Herbivore Fish

[Scatta]

Is it safe to feed herbivore fish (e.g. Scats, Silver Dollars, some L-Numbers, etc.) a completely vegetarian diet? Is a diet of herbivore flakes, algae and "household" vegetables (e.g. cucumber, lettuce, carrot, etc) going to fulfill their nutritional requirements (I understand this varies from fish to fish)? Obviously, in the wild there would be a whole host of insects and wildlife to feast upon, but do captive herbivores really need them?

Would a true vegetarian diet result in less waste being excreted from a fish due to not having meat proteins to digest (sorry, not sure of the complete science behind it all!)?

 

[Scatta]

Nobody have any views on this?

 

[kniesh]

If you are feeding flake aswell there is probably enough protein wetc in them to balance out their diet enough along with the veg, however it would probably be better if you still added the occasional frozen blood worms etc just to supplement more protein into their diet.

 

[Bignose]

Well, if the fish is a herbivore in the wild, why would it eat meat/insects? Then it would be classified as an omnivore. If the fish is a true herbivore, too much meat can be very dangerous for it.

Household vegetables are good, you just need to look up which ones have the most nutrition. Iceberg lettuce, for example, is pretty worthless in the vitamin area. Almost every single vegetable cultivated for human use is very unlike its native or wild strains, they have been bred to taste better and give bigger yeilds for us, not necessarily for its nutritional content. The biggest key is lots of variety. Fish's chemical receptors are pretty sensitive, so they will pick themselves which food they like/don't like/wouldn't agree with. I tend to just plop 'em in and see what happens.

 

[jayjay]

Royal plec would be my first though, eating only wood and vegetable matter.

Is it possible to feed a fish soya proteins?

 

[eschaton]

I can conclusively say nothing in my tank likes soybeans