How To Blanch Cukes To Feed To Pleco
To blanch cucumbers, you should cut them in halves lengthwise and place them in a bowl of cold water. Bring water to a boil in a medium-sized pot and then lower the heat to simmer. Now put the cucumbers in the boiling water and let them sit for 30 seconds.
To parboil cukes and toss them into the crock, heat some water to boiling, then drop chunks of cuke into the water. If you are planning on placing the cukes into a container, then drain out any water that is in the cubes before you store the cukes. If you have uneaten pieces of cukes left in the container after 24 hours, you may want to remove them because water from the container may have been damaged.
Remember to clean out the elements and sunk and if your pleco does not finish a slice of cucumber and loses interest, immediately remove uneaten pieces of cucumber to avoid it polluting your tank. You will have to come up with a way to submerge cucumbers at the bottom of the tank, making them easier to reach by both your plecos and the bottom feeder. A common issue with feeding cucumbers to the plecos is the cucumbers floating around in water, and obviously the cucumbers are meant to go into the bottom feeders in the tank. The weight of a Screwcucumber causes the cucumbers to sink down to the bottom of the tank, where a pleco will be able to eat it with ease.
It does take a bit of prep work to feed Pleco Cucumbers, and you have a few things you have to do, but feeding Pleco Cucumbers is absolutely worth it. Plectos are omnivores, so you can feed them meats too, such as shrimps and bloodworms, and vegetables, including squash and cabbage. As a result, clecos may be given cucumbers one to two times per week, or any semi-soft vegetables, such as peas or zucchini.
Vegetables such as green beans, and even zucchini and broccoli, make sense to give to plecos, since vegetables such as green beans (either right away or over time) sink in, and are fairly large in size. While I am in favor of green beans as a good food for young plecos, I much prefer feeding broccoli florets. I am going to be looking at, obviously, green beans, but also compare them with broccoli, squash, cucumbers, and lettuce.
| Steps | How To Blanch |
| Put cucumbers in a boiling water | For 2-3 minutes. |
| Pull 1/2 from water | Remove one-half of them from the boiling water with a slotted spoon, then strain well onto paper towels. |
| Let it sit | Once water has reached a low simmer, allow to sit for 30 seconds or so. |
| After Boiling dip in ice water | For 5 minutes |
Before we look at which vegetables can be fed, it is important to know that not every species of pleco will eat vegetables. To help you figure out what diet is best, and whether or not your pleco needs vegetables, I created a chart of most common species and their diets. If you are not sure of what your fish will eat, there are some general rules that you can follow when choosing vegetables.
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Probably the most important thing that you have to keep in mind when it comes to vegetables is that you absolutely need to clean them before feeding them to your fish. Otherwise, you might wind up hurting your fish, as they will try and immediately eat vegetables or occasional fruits. Usually, if a vegetable is frozen, it sinks right away, and when it is defrosted, the fish or prawns just eat it. If your fish does not seem to be eating every bit of vegetable that you feed it, then they probably did not understand it was a food source.
Once your pleco starts eating vegetables, it should not take long for your pleco to recognise that this is a food source, so a clove of garlic is not needed anymore. If your pleco is not getting enough nutrients, feeding a cucumber may be a good way to add some back into his diet. If you are feeding cucumbers as a supplement for your pleco fish, try giving cucumbers that have been blanched for your pleco fish instead.
To blanche cucumbers for Plecos, you will have to put cucumbers into a pot with boiling water, and leave them in the boiling water for 2-3 minutes. I recommend that you blanch your cucumbers by boiling them for several minutes, and then dipping immediately into ice water for about 5 minutes. Once 2-3 minutes has passed, pull the 1 to 2-inch pieces out of the boiling water and put into the ice water bath. Remove one-half of them from the boiling water with a slotted spoon, then strain well onto paper towels.
Once water has reached a low simmer, drop half the cucumbers in boiling water and allow to sit for 30 seconds or so. When the cucumber pieces are done shriveling, we will transfer the cucumber pieces to the cold water. To blanch the cucumbers, slice them into halves lengthwise, and then put them in a bowl filled with cold water. To feed the fish, you can cut the ends off cucumbers and put them into the water bowl.
Placing the weighed-down slices of cucumber at the bottom of the fish tank is a good way to make sure that the fish are easily reaching for them.
If you feed the fish cucumber, not only does it get toxic, it is harmful for their health. If you are planning on feeding your fish cucumbers, then you must be aware that cucumbers contain oxalates, which are toxic for the fish.
To avoid this issue, you can soak slices of cucumber overnight in salt water, and then thoroughly rinse it off before feeding it to your fish. To be blunt, I would not recommend feeding cucumbers to a Bristlenose Pleco, unless you just so happen to have a few cucumbers lying around. If you insist on feeding raw cucumbers to your precious Plecos, then you will have to use a tool such as a Screwcumber, which is a stainless steel screw you can turn over the raw veggies.
Feeding cucumbers to your precious Plecos is a great way to give them the nutrients they need, as well as giving them a source of food entertainment. If you are certain the cucumbers were not treated with pesticides, or you grew cucumbers organically in your own backyard, you may feed your Plecos cucumbers that have peels on them.
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When feeding plecos, it is important that you quickly wipe down any vegetables to prevent any pesticides or other harmful chemicals from damaging anything in your tank. Some vegetables cause more mess than others when feeding them to a pleco, due to how they decompose in the tank. Cucumbers need to be washed with lots of clean water in the sink…Cubes are cut around 12 inches long.
Do you have to blanch cucumber before feeding to fish?
Zucchini, squash, cucumbers, lima beans, peas (shell before serving), broccoli, cabbage, lettuce, and spinach are the best vegetables to blanch or steam. Before adding the vegetables to the aquarium, ensure they have cooled.
How to blanch cucumbers to feed to pleco?
To blanch cukes for plecos, bring water to a boil and add pieces of cukes to the water. Blanching for 2-3 minutes will help soften the cucumber and make it easier for the pleco to digest. Changing color and a tender feel of the cukes will help indicate when the cukes have been properly blanched.
Why are blanched cukes provided to plecos?
Plecos can ingest any kind of vegetation, including plant algae. They can also consume pellets but plecos would eventually have to consume food other than algae and pellets to fulfill their nutritional requirements. Providing plecos blanched cukes one or two times a week will help provide plecos with those necessary nutrients.