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Cucumber alternatives?


kellsz

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Every time I have a fruit or veggie in the house, my loaches get some!

cucumber

courgette (zucchini)

sweetcorn

peas

carrots

brocolli

beans

parsley

tomato

orange

apple

pear

banana...

There are some that they're keener on than others, but even when they don't seem to eat much they still play with them and rip them to bits. It means a bit more work for me, but I think it's really important for any animal to have a stimulating environment - that means new tastes and smells as well as toys to play with.

Of course, make sure you clean up any waste before it goes rotten. Cooked food goes bad faster than fresh stuff, and it can fall apart and get into the filter so just keep an eye on things. Maybe try cooked veggies the day before you plan to do the gravel vac?

One word of caution: I have heard that the brassica family (cabbage, cauliflower, brocolli, etc) puts out toxins when their leaves are damaged, and too much of this can be harmful. I don't know how true this is, but I only feed the blanched head of the brocolli, never the leaves, just in case.

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as far as im aware corn constipates fish, they cant digest it :-?

i have heard of people feeding oranges and bananas, not pear or apple though :lol: i think there was an article in the TFH mag about feeding fish bananas, saw a topic on it on another site.

blanching everything you uses makes it easier to digest or something, breaks down the cells walls??? i have never blanched anything though but my fish dont get much fresh veggies other than peas, lettuce and zhuchinni (other vegies are put into frozen, homemade foods)

caper- all fish can be fed shelled peas (bar strict carnivores i would imagine anyway as they wouldnt be able to break it down). some fish are picky and wont eat them though :lol:

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Just about all your veges can be used as food

Have a look at the ingredients of your fish food

Im sure it will amaze you

Also lettuce isnt a good food as its 98% water and really nothing in benefits for your fish

It wont hurt them but there isnt anything there for them

Zucchini is great

With veges though dont leave them in the water for longer then 24 hours as they will start to rot

Try leavin the zucchini in there and smell it 24 hours later

Brad

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i know wardly put corn meal in some of their products. i use mainly JBL which dont list ingrediants but i suppose nows the time to look on the net. if it does ill switch to another brand. corn meal is just a filler and is often within the first few (meaning its a high percentage). i read bout the foods in the US containing "whole fish" as the first ingredient, but i dont think we have anything like that here :(

ive smelt the zuchinni after about 16 hours (my large pleco is fussy and wont eat it) and it smells... interesting :lol:

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as far as im aware corn constipates fish, they cant digest it

I take a (cooked) corn kernel and squeeze the soft bit out. The fish seem to have no trouble digesting it - perhaps it's the hard 'shell' they have trouble with? But corn is very high in starch, so it's more about giving them some interesting tastes and smells rather than a staple part of their diet.

lettuce isnt a good food as its 98% water and really nothing in benefits for your fish

It wont hurt them but there isnt anything there for them

I agree about the low nutritional value of lettuce, freaky. But I disagree that it doesn't benefit the fish. Most of the processed food we give our fish is highly concentrated and nutritionally dense. For snacking 'between meals' lettuce is an ideal food. And remember, this is about play-time as much as feeding time!

Also I think if you expose your fish to a wide variety of food in their lives, it makes it much easier to introduce new kinds of food. My fish will have a 'taste' of anything I put in their tank, because they're so used to me putting weird stuff in there that turns out to be yummy! :lol: (Becomes a bit annoying when they're chewing on my arm while I try to rearrange their decor, though)

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Also lettuce isnt a good food as its 98% water and really nothing in benefits for your fish

It wont hurt them but there isnt anything there for them

Looked into this quite a bit when I had an iguana. Here's how it works. Iceberg lettuce has no value but just about all the other types of lettuce are great. You want to choose the thick lettuce types that have lots of fibre and preferably a nice dark green colouration.

Just my 2 cents.

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