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ok, who here feeds hikari algae waers to royals as a staple? i am thinking of feeding hikari wafers as a staple.

i usually stick to hikari, my favourite fish food brand, never let me down before.
but recently, seeing that royals need wood, i figured, JBL novel plec containing wood fibre might be good.

i decided, due to cost in my country to buy in bulk.

but im finding that my royals are not really liking the jbl as much as hikari wafers.
in fact, when i introduce hikari wafers, everything in the tank go crazy - but jbl, no one really cares except for blue phantom and sailfin. (tank has clonw loaches, blue phantom, sailfin. royals)

i am thinking, should i just trade my jbl novo plec for hikari algae wafers - and feed that as a staple OR, keep alternating with jbl and hikari in equal amounts?

I dont see them eating as much when i feed jbl but tonight, i fed hikari - immediately i see 4 out of 6 royals come out to feed and they stick around where the wafers are and graze, just constantly grazing when it is lights out. while with jbl, they tend not to do that as excitedly.

Thanks.

also, a few months back, i tried feeding courgette and sweet potato (raw) the plecos immediately were attracted to it, loved it.
but after feeding sweet potato, i found that my blue phantom and large polka dot pleco got the bload. i fed sweet potato after courgette, no way of me telling which caused it.

why did sweet potato do this?
i hear everyone saying courgette, i am sure they would love courgette but shoudl i feed courgette and risk it again?

I use JBL Novo Pleco, but not because I necessarily find it MUCH better than the Hikari brand, but because I can get large tubs of it for decent money - it's about 20% more expensive to buy Hikari brand food, and when a 1 liter tub only lasts a couple of months, then it makes a difference. Obviously, if I thought the Hikari was MUCH better, I'd get that - but I think they are roughly equal. I also feed a lot of JBL Novo Tabs to all my fish.

I must say, I've never had any negative effect from feeding sweet potato or courgette to any of my fish - and I try it with ALL of them, even if some are more keen than others. Leporacanthicus sometimes eat courgette, but yet to see them feed on sweet potato.

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Mats

any reason why right after i feed sweet potato, 2 of my plecs get bloat and die 4 days later?
i fed them courgette 3 days before sweet potato.

henward wrote:any reason why right after i feed sweet potato, 2 of my plecs get bloat and die 4 days later?
i fed them courgette 3 days before sweet potato.

It's nearly impossible to say for sure - certainly very hard without seeing the actual fish, and knowing what's been going on in the tank (changes in temperature, water chemistry, filtration, other fish behaviour in the tank - I'm not saying ANY of that is a cause for bloat, just that there are LOTS of things that MAY influence the health of the fish, besides from the food). I'm also not saying sweet potato can't cause bloat - just that my experience doesn't show this, and I know lots of other fishkeepers that use both courgette and sweet potato to feed various types of plecos - so I would expect if it was a problem to use that type of food, we'd know about it.

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Mats

Hi

I used to feed my panaque HBH veggie wafers for years. I recently switched to NLS mega fish tabs. The thing is I don't feed them pellets more than twice a week. Their main diet consists of fresh carrots, green peas, sweet potato and white/yellow potato. I've never had an issue when feeding them fresh veggies and it's been years and years since I started feeding them this type of diet.

My personal opinion of hikari is it's over priced and not a great choice. My plecs used to get bloated after eating the wafers. There was also lots of untouched food when I did feed it to them.
I wouldn't recommend it.

I've never used JBL so no comment

henward wrote:i hear everyone saying courgette, i am sure they would love courgette but shoudl i feed courgette and risk it again?

Yes. I don't think there is any risk in feeding clean, fresh zucchini (courgette) to L190's. I don't think the bloat you saw was associated with the zucchini you fed them in any causal way.

I cannot comment on the sweet potatoes because I have never attempted to feed my fish with 'em.

I do feed my fish fresh vegetable too and have no problem.

But as a security measure, every vegetable are blanched (boiled for a few seconds) so I don't put bad bacterias or other bad stuff in the aquarium.

so even courgette, just blanched?
is the blanching for hygiene or ease of digestion?

i am thinking of trying courgette again.

henward wrote:so even courgette, just blanched?
is the blanching for hygiene or ease of digestion?

i am thinking of trying courgette again.

It's to cause the vegetable to sink.

Personally I find it counterproductive. Fresh is the way to go. If you're concerned about pesticides and so on you could buy organic. I don't and have never met another who does.

I buy from the farmers markets or from the farmers directly.

I don't think I've fed zucchini in a long time. It was going untouched and was a waste.
I stick to the carrots, green peas and potatoes. Of course the tank is filled with wood as well.

I only blanch vegetables for fry.

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Mats

i tried carrots too but they didnt touch it.
they attacked courgette and sweet potato.
but im happy using courgette.

i am just weary i get that bloat thing again.
but like you said, it obviously isnt courgette as you all feed it.
do the royals eat the white fleshy part or just the green casing?
how about seeds?

My fish eat the lot, but some start from the outside, others at the seeds and some eat the meat first.

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Mats

Have you tried green peas?

I buy them frozen I then run under warm water to thaw them out and then squeez each one out of the shell/casing and they sink right to the bottom. The fish like it out of shell a lot more plus they don't seem to eat them so they'll liter your tank and will need to be scooped out.

You have to keep offering them the foods they'll cath on soon.

they like hikari, seems to stir them up when they smell it.

i am considering courgettes/zuchinni but scared lol
peas, may try, do you cook peas first?