fruits yay or nay?

most of us will agree a varied diet is always a plus for the nutritional needs of our beloved critters. foods like algae, "meaty" fish chunks, shrimp, clams, etc. all help meet the these needs but what about fruit?

i ask this because i was munching on a grape and thought i would hold half in my tank to see what happens. my regal tang now every time he sees my fingers in the tank comes zooming in to see what goodies are at the end of them so he promptly gave it taste.

once he tasted it he didn't seem thrilled but he gave it a couple more bites, are there any know benefits of feeding fruit to marine fish?

I'm a strong believer that if they don't naturally find in their habitats there is no reason to supplement it... then again i do add garlic to my fish food recipe....

thoughts?

 

Personally, I'd be afraid to try it until the scientific community has weighed in with positive results. I agree with your statement, "if they don't naturally find in their habitats there's no need to supplement it". Fact is, we don't know what it might do; different animals have different chemistry and dietary needs and can actually be intolerant of certain foods. Perfect example- grapes, raisins, and chocolate are poisonous to dogs.

 

I know fish love bananas but can't really see any benefit. Fruits tend to be very high in sugars(fructose) which i cant see as being beneficial.

 

thx for the replies , I have an old school aquarium book that even suggests including ham in a fishes diet :s

 

a very good point, I didn't even think of making that link.

 

Anyone do any research/testing on this? I'm curious!

 

You can actually feed fish alot of surprising things. I'm not new to feeding my freshwater fish cucumbers, carrots and potatoes

 

Tangs like broccoli but unless it's a known food that is ok I wouldn't go all experimental.

 

+1... Chocolate is in fact not only posionous to dogs, but all animals, including ourselves. However, we are so big and robust that we easily can handle it, and we can actually benefit from some of the good stuff in chocolate. It often causes thrompus in most animals.

 

IMO, if it didn't come from the ocean, then I'm not feeding it to my fish. Okay, I know that pellets and flakes don't really come from the ocean, but its close enough.