Feeding fresh/frozen veggies

[farleyfish]

how do you feed veggies to cichlids? and what kind and how often? If I feed them good quaility flake/pellets, do I need to suppliment them with fresh/frozen veggies? I always wondered if fish enjoy variety in their diet. I have yellow labs, rusties, pecocks, dolphins, buffaloheads, clown loaches, a pleco and a BN.

[geleen]

I know my rainbows,clown loaches and BN love zuchini (put a slice in the microwave for 25 sec,thanweight it down)

Also crushed blanched peas and shredded cooked spinach.

I always prepare lots, freeze, then thaw before feeding.

J

how do you feed veggies to cichlids? and what kind and how often? If I feed them good quaility flake/pellets, do I need to suppliment them with fresh/frozen veggies? I always wondered if fish enjoy variety in their diet. I have yellow labs, rusties, pecocks, dolphins, buffaloheads, clown loaches, a pleco and a BN.

[RD.]

If I feed them good quaility flake/pellets, do I need to suppliment them with fresh/frozen veggies?

No. A high quality pellet/flake food will provide all of the variety that a fish needs to thrive long term.

While some hobbyists do enjoy supplementing their fishes diet with fresh/frozen treats, nutritionally speaking it certainly isn't required.

[geleen]

Maybe or perhaps even likely, the food is complete in all way's. Having shown and bred dogs for over 20 years, I have my doubts about ALL prepared foods. Even though I used them and continue to use them.

If I do not supplement fresh greens, the plants WILL get eaten :boxed:

Feeding the vegetables 3 times a week certainly safes my plants.

J

[Tanker]

I like to add a little zucchini to my cichlid and BN's diet, and have occasionally been known to shell a few peas and toss them in.

Zucchini is easy, cut it into strips and wrap in saran, freeze. Then, I take out one every couple of days and with a small rock and an elastic band just sink it to the bottom. Some blanche it first, but I find they attack it all the same and it defrosts instantly once in the tank. I also do this with the occasional fresh piece, and it's all the same - total attack mode.

Peas are fun, but a bit more time consuming. About 30 or so frozen peas on a small plate with a bit of water. Nuke for 30 seconds and then with your fingers, pinch each pea and it literally will pop out of it's shell. Cichlids (mine at least) completely ignore the shells, and will not eat through it to get to the soft part, so this is important. If you nuke it just right, it'll still be firm on the inside, and not just complete mush (bad). Drop in the 'pea halves' and watch them go ape over it chasing them around the currents in the tank.

I use New Life Spectrum pellets and wafers and my addition of zucchini is mostly for the benefit of the bristlenoses. I have a breeding pair of wild caught, and while they do like the wafers and pellets I feed, I find they seem not to get a decent amount as the cichlids battle for them, and in most cases, carry off the wafers, etc. Having a strip of zucchini in the bottom of the tank for a few hours gives them plenty of time to graze as they like, and I do see all four of my BN's taking a nice long munch. It's not that I think they 'need' the veggies, it's simply a matter of it being a more accessible food for their feeding style (and my tank certainly doesn't have enough naturally occurring algae for even one of them).

One thing I should mention is to monitor your method of securing the veggie... an elastic band around a rock works... but sometimes the food will split in two where the band is, and float randomly in the tank. This may mean a large chunk will go behind a rock, stuck in a current, etc and you'll not see it. If this is left there too long, it will rot and foul the water (depending on size, etc but it will have some detrimental effect, no matter the size). I quarter my zucchini lengthwise, and use metal clips on each end to weigh it down. Even if the fish eat through the zucchini in the middle, each half then stays put, and I can control where in the tank it goes. Fair warning, based on pulling out too many chunks of half rotted zucchini during a rock-reorganization.

Below you'll see tonight's feeding... wild caught female grinding on the peel (after a nice chow on the other side) and some of the cichlids eyeing up their next chomp. Found a half dozen smaller zucchinis at Sobey's (only about 8" long) so this is a fresh feeding.

[RD.]

No worries geleen, my entrance into the arena of pet food began 20+ yrs ago, with dogs, so I understand where you're coming from. That being said, an opinion was asked, and I gave my honest opinion. Even species classified as strict herbivores in the wild, eat nothing but pellets in my tanks. Any pleco that has survived from being killed in my cichlid tanks, has also always taken to pellets very well. That includes tank raised, and wild caught specimens.

Most of the fish listed in the OP's cichlid list are classified as insectivores, omnivores, or carnivore, with only the Iodotropheus sprengerae falling more under the herbivorous classification, so even if one was attempting to target feed by classification, adding a bunch of fresh/frozen veggies to their mix of fish isn't going to accomplish the desired goal.

Nothing wrong with supplementing a fishes diet if one feels the need, as long as the water quality doesn't suffer, and/or the fish decides that it would prefer to only eat the "treats", and refuses to eat anything but.

[farleyfish]

Thanks, I'll try this!

I like to add a little zucchini to my cichlid and BN's diet, and have occasionally been known to shell a few peas and toss them in.

Zucchini is easy, cut it into strips and wrap in saran, freeze. Then, I take out one every couple of days and with a small rock and an elastic band just sink it to the bottom. Some blanche it first, but I find they attack it all the same and it defrosts instantly once in the tank. I also do this with the occasional fresh piece, and it's all the same - total attack mode.

Peas are fun, but a bit more time consuming. About 30 or so frozen peas on a small plate with a bit of water. Nuke for 30 seconds and then with your fingers, pinch each pea and it literally will pop out of it's shell. Cichlids (mine at least) completely ignore the shells, and will not eat through it to get to the soft part, so this is important. If you nuke it just right, it'll still be firm on the inside, and not just complete mush (bad). Drop in the 'pea halves' and watch them go ape over it chasing them around the currents in the tank.

I use New Life Spectrum pellets and wafers and my addition of zucchini is mostly for the benefit of the bristlenoses. I have a breeding pair of wild caught, and while they do like the wafers and pellets I feed, I find they seem not to get a decent amount as the cichlids battle for them, and in most cases, carry off the wafers, etc. Having a strip of zucchini in the bottom of the tank for a few hours gives them plenty of time to graze as they like, and I do see all four of my BN's taking a nice long munch. It's not that I think they 'need' the veggies, it's simply a matter of it being a more accessible food for their feeding style (and my tank certainly doesn't have enough naturally occurring algae for even one of them).

One thing I should mention is to monitor your method of securing the veggie... an elastic band around a rock works... but sometimes the food will split in two where the band is, and float randomly in the tank. This may mean a large chunk will go behind a rock, stuck in a current, etc and you'll not see it. If this is left there too long, it will rot and foul the water (depending on size, etc but it will have some detrimental effect, no matter the size). I quarter my zucchini lengthwise, and use metal clips on each end to weigh it down. Even if the fish eat through the zucchini in the middle, each half then stays put, and I can control where in the tank it goes. Fair warning, based on pulling out too many chunks of half rotted zucchini during a rock-reorganization.

Below you'll see tonight's feeding... wild caught female grinding on the peel (after a nice chow on the other side) and some of the cichlids eyeing up their next chomp. Found a half dozen smaller zucchinis at Sobey's (only about 8" long) so this is a fresh feeding.