Aquarium Forums UK

I want to add some variation to my fishes’ diet, but live and frozen foods (e.g. bloodworms) aren’t ideal.
I was thinking I could feed them some vegetables, but I’m not sure what they would eat, or how I’d prepare it.
I have a dwarf gourami, four platies and 11 cardinals currently fed on NT Labs Pro-F Probiotic tropical and Aquarian tropical flakes- any advice would be appreciated

Try soaking some frozen peas in boiling water for a few minutes, then pour away the water and de-shell the peas (just give it a slight squeeze until the content pops out). I then squash the peas between my fingers and feed them as a mash, that way even the smaller fish can eat them.

Other things I've fed are spinach leaves (also blanched), slices of cucumber and courgette, broccoli and carrots. Only leave it in for a day then remove any leftovers to avoid fouling the water.

My platies always had a go at bits of cucumber, if you cut a slice in half they eat the flesh, or peas as Ric has suggested. The peas thing is good for constipation and preventing it
I usually leave it in for about 2 days before taking them out (if its fresh veg).
I havent fed live food (OH would kick off if I started keeping “bugs” everywhere ), but the frozen foods are easy enough, dare i ask what the issue with them might be? We might have some suggestions

Thanks! I tried some peas tonight and everyone seemed to enjoy. I’ll try some others in the next few days- and I might get frozen blood worms, however I share a freezer with people who don’t want them kept with food haha.

Does anyone have experience with freeze dried alternatives?

Ah fair enough, i used to keep mine in the bag the lfs gave me (until my OH threw out one lot by mistake...).
Theres nothing to worry about they are dead and wont be coming back to life and chomping on your house mates food
But you can always keep them sealed up in a carrier bag, plus i keep the cardboard sleeves (the gamma brand).
The freeze dried foods are ok, just make sure you soak them in tank water for 10mins before adding to tank otherwise they can cause issues as they draw water from the fish if eaten too soon (think what a mouthful of granulated coffee would be like).

I will say years ago I did have an instance where feeding some livebearers a cucumber, overnight the uneaten skin did block the filter intake. Thankfully there was no ill-effects to either fish or filter.

That aside you have to remember that where many of these fishes come from it is quite normal for fruit, leaves, nuts, seeds and other dead vegetation to drop into the water and fish will feed off of these foods as they slowly breakdown.

It is known that some species of trees in South America rely on fish to eat their fallen fruit during the wet season. These fruits contain seeds which will only germinate once the seeds passed through the fishes intestines.