Ways Of Feeding Fresh Food?

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Adoptedfish13

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Hi all. 
 
Please don't laugh too hard at my silly questions because I am pretty new to having this tank.
 
I went ahead and tried to feed some organic spinach that I normally eat to the inhabitants of our aquarium. I boiled and froze a couple leaves and just tossed them in. 
 
The leaf from the other night was gone before I knew what had happened which left me confused and my husband was not pleased. He was under the impression that the fish would want no part of the fresh greens and it would just mess up the tank. 
 
When I gave it another try last night and watched, I noticed the smaller fish trying to bite it and having no luck. Then all of a sudden one of the silver dollars had it and nommed the whole leaf in a couple seconds, seemingly without chewing! My husband was impressed. lol However, I worried about that fish all night. 
 
Will the fish be all right after eating like that? It also ate the bloodworms and a few flakes my husband fed them. Seems fine now, but it was disturbing for me too see it eat so much at once like that.
 
Also, if it is OK to feed fresh food to the fish, How can I feed greens to smaller fish without making a mess? That spinach was tough even after cooking and freezing.
confused.gif
I read that it can be clipped to the decor or weighted, but still, the molly and angels were frustrated. lol 
 
Most of these fish were recently "adopted" after my husband bought the 125 gallon (we originally thought 150, but then hubby measured it) aquarium from a friend of one of his employees that doesn't speak english. He was unaware that the tank already had inhabitants until he already agreed, and the poor guy had to move and was unable to keep his fish or tank. 
bye2.gif

 
The fish are listed in my introduction post. 
 
The silver dollar who ate that whole leaf, and probably another leaf as well, is one of 2 that are slightly larger than my palm maybe 4 inches from nose to tail base.
 
Hopefully spinach is a natural laxative :)

I think he will be alright. Considering he ate more food after eating the first leaf, he probably is digesting fine. Watch him for a while and make sure he's going to the bathroom.
 
I'll guess he should be fine. However, it's better for them to eat smaller portions. You could achieve this by attaching the leaves to something, so they have to tear pieces off themselves.
 
For your other question, some fish actually need vegetables or fruits. There are a lot of lists regarding possible foods on the internet. However you could think of these examples:
-carrot
-cucumber
-paprika
-coconut
 
Most of these float. You could use spoons for some of these to make them sink.
 
Thanks. I try to get more opinions about husbandry before I get serious on a routine because anyone can type anything and post it on the internet. 
 
I was just surprised at how that fish could nom that leaf with such a small mouth. I thought that perhaps it would be able to rip the spinach with its visible teeth. lol  
 
I rubber banded a couple leaves to a glass salt shaker with no top to sink it last night. I was hoping that some other fish like the plecos would get some too. Worked great! I had to wait until lights out but I saw the spinach pretty much gone and the shy plecos were out and about. I will need to tie a line to it next time because it is hard to reach and I don't like dunking my arm in there at all. :-I
 
There are 2 of these Silver Dollars Metynnis sp. (I read that they are mostly herbivorous and thats why I went to the trouble of feeding the spinach.) I wish I could tell which species. I can't find many photos of them displaying the colors that these like to do. They will go from plain silver with some red on the bottom of the gill, to 2 black spots behind the gill and more red, especially on the fins. Dorsal gets spotted with black edges on most other fins when they display it. One fish gets much darker than the other fish whose bottom spot is not as pronounced and always looks faded during the display. The way they turn the colors on and off is cool. Lovely fish. I used to walk right past the silver sided shoaling fish before like, "Nothing to see here.", but now I really watch these. Probably for too long. : )
 

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