Fresh veggies?
- Thread starter pontiac
- Start date
Jet Cat... You fight like my wife!!! First of all... you are puting words in my mouth. I did not say in one post, "you can't feed it to them because it's bad for them". What I said was, "Animals can actually suffer from malnutrition by filling up on food with little or no nutritional value. Feeding lettuce to your fish is no different than feeding bleached white bread to ducks. It is bad for them!" I am not wrong! If an animal fills up on non-nutritional foods, it will not have room for foods with nutritional value. Second... I do have a tang! Who by the way is fat and does not eat lettuce. Third... Because you have taken offense when no offense was intended and you were not personally attacked... you have insinuated that I am unqualified to post intelligently on this subject because, "I only have 6 months to a year experience keeping marine fish??" I did attend college to be a marine biologist. I have taken courses in nutrition and animal husbandry and I have common sense.
I only entered this thread to let some people know, who were trying to figure out which is better... Frozen or cooked lettuce? That they could do better by feeding a healthier snack.
I only entered this thread to let some people know, who were trying to figure out which is better... Frozen or cooked lettuce? That they could do better by feeding a healthier snack.
eastcoaster1
New member
JetCat â€"œ
I don’t think anyone is saying that you are killing your tangs by feeding them lettuce. Obviously they are healthily, so you’re doing something right.
My argument would be that just because they are healthy doesn’t mean that lettuce is good for them to eat.
For example, I could eat a diet of fresh veggies, lean meat, rice and styrofoam packing peanuts and be healthy, but that doesn’t mean that styrofoam is good for me.
The fact is there are more appropriate foods for marine herbivores to eat â€"œ namely marine algae.
I don’t think anyone is saying that you are killing your tangs by feeding them lettuce. Obviously they are healthily, so you’re doing something right.
My argument would be that just because they are healthy doesn’t mean that lettuce is good for them to eat.
For example, I could eat a diet of fresh veggies, lean meat, rice and styrofoam packing peanuts and be healthy, but that doesn’t mean that styrofoam is good for me.
The fact is there are more appropriate foods for marine herbivores to eat â€"œ namely marine algae.
eastcoaster1
New member
Pontica -
There are quite a few marine algaes that are marketed for human consumption. Nori, dulse, kelp, alaria, etc. Any would be good for your tangs.
Nori is probably the least expensive in terms of ounces per dollar, but any of them will be cheaper than the sea veggies marketed to reef hobbyists.
Most of these can be purchased a health food stores or online.
Here is one example: http://www.seaveg.com/products.php
There are quite a few marine algaes that are marketed for human consumption. Nori, dulse, kelp, alaria, etc. Any would be good for your tangs.
Nori is probably the least expensive in terms of ounces per dollar, but any of them will be cheaper than the sea veggies marketed to reef hobbyists.
Most of these can be purchased a health food stores or online.
Here is one example: http://www.seaveg.com/products.php
Pontiac... I have heard of people feeding lots of different fruits and vegetables that are grown outside of the sea but, my question to you is, "Why?" Macro algae is what they are adapted to feed on and in fact... an arguement could be made that they were put here on earth to do just that. If you must feed veggies other than marine plants... spinach might be better. I'll stick with nori though.
Rabbits are adapted to feed on lettuce but, a rabbit left to eat a diet of nothing but lettuce... will die of malnutrition in relatively short order.
Rabbits are adapted to feed on lettuce but, a rabbit left to eat a diet of nothing but lettuce... will die of malnutrition in relatively short order.
JetCat USA
In Memoriam
i see why your wife has a hard time getting through to you, in that very paragraph you say one thing and then contradict that with what you said the first time that you just said you didn't say. what part of IT'S BAD FOR THEM that you typed out are you not understanding as you said it was bad for them????
rustybucket145
New member
My Tang and hermits LOVE brocolli!! Frozen or fresh, doesn't matter. Niger trigger will even snack on some from time to time.
pontiac
Member
Thanks again guys, like I said, didn't mean to start a fight, I was just lookin for some info. I usualy use garlic every other feeding or so, but just wanted to change up the mix a bit. I'll try some red nori and some of the other things you guys suggested. And thanks for that link eastcoaster1 I will try some of those also. I just tried some frozen broccoli and they loved it! Even all the other fish ate it, might be just because it was new, i don't know.
