Blanching Pea Before Feeding To Fish

[Kaidonni]

Every so often, I feed pea to my White Cloud Mountain Minnows to ensure they have a varied diet, otherwise they'd only get flake food (bit paranoid about live food at the moment, although treating daphnia and other live food with something beforehand might help eliminate the possibility of introducing internal parasites). I take the bag out of the freezer, empty some peas into a cup, let them defrost, then I deshell and cut a pea or two up into little pieces for the Minnows. The sizes of the pieces varies, although I don't give them pieces that are overly large and would fall to the gravel (sometimes they end up with it sticking out of their mouthes, though). I don't blanch the pea, however - is it absolutely necessary, or am I okay continuing as I am? Do I need to worry about fertilisers or anything else used to treat the pea? I haven't seen any negative side effects of feeding the pea, but you never know - it doesn't hurt to ask. Thanks.

 

[Akasha72]

I've always given them to them after cooking and I de-shell and then squash them and pop them in. My lot arn't overly fussed by them so I don't give them often. I would have thought a quick soak in some hot water would soften them and make them easier to eat?
 
See what the others think though

 

[Kaidonni]

The Minnows are tiny, so I always cut the pea into little pieces that they can eat. Sometimes I squish these pieces to make them softer, sometimes I don't. The smaller, the better, though. I end up using a semi-wet knife to cut the pieces up, so that might help; after I've dipped the knife into the tank water, I don't dry it before I proceed to cut up some more pea.
 
I give pea mainly for concerns about constipation rather than to vary their diet, but I get two birds with one stone. The Minnows go mad for the bits of pea.

 

[Akasha72]

if they like it feed it - it won't harm them. And yes, good for constipation and a treat is good for them too

 

[the_lock_man]

I always steal a couple of peas from the microwave before dinner, de-shell, and mash under the back of a fork. Never lasts long.

 

[Tongue_Flicker]

I just cut them in half, press each half against the inner side of the glass underwater and every one gets to party lol