Vegetables for Fish

[Tropicalfishkeeping201]

Hello everyone, 

What fish food and vegetables that are high in fiber are safe to feed fish? I have Gouramis, mollies and platys.

I have heard some people feed their fish peas and wanted to know what vegetables are safe to feed them since I’m new to the hobby.

Are the vegetables given raw or do you have to boil it to feed it to the fish? 
 

Thank you in advance🙂

 

[Lots Of Loaches]

We blanch peas and peel the outer shell off to feed our fish as well as giving them raw zucchini and squash slices. Straight out of the can “No Salt added” green beans go in our pleco fry grow out tanks everyday. 

[Tropicalfishkeeping201]

On 8/16/2022 at 5:21 PM, Lots Of Loaches said:

We blanch peas and peel the outer shell off to feed our fish as well as giving them raw zucchini and squash slices. Straight out of the can “No Salt added” green beans go in our pleco fry grow out tanks everyday. 

Thank you! 🙂

[Guppysnail]

I steam green beans and my guppies and plecos go crazy total fan favorite.  I open them so the meat is accessible.  I slice mini cucumber and zucchini  after 12-14 hours they are soft enough sitting in the tank my kids nibble them or you can toss them in the microwave for 30 seconds or so. I also blanch kale lightly. The love to pick at that. I suction cup it to a wall.  Broccoli stalk steamed not the floret part it makes a mess, bell peppers, baby carrots (steamed slightly softer or frozen thawed carrot slices, sweet potato.  Livebearers for me pretty much eat any veggie they are not picky. Hope that helps. 

Edited August 17, 2022 by Guppysnail

[Tanked]

Fresh baby spinach, cucumber, squash, or broccoli florets on a skewer are my go usual choices.  My fish greatly prefer the pulp, seeds and florets. If the fish are hungry, they will nibble on the stalks if I go away for the weekend.  The Barbs might get thawed peas again in the future. This raises my question

 Why do we blanch or boil?  I slept through that class.

[gardenman]

I use canned French-style green beans for my plecos, but the swordtails intercept some on the way down and munch on them also. Pretty much anything that's safe for humans is safe for fish. Whether they'll eat it or not is another story, but you only learn by trying. The swordtails are funny with the beans. One of the bigger ones will grab a bean on the way down and swim off with it, and five or six others will chase it picking away at the bean.

[Tropicalfishkeeping201]

On 8/17/2022 at 3:53 AM, Guppysnail said:

I steam green beans and my guppies and plecos go crazy total fan favorite.  I open them so the meat is accessible.  I slice mini cucumber and zucchini  after 12-14 hours they are soft enough sitting in the tank my kids nibble them or you can toss them in the microwave for 30 seconds or so. I also blanch kale lightly. The love to pick at that. I suction cup it to a wall.  Broccoli stalk steamed not the floret part it makes a mess, bell peppers, baby carrots (steamed slightly softer or frozen thawed carrot slices, sweet potato.  Livebearers for me pretty much eat any veggie they are not picky. Hope that helps. 

Thank you! I will definitely start feeding them these vegetables🙂 

On 8/17/2022 at 6:57 AM, Tanked said:

Fresh baby spinach, cucumber, squash, or broccoli florets on a skewer are my go usual choices.  My fish greatly prefer the pulp, seeds and florets. If the fish are hungry, they will nibble on the stalks if I go away for the weekend.  The Barbs might get thawed peas again in the future. This raises my question

 Why do we blanch or boil?  I slept through that class.

Thank you! 

On 8/17/2022 at 7:08 AM, gardenman said:

I use canned French-style green beans for my plecos, but the swordtails intercept some on the way down and munch on them also. Pretty much anything that's safe for humans is safe for fish. Whether they'll eat it or not is another story, but you only learn by trying. The swordtails are funny with the beans. One of the bigger ones will grab a bean on the way down and swim off with it, and five or six others will chase it picking away at the bean.

lol seems like they really like those green beans, Thank you! 

[AnimalNerd98]

I remember listening to one of the old co-op videos that fish really go for the canned green beans with salt. Ever since then, I have fed them to my fish and haven’t seen any adverse results. Green beans are popular with my platies, hillstream loaches, Borneo sucker loaches, Pygmy corydoras, MTS, ramshorn snails, rabbit snails, Amano shrimp, and Neo shrimp. 
 

I also feed zucchini slices, peeled and frozen, before plopping them in the tank. I always like to have foods that I can just freeze and pop in the tank whenever I notice that my veggies have run out. I also feed blanched mulberry leaves to my shrimp and the other fish seem to pick at it. 
 

As a general rule of thumb, most veggies need to be prepared in some way for the fish to eat them. You can either blanch, boil, or freeze them (freezing causes the cells to pop). Feel free to experiment, as long as you are not feeding anything known to be poisonous. During one of the club talks, Barbie Fiorentino mentioned how she is famous (or infamous) for plopping “human foods” in her Pleco tanks. 

[Tropicalfishkeeping201]

On 8/18/2022 at 12:04 AM, AnimalNerd98 said:

I remember listening to one of the old co-op videos that fish really go for the canned green beans with salt. Ever since then, I have fed them to my fish and haven’t seen any adverse results. Green beans are popular with my platies, hillstream loaches, Borneo sucker loaches, Pygmy corydoras, MTS, ramshorn snails, rabbit snails, Amano shrimp, and Neo shrimp. 
 

I also feed zucchini slices, peeled and frozen, before plopping them in the tank. I always like to have foods that I can just freeze and pop in the tank whenever I notice that my veggies have run out. I also feed blanched mulberry leaves to my shrimp and the other fish seem to pick at it. 
 

As a general rule of thumb, most veggies need to be prepared in some way for the fish to eat them. You can either blanch, boil, or freeze them (freezing causes the cells to pop). Feel free to experiment, as long as you are not feeding anything known to be poisonous. During one of the club talks, Barbie Fiorentino mentioned how she is famous (or infamous) for plopping “human foods” in her Pleco tanks. 

Thank you! 🙂 I will definitely start feeding my fish veggies