Romaine lettuce - is it good for fish

[jmccown]

I've read that fish love this type of lettuce. A couple weeks ago I introduced giving my fish this type and they tear it to shreds - all of them - angels, tangs, triggers and even my clowns. I also supplement with sheets of dried algae. But does Romaine carry any type of good nutrients for my fish? I am trying to cure HLLE on a tang and I read that one should provide a varied diet with vitamins. The purple tang with HLLE seems to be healing up. But my question is about the nutrients of romaine lettuce and whether it is good for the fish.

[cbabcock]

I have fed it for years but I don't think it is as nutricous as Nori or other dried algae. Some folks recomend that you freeze it to break it down before feeding.

[BrianD]

The cellulose in terrestial foods (lettuce, romain) is not digestible by marine fish. As for freezing it, you may do so, but the end result is a food very poor in nutrition. It is better to stick with commercial products like Seaweed Select or (if you have an Asian market in your area) nori.

Oh, one other problem with terrestial foods like lettuce is that the fertilizers used to grow it are high in phosphates, and these phoshates will be introduced to your tank.

[Goodwood]

I belive it is kind of like brine shrimp, not much in it the fish benefit from

[pbukow]

I feed my ocellaris brine shrimp but spirulina enriched brine shrimp, does this make them any more worth using or is still just brine shrimp?

[Kolognekoral]

Romaine or any other cultivated lettuce will be highly contaminated with nitrates. Even for humans this is an issue casually ignored by the industry producing the products. No amount of washing will change this, as the nitrates are the result of heavily fertilizing the plant to get is as quickly as possible to market. Insecticides are, also, an issue.

Greens from your unfertilized , untreated lawn, such as dandelion, have a better nutriative value, but, as they are terrestrial plants, they are not the best food source for marines.

Nori and various other algaes found in the asian food stores are still the best bet. There are plenty of commercial algaes specifically selected for aquarium use. They are more expensive than the ones for human consumption, however. I use Arami and other soup tangs (the common name for these algaes, which we have adopted for the fish that also eats them!), sometimes softening them for a few hours in tank water, and have the best results. Fish often require a bit of time to accept various algaes as the dried forms do not necessarily resemble the natural forms. patience!

Also, for all marine creatures, a balanced diet is more than just two or three food types. A real advantage of a good flake or pellet food is the composition. I feed at least three commecial foods, along with 3 different algaes, plus various frozen foods, such as mysis, artemia, mussel, stint, squid and plankton. Variety keeps the fish interested and healthy.

I've mentioned this before, but I'll add it again as it is important; angels, doktors, rabittfish and damsels all like over 50% plant nutrition to remain healthy. Overfeeding with animal foods will lead to gastral problems.