Betta & zucchini

[wuvmybetta]

Hi everybody
I gave my pleco and loaches a fairly large piece of zucchini today and they loved it( 1st time,I've fed cucumber / banana & kiwi before) but the biggest shocker of all was how much my betta ate off of it and seemed to enjoy it.
I put it on a veggie clip pretty close to the gravel and usually my betta gets a bit of an attitude when I put stuff in there for the other fish , he has NEVER stooped as low as to eat with the "common" fish. he gets his own special food and tries to eat alone, always trying to distance himself from the others but he's been there chowing down with the loaches for about 2 hours now, I keep thinking they'll tire of it and I can take it out but they've yet to wander away from it
I guess they(bettas) do need veggies too, I had always assumed he was strictly carnivorous and if he craved veggies he'd eat the other food I offer but he never has until now.
I'll definately be offering zucchini regularly now

 

[LiquidLife]

Back before my brother was married, he had this huge fish tank and used to put a slice of my dad's monster size zucs in there once in awhile for his sucker fish (I don't know what kind of fish it was--maybe a pleco). Gotta try that with my bettas--they get so bored not having anything to really mess with. I think sometimes they just need something to tear apart, take out their frustrations on, get rid of some of that pent up energy, having something different to do. The zuc is probably (hopefully) good for his digestion maybe.

 

[wuvmybetta]

As far as pent up aggresion goes,this may just be the answer, he was circling it & ripping at it like no other. I gave them one today too because I could tell he wanted it the way he was hanging out & waiting in the area I had it hanging. I believe it would be good for digestion too. And on a grosser note.....I never see my loaches "poo" but they were noticably as they ate the zucchini,so maybe it flushes out their system.

 

[smudge]

Hi, you should try a few fresh spinach leaves. My bettas don't care for it too much until it all but breaks down, but a lot of my other fish love the stuff especially my yellow snails. I usually float a couple leaves and weigh one down on the bottom. (WARNING) be sure to soak your vegetables for a little bit to make sure your not introducing any pesticide residue into your tank, especially important for leaf vegetables.

 

[wuvmybetta]

Thanks, that's a good idea, and luckily I have a garden full of spinach (all pesticide free), I'll try that later , they love new stuff