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Post by fishfever on Nov 23, 2009 18:07:12 GMT -5
I use the standard zuchini (and sometimes yellow squash), par-boiled in the microwave a few minutes. I generally put 1/4 of it in at a time and in a few hours there is nothing but skin left (and sometimes nothing if I forget and leave it in a day). They will sometimes eat a little cooked peas but normally only in a hospital tank with nothing else available. So I've been looking to add more variety lately... some fish will eat raw spinach/greens but primarily just 2 tetras. I tried a small piece of baked potato which the fish liked but since most of the nutrition is in the skin I stopped doing this (plus one adult molly would not leave the potato alone and was still munching after an hour!). I am thinking about a piece of cooked sweet potato since that has much more nutrition (vitamins, minerals etc.) than a regular potato... but will the sugars in the sweet potato be bad for fish?
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Post by Carl on Nov 23, 2009 18:41:14 GMT -5
The sugars can certainly be a breeding factory for bacteria and fungii, however used in small amounts that are consumed within a day I think would be an excllent idea
Carl
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Post by fishfever on Nov 25, 2009 16:17:57 GMT -5
I tried the parboiled sweet potato today and the fish seemed to enjoy it for the 2-3 hours it was in there. But it did seem to cause some "fogging" on the tank walls, kind of slimey buildup(guess algae growth?). Normally there is a little bit of slime but not enough to make the glass look foggy. Maybe it was coincidence but the glass was clear before feeding the potato and foggy when I went to remove it. The tank is due for a cleaning anyway but I thought that was a weird side effect.
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Post by Carl on Nov 26, 2009 12:49:50 GMT -5
I tried the parboiled sweet potato today and the fish seemed to enjoy it for the 2-3 hours it was in there. But it did seem to cause some "fogging" on the tank walls, kind of slimey buildup(guess algae growth?). Normally there is a little bit of slime but not enough to make the glass look foggy. Maybe it was coincidence but the glass was clear before feeding the potato and foggy when I went to remove it. The tank is due for a cleaning anyway but I thought that was a weird side effect. This slime is likely a bacterial growth, due to the quickness of its occurrence. As well it is likely non pathogenic autotrohic or Heterotrophic bacteria. I still think this was/is an excellent idea, maybe try feeding a smaller portion and/or add this "treat" immediately prior to a planned water change. Carl
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Post by fishfever on Nov 28, 2009 8:41:27 GMT -5
Carl, I think some slime was there already since it was getting close to cleaning and maybe the sweet potato sugars pushed it to the point where it was visible on the glass. But yes I plan to try this again when it's time to clean again, we have plenty of leftover raw sweet potatoes and they keep well in the fridge...
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Post by fishfever on Dec 28, 2009 19:00:13 GMT -5
I repeated this when it was time to clean again and yes it did cloud the tank walls again after a few hours. There was a bit of cloudiness to start with but it was hard to see unless you looked closely. But after a few hours with the sweet potato in the tank the cloudiness was easily visible. Doing the water change (with the normal wall scrubbing) made it go away.
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Post by Carl on Dec 28, 2009 20:19:33 GMT -5
It appears that the bacteria in the tank really like the sweet potato.
I have seen this happen when lettuce is fed, but it takes much longer (less nutritional value in the lettuce I suspect is why)
Carl
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