitable for our country. 10. The product is an import substitute and also has export potential. It is the primary object of the invention to invent a novel nutrious feed composition for aquarium fishes. It is another object invention to invent a process for manufacturing nutrious feed composition for aquarium fishes. It is another object of the invention to invent a novel process by which an economical and effective feed composition for aquarium fishes can be produced. Further objects of the invention will be apparent from the ensuing description. Accordingly this invention is a novel process for manufacturing highly nutricious feed for aquarium fishes comprises the followings steps. a. cleaning the Tubifex microworm in running water for a period of four hours for removing filth. b. separation of the worm for removing the decaying organic waste and treating with water before treating further die worms, c. filtering the said worm with 50 - 130 micron bolting silk, d. drying the said worm with tissue paper e. placing the said worm in a large bowl, the said bowl having provision for free circulation of air, f. adding a prescribed quantity of drying compound into the bowl, the said mixing withered for a period so that individual worm being disable g. sieving the said product, h. drying for about four hours, cleaning and packing the feed. Now the invention will be described in detail in the following description. The technique described below which form the subject matter of the invention has been named as "Pressure Drying, Method". The main raw material used to make the product is micro worm called Tubifex tubifex. It is an aquatic oligochaete. Tubifex worms are available in gutters and sewage systems of large cities. These worms are 10-20mm in length, so they are collected along with the filth. There are suppliers who collect the worms and supply to the aquarium shops. The worms when purchased may be both in live and dead conditions. They are brought to the processing unit/laboratory. They are first kept under running water for 12 hours for depuration and for removing the filth. The tubifex are washed again to remove the decaying organic matter. A thorough cleaning is a must before proceeding to the next step of the process. Tubifex are then filtered with 50-100 micron bolting silk. The excess moisture on the surface of the woms are removed with the help of tissue paper. Then the groups of tubifex are placed in a large bowl (30cm in diameter) and kept under a air circulator. An inert an non sticky compound containing uniform sized grains or particles within the range of 70-900 microns with 10 micron variation in the granule size is prepared. This is called the Drying Compound (DC). For example, if 200 micron average granule size is selected the variation n size should be 10 micron ( + /- micron). The DC may be a mineral Compound like Quarty particles, Silica gel powder, sand particles or an organic compound like Ragi flour, Rice flour etc. About 150-200 gram DC is taken for every 20g net weight of Tubifex and mixed with the worms. The worms are taken with the DC in the palm and a gentle pressure is appled. Then the mixture is withered with fingers. This is repeated several times till the worms get seperated. During this process Tubifex may get broken into many bits. Tubifex along with DC is then solarized (or in a cross flow dryer during monsoon) for 3-4 hours. Ini tally the DC sticks to the body surface of Tubifex and as the worms gets dried up the particles drops from the body of the tubifex and the Tubifex gets seperated from each other. By repeating the process Tubifex and the part of the Tubifex gets dried individually. The pressure applied is not quantifiable in units like lbs/in2. L is a very gentle pressure learnt only by practice. The mixture is sieved with appropriate micron sieve to seperate DC and the seperated Tubifex are further dried for 4 nours, cleaned and packed. The DC is recovered for reuse. Only a small quantity of DC is lost each time by agglutinating with the body mucus of Tubifex and form* lumps. Salient Features of the process according to the invention are enumerated in the following description , 1. The process of individually dehydrating Tubifex and the parts of the Tubifex which would be used as feed for ornamental and aquarium fish species. 2. The "Pressure Dried Technique" described above using the DC mentioned in the process described in the specification. 3. The grain or particle size of the DC used in the processed described and the respective sieving and separating methods elaborated in the above specification. The biochemical composition of this novel feed composition is as follows: Crude protein 40-50% Crude Fat 10-12% Ash Content 11-12% Moisture 06-08% Crude Fibre 02% It will be understood that the foregoing description is only illustrative of the present invention and it is not intended that the invention be limited thereto. Many other specific embodiments of the present invention will be apparant to one skilled in the art from the foregoing disclosure. All substituion, alterations and modification of the present invention which come within the scope of the following claims are to which the present invention is readily susceptible without departing from the spirit of the invention. I CLAIM : 1. A process for manufacturing highly nutriteous feed for aquarium fishes comprises the followings steps. a. cleaning the Tub if ex microworm in running water for a period of four hours for removing filth. b. separation of the worm for removing the harmful pathogenic bacteria from the gut of the worms .decaying organic waste and treating with water before treating further the worms, c. filtering the said worm with 50 - 100 micron bolting silk, d. drying the said worm with tissue paper e. placing the said worm in a large bowl, the said bowl having provision for free circulation of air, f. adding a prescribed quantity of drying compound into the bowl, the said mixing withered for a period so that individual worm being visible g. sieving the said product, h. drying for about four hours, cleaning and packing the feed. 2. A process for manufacturing highly nutriteous feed for aquarium fishes as claimed in claim 1 wherein the drying compound is taken in a proportion that 150 - 200 gms of dyring compound is taken for every 20 gm of net weight of worm 3. A process for manufacturing highly nutriteous feed for aquarium fishes as claimed in claim 1 wherein the biochemical composition of the feed is as follows : a. crude protein 40 - 50% b. grade fat 10 - 12% c. ash content 11 - 12% d. moisture 6 - 8 % e. crude fibre 2% 4. The highly nutriteous feed for aquarium fishes the process of which is claimed in claim 1 as the following composition. a. Corps of worm 98 - 99% b. inorganic material 1 - 2% c. organic material 1 - 2% 5. A process for manufacturing highly nutriteous feed for aquarium fishes as claimed in claim 1 wherein the particle size of the drying compound being used in the process is between 70-900 microns for obtaining optimum quality product. 6. A process for manufacturing a novc! feed for aquarium fishes as described in this specification.

Documents:

572-mas-1999-claims.pdf

572-mas-1999-correspondence others.pdf

572-mas-1999-correspondence po.pdf

572-mas-1999-description complete.pdf

572-mas-1999-form 1.pdf

572-mas-1999-form 19.pdf