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July 7th, 2009
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| | Fish Bum
| veggies
how do you feed veggies to your fish? I once tried fine chopping a couple peas and put them in, but it didn't seem to draw much interest. what about other, like a cucumber? do you just drop it in and they'll take bites out of it? or should it be chopped? | 
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July 7th, 2009
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| | Fish Addict
| slice a lenghthwise peice of cucumber thinly, attach it to the aquarium wall with a veggie clip (pet stores sell them, they have a suction on the clip) and the fish will nibble on it. Lettuce is good also, but not very nutritious, it's more to keep them busy.
Peas should be deshelled, preferably thawed out frozen peas (not canned peas, due to the addition of salt & sugar).
There's some good gel food recipes here on the food forum. Basically, it's pureed fresh veggies like broccoli, green bean, kale, zucchini... any green leafy is good (except spinach, go minimal).....also go minimal on any sugary or starchy veg.
Puree beggies in a blender. Prepare gelatin on stove. Add gelatin to blender, mix well.
Pour mixture into a tupperware container and chill. A couple hours later, it's ready.
You can cut small cubes and it'll float down in the tank, or break bits off and feed at surface. Fish really enjoy it, and it's highly nutritious. Net up any remaining food, or it can really accumulate in your filter ! | |
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July 7th, 2009
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| | Fish Master
| you can stick any piece of veggie you are trying to feed with an elastic and put it around some type of decoration over night...as well as the veggie clips which are cheap..heres what mine look like and it was $.99 at my LFS veggie clip.jpg
make sure leftovers not eaten is taken out 24 hours or so later....sometimes it takes a few trys of them finding out its food...and fasting for a day also helps teach them that its food...fast them one day then put the veggie in .... | |
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July 7th, 2009
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| | Fish Addict
| I've got that same clip Shawnie ! lol And you are so right. They don't really know what it is at first, mine seemed a bit nervous with that particular clip. I don't know if it's because it's orange, and I have goldfish....lol...maybe they thought it was some weird new fish at first. Hehee. But get 'em hungry, and they sure figure it out fast !!
btw, I know you do gel food too. Have you noticed that the gel combo with broccoli in it, really seems to mess up the tank! I was regularly adding some broc to my gels, and boy, did it clog up the mechanical part of my filter! Sent me into a mini-cycle, actually.
The sponge was loaded with what looked like fine strands of broccoli.
Just giving a heads up.....
also wanted to give a thumbs up to..... PetsMart.  I was in there twice during the last week, and both days they had cucumber slices on every one of their tanks. And the tanks were clean !! You should've seen the cucumber slice int he koi tank. lol It had huge bites taken out, all that was left was the rind part.
Last edited by Shawnie; July 7th, 2009 at 03:56 PM.
Reason: you can just use the edit button for back to back posts :) | |
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July 7th, 2009
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| | Fish Bum
| ok, i might have to go get a clip of some sort. whats that you're feeding them in the picture? spinach or something? just trying to get ideas of what all is good to put in. now if i put something in, like a piece of cucumber, do i need to put flakes or anything in? and should i sink some to the bottom for the corries? | |
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July 7th, 2009
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| | Fish Master
| Quote:
Originally Posted by joy1125  I've got that same clip Shawnie ! lol And you are so right. They don't really know what it is at first, mine seemed a bit nervous with that particular clip. I don't know if it's because it's orange, and I have goldfish....lol...maybe they thought it was some weird new fish at first. Hehee. But get 'em hungry, and they sure figure it out fast !!
btw, I know you do gel food too. Have you noticed that the gel combo with broccoli in it, really seems to mess up the tank! I was regularly adding some broc to my gels, and boy, did it clog up the mechanical part of my filter! Sent me into a mini-cycle, actually.
The sponge was loaded with what looked like fine strands of broccoli.
Just giving a heads up.....
