Feeding vegetables?

[freshy]

Hi every body!
I've been learning a lot by reading these posts and I just learnt that fish would appreciate vegetables every once in a while. My questions are: how do I feed it to them? and, what kind of veggie?

I've read that they have to be "blanched" or something like that before giving them to the fishies. I apologize but I'm not familiar with that word. What's that? How do I "blanch" vegetables?

Thanks for any advice!

 

[Boggle]

Just another word for 'steaming'.

You can use brussel sprouts, broccoli, skinned chopped green peas, as well as finely sliced cucumber, zuchini, spinach, even finely chopped lettuce. Get organic vegetables if you can, to avoid pestecides.

I give my fish the brussels, zuchini and peas evey day, but opinions will vary on how often.

 

[skimpy]

As a start cucumber is very easy to feed. Just take off the skin (incase of pestisides) and I put on a weight (taken from a plant) and leave it at the bottom. The fish love it.

Peas again are very easy, if you use frozen peas they are already cooked so you only need to defrost them and take off their skins.

HTH

 

[fourplayfishy]

with peas i find take of the skin chop it up and stick it to your finger then dip your finger... the first few times you might get bitten but after a while the fish gets used to it

 

[CFC]

Blanching is not steaming. To blanch vegetables plunge them first into boiling water and then straight out and into cold water, this slightly softens the vegetables and makes it easier for the fish to eat them.

Most herbivorous and omnivorous fish appreciate rommaine lettuce and cucumber or courgette is loved by suckermouthed fish like plecs.

 

[freshy]

Wow! Everyday you learn something new! I never thought fish would like the veggies.
Thanks a lot for the replies!

Oh! Today I got some freeze dried tubifex worms. Has anyone any experience with this?
I tried giving my fishies half a cube. I let it float for a while without much success then I thought about grinding it a bit, but I think I went too far. The worms were all over the place! It took me a while to pick the uneaten parts but my water stayed worm-cloudy for a while. The fish seemed to like it though. I was just wondering if someone knows of a less messy way of handling this.

 

[Zombies]

Would GSP's like cucumbers? uck I don't think i'd be so mean to give them brussel sprouts hehehe

 

[Galaxy]

What happens if the fish eat the skin of a frozen pea (defrosted)

I recently fed my fish a mashed up pea, however I didnt remove the skin first. I have a molly which has recently become deformed (bent) in shape and one possible cause suggested on this forum was constipation. The suggested remedy was peas however I wasn't told or didn't take note if I was that the skin of the pea should be removed. I fed the fish the peas last night, I didn't get a chance to look at them today before going to work. I hope I haven't done more harm than good!!

 

[millym]

hi
dont worry about not taking the skins off, its just that they can be too hard for your fish to eat so popping the peas out of the skins gives them the soft stuff that they can munch easily. im sure you havent done any harm as they probably just wouldnt go for the hard stuff they couldnt eat.

 

[freshy]

OMG! They LOVED the peas , the cucumber... not so much. Maybe they didn't know they could eat it. Oh well, I'll try again. The only proble is I think my peas were a little over-steamed and a good part of them dissolved into the water making it look a little cloudy. I'll do better next time!

 

[Def]

Hrm. My platys are carnivores. They laughed when I gave them cucumber, swore when I tried shelled peas and lodged a formal complaint when I tried algae wafers. Wierd.

 

[melleth]

Freshy I use my fish net to feed the tubifex. I prop it so just the botttom of the net touches the water and the fish pull the worms trough. Some still will float off but not the whole clump. It also has the advantage that the fish think nets are terrific! I feed the frozen stuff the same way.

 

[freshy]

Great idea melleth! I'll try the net thing next time btw which frozen food do you feed them?

 

[kaley822]

with the cucumber you have to leave it in there for a while. It takes a while for them to realize its food or something, also maybe it gets softer as it sits in the water. Obviously take it out if its going to peices in there. Oh yeah and for cucumber don't forget to take seeds out, they fall off and get all wedged in the filter intake thingy.