kathainbowen
New member
While people have made some very interesting comments (and side arguments
), I think this, perhaps, is one of the most intelligent things stated in this thread and a point to lookat considering the side arguments.We're not discussing a sole food item. We're talking about vegi-based supplementation for your fish. Fish are naturally opportunistic feeders for the most part, with specific predispositions and evolutionary adaptations for certain diets. However, no solitary, singular food stuff can really give your fish everything it really needs nutritionally (unless you're one of those people who makes their own fish food and fas found an excellent recipe- you guys can ignore this part of the discussion). Tangs need a ton of vegitable matter, but they also need foods high in protein, such as mysis.
So, getting back to the subject at hand, which is what, persay, to feed tangs or other fish with a need for greens.
I'd definitely recommend as a first pick nori. You can generally find it for a really excellent deal at your local farmers marker or a grocery store with an asian theme. You can also sometimes find it as specialty grocery stores that focus on organic or healthy foods (our local Whole Foods has it). As a dried food, it stores well so long as you keep it dried, so crack out that Tuperware from a party ten years ago (when Tuperware parties were fun), Ziplock, or Glad! If you live under a rock (I have a friend who did, and I sometimes feel like I do) without any such stores, you can usually find Seaweed Strips from Ocean Nutrition or Julian Sprung's Sea Veggies flakes (although, admittedly, a good friend who had the pleasure of hearing Julian Sprung speak watched him call out another attendee of the lecture for feeding this, stating that it was really designed for use by zoos and professional aquariums.... so, to each his own).
If you want to go fresh but keep it really naturally, why not grow caulerpa? I once knew a client take water from his changes on his display tank by using it on a secondary tank to grow caulerpa for his tangs. After a while, the little tank became a neat sort of caulerpa-dominated display, and it was a great supplement to his main tank. Other keepers have done a sort of "feeding rock" technique where they keep smaller pieces of liverock in conditions prone to starting hair algae and, then, placing a piece at a time in the main tank for herbivores to graze on (and swapping them out as needed). Although, some people frown upon this technique, stating that it's just a quick way to start a bloom of invasive and undesireable algaes.
I have often heard of people using various different terrestrial veggies. I've seen zuchinni and romaine lettuce as two of the more common ones, as well as spinach. However, now, it's becoming very popular to feed brocoli. Many keepers have noticed a marked difference in fish with HLLE after feeding on a diet including brocoli. Other keepers have used brocoli with selcon to also help get rid of HLLE.
However, like I said, we're not talking about using that exclusively. Other keepers have attempted to meet the needs of veggie craving fish like tangs and angels with things like Emerald Entree from San Fancisco Bay Brand to help meet these needs. It's a frozen food with krill, mysis, brine shrimp, plankton, romaine, red leaf lettuce, spirulina, and spinach (among other stuff). Other people chose to directly use a spirulina flake or soak with their normal food stuffs (such as Kent Marine's Zoe).
At any rate, keep it varied up to avoid issues, but remember, individual results may vary. :rollface:
reefshadow
New member
Lettuce can have excellent nutritional value, the darker the lettuce the better. "Iceberg" lettuce is not a good choice, while varieties of darker or red leaf lettuce are great. Caloric values on all lettuces are poor, but that has nothing to do with nutritional value. As a supplement it is fine. I used to be against feeding terrestrial foods of any kind, but now feed bananas, dark leaf lettuces, and broccoli to my herbivorous fish. I've even tried some weird things like tiny bits of apple, berries, very fine cut up chicken, salmon and tuna on rare occasions in tiny amounts. I have a little suction cup feeding tray that I use when giving something new so if they don't like it I can remove it easily.
Your tangs look great, Jetcat.
Your tangs look great, Jetcat.
JetCat USA
In Memoriam
Thanks. if you haven't already, try them on oranges, mine absolutely love em, just take the skin off the individual 'slices' from the inside fruit part and let them have at it.
kathainbowen
New member
If you have koi or goldfish, you can also give them oranges. They will usually go ABSOLUTELY nuts over it.
