How Long Do You Leave Cucumber In The Tank For?

[Zeoth]

Do you mean the Sea cucumbers or the ones that you eat?

 

[raptorrex]

Do you mean the Sea cucumbers or the ones that you eat?

 

[jennybugs]

Do you mean the Sea cucumbers or the ones that you eat?

The ones you eat, not the live versions

 

[Erised]

I personally put in about a third of a cucumber every week, don't bother boiling it or anything. Simply strip it of it's skin to make sure no toxins enter the water and put the cucumber in fresh. I leave it in for 4 days max, but it's usually gone after 2 days. My SAEs and common plec will eat the cucumber right away as it goes in, the cories do start picking at it within the hour as well, but it's not usually until the next day that you can actually see massive dents on the side from where the corries have been nosing/eating the cucumber.

As for pollution of the water, I've found that when I put it in fresh it can easily take 3 days without falling apart. When I've tried blanching it to 'soften it' it would pollute the water within hours, and none of my fish were interested in it anyway. Carrots and grapes just go in fresh as well, the only veg that I blanch before putting in is sweet potatoes. Don't really know why to be honest. But cucumber is the fish' favourite by far.

 

[jennybugs]

I've found you don't need to blanche cucumber prior to use. I do blanche courgette lightly before I use it for my otos, else they dont eat it. That's when they get a look in from the shrimp though - they're on the stuff like a bee to a flower

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

I often microwave the cucumber for 1min to 1 and a half minutes before cooling it down in some cold water and then slicing it lengthways and adding some weights to it so i can feed it to my plecos .
I have left cucumber for days on end in the tank and have not had any problems with it, however most of the time i just leave it in the tank as long as it is one peice and doesn't appear to be going off/decaying (you know when its time to take it out when it starts to go slushy or its colour changes). My plecos don't usually bother eating the skin off the cucumber, so i also usually take the cucumber out when a large percentage of the flesh has been eaten. Overal i would say i usually take the cucumber out after a day or two.

 

[fry_lover]

I work at petsmart and we only put it in for 3-4 hours or it'll start to deteriorate and muck up the water quality.

oh and who told you that? you will need to have a very bad filter system in the tank for a bit of cucumber to cause problems with your water, even if you leave the thing to totally rot

Cooking vegetables actually reduce the over all vitamins and healthy stuff in the vegetables, which is why cooking them is a bad idea.

true, however, simply cutting it will loose as much "good stuff" as cooking does. i always snap or break mine up. blanching or cooking, simply increase the speed of degeneration of the veg. lead or stainless steel weights will be a better way of making the stuff sink.

'Blanching' courgette isn't cooking it PRW1988, it's just slightly softening it enough for the fish to eat.

err yes it is cooking. another way of saying blanching is "par boiling" or part boiling. it may not be fully cooked, just part cooked.

indeed many fish and inverts, like part rotted veg matter, some like Plecos and RTBS like it nice and fresh. so pop it in fresh and let it break down. unless you have a really duff filter, two or three days should see it finished, with no ill effects to your water stats.

thankfully some sense, good points Boboboy

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

The only reason why i microwave the cucumber for a minute or so is because i remember being told that plecos like common plecos have a hard time digesting the cucumber sometimes and microwaving the cucumber for a minute or so can help soften up the cucumber a little bit without losing the nutrients in the cucumber .

I would say i agree with boboboy too .

 

[Inchworm]

Instead of using a microwave or hot water to break down the tissue, I cut small zucchini in half and scrape away the seeds. This is what seems to get loose and cause a mess in the tank. Then I slice it into portions and put them on a plate, which then goes into the freezer overnight. The next day I move it into plastic bags. Since they are already frozen, the pieces don't stick together during freezing. A few minutes in a cup or two of tank water and they are ready to feed.

Freezing has the same result as parboiling, but causes less loss of nutrients. When prepared this way, very little of the vegetable goes to waste and there is always oto and pleco food in my freezer.

I leave it in the tank as long as it is intact enough to stay in the clip.

 

[Zeoth]

Do you mean the Sea cucumbers or the ones that you eat?

The ones you eat, not the live versions

Right..umm...Iknew that!

 

[jennybugs]

I hate to think what sea cucumbers taste like

 

[raptorrex]

I hate to think what sea cucumbers taste like

not much by all accounts, though they are said to have aphrodisiac affects

Tokis-Phoenix
The only reason why i microwave the cucumber for a minute or so is because i remember being told that plecos like common plecos have a hard time digesting the cucumber sometimes and microwaving the cucumber for a minute or so can help soften up the cucumber a little bit without losing the nutrients in the cucumber

ahh i had not heard that before. though i would be inclined to use the freezing method, mentioned by Inchworm. but still something i have learned from this thread. thanks folks.

