Feeding Fish Vegetables

[Enigma]

Apparently, some fish are supposed to be fed vegetables. This is an entirely new concept to me.

I did some reading online last night, and I found plenty of references for the feeding of veggies to freshwater fish. Feeding suggestions for saltwater fish were few and far between.

If the feeding of veggies would be beneficial to my critters, I would certainly like to attempt it.

Does anyone have any suggestions or experiences to share?

[Aquattro]

I feed kale to my tangs once in a while. You need to blanche it to break down the fiber. However, I'm not sure it's beneficial if they get a good variety of seaweed and meaty bits. Let's face it, the typical fish doesn't come across veggies all that often

[mike31154]

I've put blanched romaine lettuce & spinach on the veggie clip in the past. Yellow Tang took it, but not all that enthusiastically. I even read somewhere that banana peel will work for some & that it's beneficial due to the potassium. My tang never touched it. Both the tang & my angelfish love the bulk nori I serve up so I simply stick to that these days. I recall reading that nori has more nutrition in it than anything we can grow in our gardens. And yeah, not too much spinach, romaine floating around in the sea, a banana or two maybe.

[Enigma]

Thanks for the ideas, guys.

I did think the recommendation was a little odd. I have a whole host of foods at my disposal (several flakes, several pellets, several types of frozen, Arctipods, nori) . . . but I'm supposed to feed veggies? Peas and zucchini appear to be very popular with the FW folks.

I'm not sure why either of those would be any sort of appropriate, natural, species specific diet . . . for anything other than my Holland Lop rabbit (versus my Foxface Rabbitfish).

[reefwars]

read your fish food ingerdients i bet its mostly vegetables and shrimp:P:P

most of mine are anyways:P

[fishytime]

Ive fed banana (the fruit itself) to my fish before.....most of them took to it....you really have to smoosh it up and make it bite sized tho....Ive never fed veggies

[reefwars]

in my nls pellets bottle in my hand it says:

red and green spinach
pea
broccoli
red pepper
zucchini
tomato
kiwi
apricot
pear
mango
apple
papaya
peach


a frend and me yesterday were reading the ingredients and alot of these have copper traces in them

[Enigma]

Originally Posted by reefwars

read your fish food ingerdients i bet its mostly vegetables and shrimp:P:P

most of mine are anyways:P

I will check.

Originally Posted by fishytime

Ive fed banana (the fruit itself) to my fish before.....most of them took to it....you really have to smoosh it up and make it bite sized tho....Ive never fed veggies

Interesting. Do you think the advantage of the banana is as simple as diet variance, or is there something specific to the banana that is particularly advantageous? I can't eat a whole one . . . they sit in my stomach like rocks (must be all the potassium, maybe?).

[Enigma]

Originally Posted by reefwars

a frend and me yesterday were reading the ingredients and alot of these have copper traces in them

There are traces of copper in most things . . . most just don't list it. It probably won't be something that is added on purpose, but rather, that is naturally occurring.

Very small trace amounts are perfectly safe.

Look at the list of minerals for this very popular aquarium product:
http://www.aquavitro.com/products/fuel.html

I'm impressed that they have the gonads to actually list it in there.

Edit: Here's an interesting little article on copper concentrations in the ocean: http://www.chemet.com/file.asp?F=Cop...PDF&C=articles

[fishytime]

Originally Posted by reefwars

a frend and me yesterday were reading the ingredients and alot of these have copper traces in them

Ive been telling peeps this for years....even got into a heated debate about it here with more than one person.....I think NLS is a great food for freshwater and even a fish only , but I will not feed it to my reef

Originally Posted by Enigma

Interesting. Do you think the advantage of the banana is as simple as diet variance, or is there something specific to the banana that is particularly advantageous? I can't eat a whole one . . . they sit in my stomach like rocks (must be all the potassium, maybe?).

Im assuming that potassium is the reason some feed it.....I fed it as a treat, like you said, just to get some variance in their diet....