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I reacently ran out of cucumber for my plecos and used a zuccinni instead ,is this good ,bad or doesen't matter,what vegi's are healthy and which are potencially dangerous

I'm moving this subject to the "Loricariidae" section, as discussion about feeding is probably better there.

I feed Courgette(Zucchini) all the time to my vegetable eating plecos (that is, all of them). In my opinion, cucumber is pretty poor for nutrients (I read somewhere that Cucumber contains less substance than marine water, because there's some 3% salt in marine water, and cucumber is 98% water). Courgette(Zucchini) is still plenty of water with little else, but at least it's a little bit less water and more substance.

For more food ideas, check out the "article" listed in the footer section of this post. Broad-(fava-)beans are a good food too. I've recently found that some of the local garden centres sell frozen broad-beans in "loose weight", so you can buy a small portion if you don't have space for HUGE bags of frozen stuff in your freezer.

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Mats

My L81 and L239 love zucchini, yellow squash, sweet potato, golden beet, lima bean, broccali stem and sweet red bell pepper. I am going to try mushroom, stringbean. I just saw a list of favorite foods in another forum that listed eggplant (aubergine), pea (which I have tried, but either they don't find the peas or ?), melon rind, carrot (I shall have to try again), collard greens and a miriad of other veggies. They seem to like a large variety. Mine get two choices each night (in addition to shrimp twice a week since they are ominvours).

I removed hot red pepper! Thanks, MatsP!

Joyce8025 wrote:My L81 and L239 love zucchini, yellow squash, sweet potato, golden beet, lima bean, broccali stem and sweet red bell pepper. I am going to try mushroom, stringbean, hot red pepper. I just saw a list of favorite foods in another forum that listed eggplant (aubergine), pea (which I have tried, but either they don't find the peas or ?), melon rind, carrot (I shall have to try again), collard greens and a miriad of other veggies. They seem to like a large variety. Mine get two choices each night (in addition to shrimp twice a week since they are ominvours).

hot red pepper - please don't try this [or if you do, do it with some "disposable" fish in a small tank that you can quickly change the water on]. I'm pretty sure it's not going to be a success, and considering that it's a strong irritant (ever touched your eye or inside of your nose after dealing with hot chili peppers? [Don't ask me how I know this hurts like &!^"&!", ok?]).

I didn't have much success with aubergine, but that may just be me [or rather, my fishes].

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Mats

Hi Mat,
Please, do tell how it feels. I know I made the mistake of eating one of the red hot peppers in a Chinese dish once. It is the closest I've ever been to a heart attack.

I don't know what species you have but all of my Loricariidae and Callthyiidae love earthworm sticks which are enriched further with shrimp and Spirulina.
This food makes up over 35% of the diet of my Heckel Discus. I haven't found any fish yet that have not really liked the stuff and it is 45% protein but also has enough "roughage" that it seems to suit the digstive tract of everything. It is even a great food for a staple item for cherry Shrimp.

You are right! I shall stick to Sweet Red Bell Pepper. But, I love hot, spicy food--Thai, etc. Don't know that Blue and Spot would agree with me, though. (I had seen a list of foods and Capscium was listed--thought that it was the hot red pepper.)

Hey guys, im new here, ive got two bristlenose cats, and have been feeding them algae chips, and sinking sticks, also i've tried them on cucumber and lettuce but i have been reluctant to try them on other vegetables because they don't seem to eat them, and they make the tankwater cloudy and smell bad.

Heres the down low;
They are Clavin and Hobbes, they're about an inch long each. I've had them for just over a week, and first tried them on vegies on the first three nights, I left the cucumber and lettuce in the water overnight. The vegies were fresh, i just used some of what we were having in our salad, but i didn't blanch them. The tank seems to have settled and the water is crystal clear (after having been cleaned due to the smelly vegetables 6 days ago) but i've not been feeding vegies, just the dried foods, but they only seem to eat a tiny bit of these, and the left overs make a huge mess.

Is there any method of feeding the vegies that doesn't result in dirty water, that has worked for you guys.

Thanks Matt

Joyce, technically, "Capsicum" is any plant in the family of "peppers", ranging from the mild/sweet peppers all the way to Habanero/Scotch-bonnet peppers. But it's more often used for the mild/sweet variety than the hotter varieties. See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capsicum

Matt: Most vegetables left in the water a long time will cloud the water. But in my experience, if you use small amounts (particularly in small tanks and with only small fishes), it should be fine to feed many different things (as listed in the article I've written - under "Articles(1)" in the separator bar between posts). I've been using baby-avocado recently with good success - but this is quite a "strong" food, so be a bit careful with the amount you feed. 3/4 of a baby-avocado in a 400 liter tank does make it a little cloudy.

Also, remove the food after 24 hours if it's not been eaten (unless you have species that require old food, such as Otocinclus).

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Mats

Thanks heaps Mats

I've had a bit more success with the pellets by adding less more frequently, and im going to try smaller thinner peices of vegies, getting a bigger tank in a week aswell so that should help.

Cheers Matt

I leave my vegetables in (a slice of each--zucchini, yellow squash tonight; shrimp and sweet potato Wednesday night, etc.) for 12 hours from 7PM when the blue moonlight comes on until 7AM when the overhead light comes on and the moonlight goes off. Each week I do a 20% water change, cleaning the pump, etc. My water is clear and stink free. My two plecos are about 3-1/2" long now. When I introduce a new veggie slice I poke holes in it and insert shrimp pellets (because both are omnivours). My sweet potato looks like lace when I remove it in the AM. The zucchini and yellow squash sometimes have little left of even their skin!