[Qcks]

I just finished reading the Feeding Marine Fish, and Fish Nutrition thread.

Very Interesting.

After having read the article, i do have a couple of questions for Leebca:

Are all land plants unsuitable for marine fish? If the answer is no, then what types of plants are useful to the fish?

I realize that the article was specifically targeted at marine fish, but has any research been done on the nutritional requirements of invertibrates? I've read some stuff in regards to using phytoplankton dosing as way to increase your "pod" population. It's an interesting prospect, and i was wondering if there was some sort of research to back up such claims. If there is, can this be replicated with some other type of drip/filter feeding suppliment? (for instance, would a pH balanced active yeast culture work?)

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At the end of the post i noticed that Leebca wanted a seperate thread for peer reviewing recipe's, and, having a bit of an interest in this sorta thing, thought I'd post one up. Currently, I rely solely on store bought marine fish food, but i thought it might be interesting to attempt to make my own, at least once.

Any way... Since i'm putting this forward i might as well be the first to submit some of an idea for peer review:

Garlic Yam Mash

1 medium size Yam;(the link is of a photo comparison between a yam, and a sweet potato. note the orange flesh on the yam..)
1 tablespoon of butter
1-2 cloves of Garlic

Poke hole in yam. bake for about an hour, or until soft throughout. The skin should easily seperate itself from the yam, and a slight caramel layer should coat the yam flesh. After baking cut off the end (the ends have a stringy fiber attached to them.) and peel. As mentioned above, the skin is seperating itself, and is fairly easy at this point, but becareful not to burn yourself, it is hot. while the yam cools in a mixing bowl, slowly melt the butter in a small sauce pan, while the butter is melting, crush some garlic and add it to the melting butter. Allow the butter and the garlic to simmer for a moment. once the garlic becomes a slightly gold color remove it from the heat, and add the butter garlic mixture to the Yam in the mixing boil. Begin to mix. the Yam should be so soft that this can be done with a standard wire wisk.

If the recipe looks familar it is a derivative of one that has appeared here on the forums previously. In the other post, straight mashed potatoes were used. Yams are higher in vitamins, then traditional white mash type potatoes, and, in humans, have a lower glycemic index. Whether or not the lower glycemic index translates into a healthier food for a fish is debatable, but the higher vitamin content has been repeatedly proven over the last 30 years. I thought of adding an egg as an ingredient to the the recipe, but not being entirely sure how well it's going to work any way, decided to omit that.

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anyway

[leebca]

Thanks for posting.

To answer your questions:
Not all land plants are unsuitable. On the top of the list of suitability is broccoli flowers (not the stem portion -- just the flowers). Next in line would be romaine lettuce but since this lettuce (the only land lettuce of much value to marine fishes) is of such low nutrient value per weight that, marine plants take precedence.

Beyond the above, land plants either contain a very limited nutrient value, the wrong ratio, or wrong types of nutrients for the marine fish.

Most of the information this hobby gets is from the aquaculture/aquafarming industries. Their invertebrate interests are fairly confined to shrimp, crabs, oysters, and clams. There has been research and many articles aimed at such growers/farmers, but I don't usually read those. You may want to try a search for specific key words on the Internet. Periodicals directed toward those kinds of industries carry articles on invertebrate nutritional needs.

A marine fish, in the habit of eating what the aquarist feeds, will eat almost anything. But as this points out: Do I Write? what they'll eat doesn't mean they should be eating it.

Regarding the recipe -- animal fats are the wrong kinds of fat. Even freshwater fish fats are the wrong kinds of fat (as evidenced by conditions in Lionfish from eating freshwater feeder fishes). The butter would be of no value to the marine fishes. Then there's the garlic. No proven value there. As to the yam, it seems to be the bulk. Pound per pound other recipes are far ahead of the one you mentioned had been previously posted, in the way of containing proteins and other important nutrients. If you analyze the protein, carbohydrate, fat, vitamin, and mineral content of that recipe AND eliminate the nutrients the fish can't utilize, I think you'll find that this recipe provides bulk but little usable nutrition.

Now. . .If you were to add some cinnamon to that, everything would change.