also wanted to give a thumbs up to..... PetsMart. I was in there twice during the last week, and both days they had cucumber slices on every one of their tanks. And the tanks were clean !! You should've seen the cucumber slice int he koi tank. lol It had huge bites taken out, all that was left was the rind part. | Hi joy...I dont mix anything in my gel foods that will clog up things...because it does break down even with the gel.so I use big leafed lettuces and kale, as well as cukes and zuchinni ......I break up the veggies good size and only use my mixer to mix it all not shread it  so thanks for the warning because others should know this for sure!! Quote:
Originally Posted by sgp ok, i might have to go get a clip of some sort. whats that you're feeding them in the picture? spinach or something? just trying to get ideas of what all is good to put in. now if i put something in, like a piece of cucumber, do i need to put flakes or anything in? and should i sink some to the bottom for the corries? | thats just a silk plant on my clip for now...to hold it up ....but you can try lettuce, spinach, kale ..etc ..its going to take some time for them to learn its food so dont loose patience and give up | |
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July 7th, 2009
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| | Fish Bum
| ah, i guess its pretty realistic then, lol. fooled me. so is veggies just a supplement for their diet and only be fed every once in a while, or can it be all the time? not that im going to run out of flakes anytime soon, lol. | |
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July 7th, 2009
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| | Fish Master
| Quote:
Originally Posted by sgp ah, i guess its pretty realistic then, lol. fooled me. so is veggies just a supplement for their diet and only be fed every once in a while, or can it be all the time? not that im going to run out of flakes anytime soon, lol. | depends on the fish you have and what else is in their diet....usually a couple times a week is good | |
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July 8th, 2009
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| | Moderator
| I bought that same clip Shawnie, took it out of the package, pressed the clip to open it and it snapped into 2 pieces. ;( Oh well, at .99 I'll try again 
Have a good day today! | |
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July 12th, 2009
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| | Fish Bum
| well I have bought a clown fish clip. they had other clear ones, but they were like 5 bucks, so I'll stick with this one.
so, I bought a cucumber for 'em, do i need to peel it? how about rinsing it? and is it better cut lengthwise or into little circles, and how thick? ok, thats enough questions for now | |
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July 14th, 2009
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| | Fish Bum
| well, this morning i finally see some of the barbs eating the cucumber. the tetras kind of hang around but I haven't seen the take any bites, maybe eating anything that floats off. will they eventually eat off it, or should i put flakes in there for them, also same question for the cories. | |
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July 14th, 2009
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| | Fish Addict
| the cucumber slice is really just a nibbly treat, it's not meant to be a replacement for their regular food. So keep feeding the fish their regular food . | |
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July 14th, 2009
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| | Fish Keeper
| Quote:
Originally Posted by joy1125 (except spinach, go minimal) | Joy, i have always used spinach as a staple in any home made food i make, why do you suggest keeping spinach to a minimum? Is it bad for the fish? I'm interested to know so i can improve the foods i make for the fish.
Anna | |
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July 15th, 2009
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| | Fish Addict
| hi Anna, spinach contains a substance (oxalic acid) , which has been said to interfere with the absorption of other nutrients. There's been some controversy about this, and after reading up on the various opinions about it, I concluded it was probably just another fishkeeping myth, because I'd never seen anything concrete to support that it was actually bad for fish.
But then I read a book authored by David Borochowitz. He's the editor-in-chief of Tropical Fish Hobbyist Magazine, has authored many books on fishkeeping and has been fishkeeping for six decades, so I have a respect for what he says. In his book he specifically mentioned spinach, and advised against feeding it, for the reason of the oxalic acid. He didn't say it was bad or dangerous, but he did say he thought it's "probably not a good choice" , being there are so many other better choices in leafy veggies to feed.
so long story short....lol..... I still offer it to my fish because they seem to like it, I just do so sparingly. | |
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July 15th, 2009
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| | Fish Keeper
| Quote:
Originally Posted by joy1125 hi Anna, spinach contains a substance (oxalic acid) , which has been said to interfere with the absorption of other nutrients. There's been some controversy about this, and after reading up on the various opinions about it, I concluded it was probably just another fishkeeping myth, because I'd never seen anything concrete to support that it was actually bad for fish.
But then I read a book authored by David Borochowitz. He's the editor-in-chief of Tropical Fish Hobbyist Magazine, has authored many books on fishkeeping and has been fishkeeping for six decades, so I have a respect for what he says. In his book he specifically mentioned spinach, and advised against feeding it, for the reason of the oxalic acid. He didn't say it was bad or dangerous, but he did say he thought it's "probably not a good choice" , being there are so many other better choices in leafy veggies to feed.
so long story short....lol..... I still offer it to my fish because they seem to like it, I just do so sparingly. | Thanks, thats really interesting. Maybe i will switch to something else as a staple for the fishies.
Anna | |
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July 15th, 2009
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| | Fish Keeper
| Quote:
Originally Posted by aquarist48 I bought that same clip Shawnie, took it out of the package, pressed the clip to open it and it snapped into 2 pieces. ;( Oh well, at .99 I'll try again
Have a good day today! | The Incredible Hulk! | |
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