Non-flake feeding. Romaine Lettuce, etc.

[enricosonic]

Hey all - I wonder, what foods in the fridge, pantry or garden might be well received in the freshwater fish world? I understand lettuce is mostly water and may not offer a damn thing nutrient-wise. But to mix things up from the flake/pellet world, I’d like to learn more about additional options.

 

[DragonScales+Doubletails]

cucumber or zucchini is a good option for bottom-dwelling fish. garlic is pretty appealing to bettas, believe it or not! (don't just start feeding cloves though) lettuce is also good for those bottom dwellers.
and it's nice to see someone just s a ferry ride away from me here. to the forum

 

[Colin_T]

What sort of fish are you feeding?

Fish that need plant matter in their diet can be fed a variety of fruits and veges. My fish would eat pumpkin, zucchini, cucumber, apple, one rainbowfish ate banana, rock melon (cantaloupe for the US folk), dark green leafy veges like spinach and silverbeet.
Just make sure they are free of chemicals and have been rinsed well.

You can blanch the food items to soften them up. It also helps the fish digest them easier. Fish don't naturally eat terrestrial based plant matter so they don't digest it as well, and don't get as much nutrition out of it compared to aquatic plant matter.

Do not feed them onion or onion relatives (garlic, spring onion, shallots, leeks), and no potatoe.

Marine algae (available from Asian supermarkets and some normal supermarkets now, can be fed to fish.

You can put smooth rocks/ pebbles in a bucket of water out in the sun and when it is covered in algae, put the rock in the tank for the fish to graze on.

 

[enricosonic]

cucumber or zucchini is a good option for bottom-dwelling fish. garlic is pretty appealing to bettas, believe it or not! (don't just start feeding cloves though) lettuce is also good for those bottom dwellers.
and it's nice to see someone just s a ferry ride away from me here. to the forum

Thank you. And which ferry?

 

[enricosonic]

What sort of fish are you feeding?

Fish that need plant matter in their diet can be fed a variety of fruits and veges. My fish would eat pumpkin, zucchini, cucumber, apple, one rainbowfish ate banana, rock melon (cantaloupe for the US folk), dark green leafy veges like spinach and silverbeet.
Just make sure they are free of chemicals and have been rinsed well.

You can blanch the food items to soften them up. It also helps the fish digest them easier. Fish don't naturally eat terrestrial based plant matter so they don't digest it as well, and don't get as much nutrition out of it compared to aquatic plant matter.

Do not feed them onion or onion relatives (garlic, spring onion, shallots, leeks), and no potatoe.

Marine algae (available from Asian supermarkets and some normal supermarkets now, can be fed to fish.

You can put smooth rocks/ pebbles in a bucket of water out in the sun and when it is covered in algae, put the rock in the tank for the fish to graze on.

Thanks for all that info, wow. So far I’m just dealing with my kids’ tank. Angels, clown loaches, a leopard cory. As they pinch bits of TetraMin in any given day, I wondered about lettuce, cucumber. Something in their own diet that they share with their fishes, etc. if that makes sense.

 

[Colin_T]

Angelfish, loaches and Corydoras don't normally get a lot of plant matter in their diet. It's ok if they get a little bit but they don't need it specifically. These types of fish do best on meat and insect foods like prawn, fish, squid, brineshrimp, daphnia, mysis shrimp, bloodworms, mozzie larvae, etc.

 

[DragonScales+Doubletails]

Thank you. And which ferry?

Bremerton ferry.

 

[Byron]

As Colin mentioned, nutrition is the issue here. A quality prepared/dried fish food is crucial, unless one can provide all the natural live foods the fish would eat in their habitats. Only the quality prepared food will have all necessary nutrients. And it is usually best to have two or three different foods for variety.

For the fish mentioned, Fluval's Bug Bites is a basic food. Quality flake foods like New Life Spectrum Basic for angelfish, and Omega One Shrimp Pellets for the loaches and cories. None of these mentioned fish are herbivores so forget the vegetables. Frozen (fresh frozen, not freeze-dried) shrimp and daphnia would be good, but more as treats than basic. Frozen bloodworms would be eaten by these fish, but worms should not be fed more than once a week to avoid digestive problems.

 

[enricosonic]

Thanks for the detailed answers. It’s been only flakes and pellets here thus far, maybe time to branch out to frozen shrimp and bloodworms.

 

[Byron]

Thanks for the detailed answers. It’s been only flakes and pellets here thus far, maybe time to branch out to frozen shrimp and bloodworms.

Frozen daphnia (and shrimp) would be much better than bloodworms, I've even stopped bloodworms altogether. But these are still not the best nutrition, that can only come from the prepared foods I cited earlier, which should be basic with frozen as "treats."