Feeding Lettuce

[40B Knasty]

Did anyone notice that the info given about the foods/vegetables that can be eaten by fish was from 1997? Well corn for example is illegal to use to catch fish, because they say NOW it can not be digested by the fish.
Here is how I see it. @laga77. Thanks for the very informative facts about it.
Why is there any firebacks at what you are saying is lack of common sense for the best care of fish. Common sense says they do not see our supermarket supplements. Why debate with it.
To the question given about eating lettuce. Do not do it. Yes we see our LFS using them, but please.. How many other things do we see our LFS doing that we highly disagree with. Until you see it being solid by companies. That means it is approved and good to feed your fish without question. If it was approved think about this. Don't you think they would rather farm lettuce right from land than having to pull a food source from the ocean? The cost efficiency says it right there what the answer is if it is right for our fish or otherwise they would be putting lettuce dried on the shelf for us to use to feed.

 

[Lionfish Lair]

Why is there any firebacks at what you are saying is lack of common sense for the best care of fish. Common sense says they do not see our supermarket supplements. Why debate with it

Who are you talking to here?

 

[Sycoticrealm]

The chemicals I'm not going to worry about when it's food I put into my own family's bodies. Wash your fruit and vegetables well before you share.

I'm not talking about replacing one thing for another. We are not saying use lettuce instead of kelp. We're talking about adding variety. Something like seaweed has many amazing things our marine critters need, so of course it's an excellent food, but that doesn't mean other food items don't have their supplemental value. It's important to hit all the key notes. Lettuce has triple the vitamin C, which is often deficient in our captive environments. It has more vitamin A, vitamin K, potassium and so on and so forth. They are completely different foods. If you are looking for extra fresh vitamins to supplement your fish diet, go ahead and ADD lettuce if it's something your fish will eat. I'm not just saying lettuce though, I'm saying add lots of things. Don't be afraid to try different stuff. Think about all the stuff our prepared foods loose with being frozen, or freeze dried or stored for a long time or not stored properly. Sometimes a nice piece of a fresh vegetable will have more to offer than something that is on the decline.

There's a lot of useful information that can be borrowed from the aquaculture community even though the final outcome is not the same, our goals are the same and that is to keep healthy fish. Their motives are different is all. The aquaculture studies have figured out what the broad nutritional needs are for groups of fish and the very specific requirements for particular fish of interest. Their studies are not specifically about longevity, but about meeting proper fish nutrition. Isn't that what we are doing as well? Trying to provide for optimal health? To not look to this billion dollar industry for information is missing a valuable source of research.

Rods food and LRS seem to like broccoli and Rod's in particular also uses carrots and spinach.

If you think just because stores sales it means it safe to eat then you're completely naive.

Back to the topic though I never said lettuce was bad but it not great for it either.
If you eat donuts everyday does it mean it good for you?
Should you eat veggies more?
Probably so why give variety when it of no benefit?
Tangs don't care about treats or variety.
It about survival and mating to make more.
I'm all about saving money that why I buy seaweed from the Asian market for my Tangs instead of supporting too many of these $$$ hungry companies.
But lettuce come on that just laughable!

So if there no study on lifespan/longevity then it an incomplete study.
Whole point of nutrition findings is to lengthen it lifespan and prevent diseases I thought.
Unless lettuce does that which it doesn't because just a lettuce diet is insufficient to the requirements stated in which the fish needs.
I don't see anywhere that lettuce is a good constant diet so why is this even a debate?
Tangs need protein lettuce has such an inefficient amount that is completely irrelevant from a digestion stand point and makes lettuce completely meaningless to feed!
Point blank it won't kill your fish right now but it doesn't help it lifespan and is like you're slowly starving it.
I'm done with this topic y'all enjoy yourselves.
Smh....

 

[Lionfish Lair]

No need to tell people their ideas are "just laughable" because you don't agree. Have we lost the art of polite conversation?

 

[laga77]

Just for the record. LRS does not use any garlic in their food and only uses a couple of tablespoons of broccoli flowers, not broccoli , in a 200 pound batch of food. I know nothing of Rods, but other manufactures use carrots to replace the pigments that are removed when fish meal is processed. They press out the oil for humans and farm use and then sell the leftovers to the pet food trade.

 

[Lionfish Lair]

Broccoli flowers are still terrestrial and not a "natural foods", so they are the same in regards to this discussion. Using a "little" of something is exactly what we are talking about I thought.... supplementation.

 

[njtiger aquariums]

I have feed my fish lettuce but like @Lionfish Lair is saying don't only feed them lettuce. When my tank was up and running I would do one feeding of flake food during the week (once in awhile i would sub frozen food for the flakes) with two sheets of nori (one in the am and one in the pm). The weekend I would feed frozen food with the nori as well. I mix between different types of frozen food. Once in awhile, like maybe once a month, I would provide lettuce for one of my nori feeding.

Now granted there no long term study on our fish and the affect of lettuce or even some other foods we feed them. My views are us humans don't eat the same thing every day. For use humans to live a long healthy life we need to change up our diets. We can't just eat the same stuff day in day out and expect to be healthy. I took that mindset when feeding my fish. I would switch up their diet to provide a well rounded diet for them. Again I can't say long term if this help, hurt, or no effect on my fish because my tank only ran for two years before I sold my live stock off and broke my tank down for personal reasons. I can say for the two years I didn't lose many fish (only 3, one jumper, one bullied, and no clue what happen to the third) I didn't have much aggression in my tank (even with two tangs and a tomato clown) The only issue I had was my tomato clown with my false clowns which I lost one due to bulling

 

[Sycoticrealm]

No need to tell people their ideas are "just laughable" because you don't agree. Have we lost the art of polite conversation?

