How to prepare vegetable for Pleco?

**hck** · 17th Nov 2009, 07:59

I recently started feeding zucchini to my albino BN. What I did was, I sliced the zucchini and microwaved the whole lot, feed only a few slices and keep the rest in the fridge. As I do not have that many plecos to feed, the whole zucchini lasted me quite some days, but in just a couple of days before I even finish 1/2 the zucchini, they turned bad (slimy).

How do you guys prepare any kind of vegetable for your plecos? Blanch 1 or 2 slices only when needed or blanch all at one go, then keep? Keep in freezer section, chiller or just fridge? Sorry for the stupid question, but I don't want to keep throwing away vegetable.

**celticfish** · 18th Nov 2009, 02:35

No stupid questions.
You don't cook, do you?

I'd blanch them in a lot then freeze them in a ziplock bag.
This way you can take out a portion as and when you need.
The refridgerator cannot keep cooked food past 3 day at most.
Though you can try if you keep the food very dry.
Bacteria just slows down in the refridgerator it doesn't stop them.
Moist foods spoil quicker than dryer foods.

**hck** · 18th Nov 2009, 07:50

Thank you so much, that answers and solves my problem. I searched around, nobody seemed to have asked question like such, so I very paiseh and thought its a rather stupid question, but something I very eagerly want to know, hehe. Thanks again.

**feide** · 20th Nov 2009, 13:01

Not a stupid question at all, I was thinking of this problem too. Thanks for helping to find the solution.

**hck** · 4th Mar 2010, 12:01

Just wondering if anyone has fed blanched romaine lettuce to pleco? Do you all also blanch all the lettuce first then freeze them? or it has to be prepared fresh.

**zapbranigan** · 4th Mar 2010, 13:26

for the lettuce, you don't have to blanch. You can just cut them up into any size you wish and put them into the freezer. Just separate the pieces with tin foil so that they don't stick together. You could keep them at this state for 1 week or so. If it doesn't sink , just tie it down to something.

Same goes for my zucchini too. I don't blanch them and just let it be in the freezer. I'm just too lazy to cook the vegetables

**chooz** · 4th Mar 2010, 13:58

I just give my otos sliced cucumber. Microwave or not beforehand does not seem to make any difference. The otos like the cucumber very much; they will swarm to it after they detect its presence. And they seem to like the Japanese cucumber more than the local ones.

My family and I will finish up the rest of the cucumber. So each time we cut a cucumber, the otos get their share as well.

**braq** · 4th Mar 2010, 20:34

Hello,
Get him some special Algae Wafers from Pleco. I have some and I used to feed my old Pleco them all the time. They also just eat the algae off the corners/walls of the tank.

**hck** · 5th Mar 2010, 08:22

Thanks guys for all your input. I will freeze the lettuce unblanched next time, certainly makes work alot easier for me (found out last nite most of the fries were grazing the lettuce). I will try jap cucumber next time my family have 1. I am already giving algae wafer from hikari, the fries loved them too. Umm..will try all varieties of food, so long as it doesn't foul water and give me headache.