Food for veggie eaters

[JDogg]

obviously the #1 best choice is going to be real vegetables, and i do mix into my fish's diet frozen peas, corn, green beans, lima beans, carrots, lettuce and spinach...

but i have also been trying some other sources of plant matter. i have tries

Wadley Spirulina Plus with beta glucan flakes - glad to see the first ingredient is spirulina, but it is also 40% protein :?

the other two i have tries the fish do not eat so much....

O.S.I. Ocean Star Spirulina pellets - this was recommended to me by my lfs (i had net even heard of this brand before) as bing great for mubuna. it claims to have...1. an innovative star shape (looks round to me), high level of beta carotene, 3. Easy to Digest, 4. Stabilized Vitamin C, and 5. Never clouds the water. however the first two ingredient are fish meal and wheat flour :? 42% protein

the other one is HBH Veggie Wafers - these have the lowest amount to protein at 33%. the first couple ingredients (in order) are spirulina powder, alfalfa meal, soy flour, wheat flour, they also contain spinach powder, carrot powder, and zucchini flakes 8O so i believe these are the best for my veg eating fish

so my questions how do the above mentioned food stack up against other veg orientated fish foods and is there something better?

 

[black hills tj]

I went to a LFS yesterday, to check out alternate foods(instead of flakes), and I took a look at some foods that were "high in vegetable content." Primary ingredient in all 3 was fish meal!

 

[aquariumnoob]

I use Wardley Algae Discs 32%. Ingredients: spirulina algae meal, corn gluten feed, corn gluten meal, corn distillers dried grains, wheat germ, wheat gluten, wheat middlings, linseed meal, canola meal, dehulled soybean meal....It never said fish meal, the list continues with things from spinach, barley, rice flour, corn flour, alfalfa. My cories and otos really like them.

 

[plecoperson]

I use HBH veggie flake; very vegetabl-y!

 

[Livebearer]

Unfortunately, with all of the processing that vegetable powders endure, only to then be processed again into the fish foods, I'm not sure they do a whole lot of good. Better than fillers anyway.

Sea Veggies win my vote on the commercial level. 100% seaweed, various species or mixed. Seaweed is excellent for fish, builds immunity, enhances colour, contains lots of minerals & vitamins and is a good source of vegetable protein.

That's one thing about protein, incidentally, veggies can have it too so don't worry too much about what the protein percentage is if the label reads good otherwise. Spirulina, for example, is very high in vegetable protein.

My fave vegetable flake that's mixed with seafood, is Omega One's Veggie blend. Veggies are up there on the label, seafood is first but its premium, human-grade ingredients. Great for omnivores.

Kudos for the label reading and for caring enough to provide fresh vegetables. Lucky fish!


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[JustOneMore20]

My Malawians get mainly veggie flakes from http://www.kensfish.com/kensflake1.html. If you scroll down to the vegetable flake you see the ingredients are "MIXTURE OF PLANTS AND VEGETABLES INCLUDING: SEAWEED, SPIRULINA, CARROTS, SQUASH, SPINACH. VEGETABLE OILS, SOY MEAL, YEAST, WHEAT FLOUR, VITAMIN & MINERAL SUPPLEMENT. ASORBIC ACID (SOURCE OF VITAMIN C). NATURAL AND SOME ARTIFICIAL COLORING". And crude protein is 35%. I feel that this is an excellent main food for my Malawians.

They also get NLS cichlid formula which has the krill meal and fish meal as the top 2 ingredients, but its only 34% protein. It was recommended to me by many Malawian keepers as a good food, though I don't use it as their main one.

I also feed zucchini and cucumber occasionally.

 

[4myfish.com]

You're On The Right Path!

What you are doing is great! Many different fish have many different tastes and that is the easiest thing to experiment. Way to go and good luck.

 

[majolo]

Note the following, courtesy of Wikipedia:

Spirulina contains unusually high amounts of protein, between 55 and 77% by dry weight, depending upon the source. It is a complete protein, containing all essential amino acids, though with reduced amounts of methionine, cysteine, and lysine, as compared to standard proteins such as that from meat, eggs, or milk. It is, however, superior to all standard plant protein, such as that from legumes.

So it's not as surprising as I would have thought that a spirulina-based food is high in protein.

Edit: Just re-read the first post, and had to at the "innovative star shape"!

 

[Idealconcepts]

Kens veggie sticks are worth a look at. I feed them almost daily to my Malawi Cichilds, the fry, and once or twice a week to my S/C American Cichlids.

 

[sherry]

I feed Kale and keep it affordable by freezing a head of kale.. torn apart to make it smaller, and going thru it one piece at a time. One head lasts months.