Naive and laughable makes a conversation impolite?

OK, So what the requirements of a Tangs diet?
I figure seaweed would be the base of nutrition since it is what they were designed to adapt too.
Algae their whole diet pretty much.
They also eat frozen foods like Brine and Mysis shrimp which I'm sure they eat in the wild.
Why modify it is my point...
This make me want to put two tangs in the same water quality with a solid divider and feed one only lettuce and the other seaweed then other with lettuce and seaweed to see how long they live.
And tbh that would be incomplete because there so many variable's involved.
Genetics...ect...
It would have to be done on a massive scale.
Does anyone truly know if Vitamin C and K from lettuce actually helps Tangs in anyway with the digestion of lettuce?
Can they even break it down like we do or is it like corn and passes through with very little intestinal absorption.
I have a lot of question myself and nothing really concrete so in my opinion there no right or wrong unless you compare the essential from seaweed which would say lettuce is irrelevant in a tangs diet?
Am I wrong?
BTW I wasn't trying to be impolite I'm just very blunt.

 

[40B Knasty]

Naive and laughable makes a conversation impolite?

OK, So what the requirements of a Tangs diet?
I figure seaweed would be the base of nutrition since it is what they were designed to adapt too.
Algae their whole diet pretty much.
They also eat frozen foods like Brine and Mysis shrimp which I'm sure they eat in the wild.
Why modify it is my point...
This make me want to put two tangs in the same water quality with a solid divider and feed one only lettuce and the other seaweed then other with lettuce and seaweed to see how long they live.
And tbh that would be incomplete because there so many variable's involved.
Genetics...ect...
It would have to be done on a massive scale.
Does anyone truly know if Vitamin C and K from lettuce actually helps Tangs in anyway with the digestion of lettuce?
Can they even break it down like we do or is it like corn and passes through with very little intestinal absorption.
I have a lot of question myself and nothing really concrete so in my opinion there no right or wrong unless you compare the essential from seaweed which would say lettuce is irrelevant in a tangs diet?
Am I wrong?
BTW I wasn't trying to be impolite I'm just very blunt.

Just make sure those tangs in your study have plenty of room to swim haha

 

[saltnewb]

I put a piece of sea lettuce in the DT from the refugium and they don't touch it and it has been growing like a weed. Wrong kind of lettuce?

 

[Sycoticrealm]

lol! Nice...

 

[Reefing Madness]

Ive had my Sailfin Tang for over 12 years now, and he's been eating romaine lettuce the entire time. Big, fat and sassy. Don't think its shortened his life span if you ask me.

 

[40B Knasty]

Ive had my Sailfin Tang for over 12 years now, and he's been eating romaine lettuce the entire time. Big, fat and sassy. Don't think its shortened his life span if you ask me.

As Sycoticrealm said,"there is no concrete evidence. It would have to be mass study. Genetics all vary."
Given what was said by laga77 about them being able to digest it. That is enough for me to say that is concrete not to do it.
That's awesome it works for you not knowing what it truly is doing for the fish. But hey, I have seen a person weigh 545lbs live 20 years past another person who ran 18 miles every day that was healthy as an ox! Die of a heart attach.

 

[Sycoticrealm]

Unless we clone some fish no one dumping any money into whether lettuce is OK or not lol.

It really a toss up tbh but for me I refuse to be that cheap that I can't but food that at least replicated to simulate what they eat in the ocean.
I just don't see them digesting it very well but I've never dissected a Tang before or have the understand of it anatomy to say if they can or cannot digest it.
I would look for muscle mass when they get fat not just a bloated stomach like the ones in that video.
Maybe I'm seeing it wrong but I had a yellow tang I free fed nori and shrimp and he got buff you almost wanted to throw it on a skillet if it wasn't my pet lol.
To each there own I guess and now I can't wait to get myself another Tang since I just reenter the hobby after a 2 years break.

 

[reeflover2]

good to know

 

[Mark Gray]

I used to give mine romaine Lettice all the time but all those fish are gone now

 

[Boom]

I have a very long list of terrestrial foods that I and several other reefers have fed to marine fish and corals. Too much to list.... If you Google
Milkhoneyvinegarvodka, you'll see some examples and plenty of video. Cheers.

Has anyone tried feeding their fish lettuce? Last year I was at a huge public aquarium (believe Disney Animal Kingdom) and remember them dropping romaine lettuce into the tank & fish went crazy over it. Does anyone else do it & what veggies do you feed? Do you soak them in RODI water first? How often? What kind of fish?

 

[Lionfish Lair]

Given what was said by laga77 about them being able to digest it. That is enough for me to say that is concrete not to do it.

No one can really digest cellulose... but still we eat it and derive nutrition from it.

 

[Boom]

You can digest cellulose with a second stomach and microbes... however, I don't think cowfish, and goatfish are considered ruminants .

 

[Lionfish Lair]

Heh!

We have to remember as well, what we are feeding them isn't "natural". It can be a good replication, but it's not the same. Lately, I've been thinking about the lack of bones in my pred's diets and have started to include it. A lot of minerals in bones can be taken in orally by the fish as they drink the water, as well as absorbed through the gills, so they have been still "getting" it. If you're not careful about how well you wrap your frozen products and how long you keep them, not only will they contain less vitamins, they will contain the harmful chemicals of oxidation. The antioxidants vitamin C and E are some of the most vulnerable and are well known to impact the health of our fish when they are deficient. I use Stay-C as well as other supplements, as it can be hard to get all the nutrients to your fish, especially the way they deteriorate so rapidly. Even the best choices don't stay "the best" for that long.