 

[SouthernCross]

I must have a freak bristlenose.

I put a large piece (at least 2-3x the size of the fish itself!) in and the whole thing is gone bar a thin strip of gnawed on skin within 25-48 hours!

And no, he's not starving, he gets an algae wafer everyday, and is not even fully grown!

 

[Darkstar]

I work at petsmart and we only put it in for 3-4 hours or it'll start to deteriorate and muck up the water quality.

oh and who told you that? you will need to have a very bad filter system in the tank for a bit of cucumber to cause problems with your water, even if you leave the thing to totally rot

Actually that isn't the case, or not always. You've made a sweeping statement and applied it to everyone and everything. Nowhere has she stated how big the tanks are or how much veg is being put it into the tank. A large piece of veg if left to rot will alter the water in a small enviroment. In fact I find it a little strange how you can use the argument about par boiling being cooking and yet at the same time say you can leave veg in the water till it rots and it won't have any effect on water quality...of course it does, it might be minimal but everything has an effect.
For the record, when I put a 'piece' of cucumber in my tank,...I slice the whole cucumber down the middle and stick both pieces in. Within 8 hours the whole cucumber has been stripped bare by a number of plecs. The cucumber waste from the plecs alone is enough to block the filter inlets if I don't keep an eye on them, one more way to screw your water up.

Cooking vegetables actually reduce the over all vitamins and healthy stuff in the vegetables, which is why cooking them is a bad idea.

]true, however, simply cutting it will loose as much "good stuff" as cooking does. i always snap or break mine up. blanching or cooking, simply increase the speed of degeneration of the veg. lead or stainless steel weights will be a better way of making the stuff sink.

Cutting vegetables will lose as much good stuff as cooking?!?!?but snapping or breaking doesn't......I find that an incredibly odd statement, so if I cut a courgette in half it's the same as boiling it is it?
Blanching or cooking veg doesn't just increase the degredation of the veg, which yes it does do...but it also helps soften certain veg which makes it more digestable to plecs. Although, vegetables such as cucumber and courgette do not need softening in the freezer or par boiling anyway. Potato is a good example, although if you don't want to blanch it you can leave it some tank water for 24 hours to soften it up.
I've no idea why there's a comment about weighing the food down....using lead or stainless steel to make veg sink is 'better' than what?

'Blanching' courgette isn't cooking it PRW1988, it's just slightly softening it enough for the fish to eat.

err yes it is cooking. another way of saying blanching is "par boiling" or part boiling. it may not be fully cooked, just part cooked.

I don't believe she was saying it wasn't cooking at all, just not our everyday concept of cooking. You're pointlessly picking at her statement for no real reason imo.....

To quote a line by Neil Monks:

It's only tubers and leaves that need softening, and then only gently blanched, not cooked.

Do you think you need to correct him too?

indeed many fish and inverts, like part rotted veg matter, some like Plecos and RTBS like it nice and fresh. so pop it in fresh and let it break down. unless you have a really duff filter, two or three days should see it finished, with no ill effects to your water stats.

Like I said earlier not veg all is preferred fresh by plecs. I can put potato in my tank and they won't touch it....soften it up for a 24 hours in a seperate container and they'll readily accept it.

The only reason why i microwave the cucumber for a minute or so is because i remember being told that plecos like common plecos have a hard time digesting the cucumber sometimes and microwaving the cucumber for a minute or so can help soften up the cucumber a little bit without losing the nutrients in the cucumber

To be precise, it's the cellulose in the plant walls which most catfish have a problem breaking down, which is no doubt why it comes out the same colour it went in lol...
In reality though cucumber has very little nutritional value, you'd be better off offering some other form of veg imo. A list of recommended fruit and veg can be found here: <a href="http/www.plecofanatics.com/articles/showentry.php?e=80&catid=2" target="_blank">http/www.plecofanatics.com/articles/show...=80&catid=2</a>

Of course, a lot of this is still open to scientific debate. Some argue that plecs such as Panaque should not even be fed vegetables but instead should be fed nothing but wood.


Darkstar.

 

[raptorrex]

I must have a freak bristlenose.

I put a large piece (at least 2-3x the size of the fish itself!) in and the whole thing is gone bar a thin strip of gnawed on skin within 25-48 hours!

And no, he's not starving, he gets an algae wafer everyday, and is not even fully grown!

lol same goes for mine too! but even though the pleco eats the stuff, it does not mean it is digesting it well. and could go a long way to explain why my tank can look like it has been a victim of an explosion at a knitting yarn factory.