"Terrestrial plant lipids are well known to cause heart and liver lesions...
This has been brought up before, but it requires that 100% of the diet be made up of these things. It was a test of extremes, not a test of what's appropriate.
Was just at Aulani resort where Disney has a massive tank/pool you can swim in that I would guess to be half a million gallons. There are thousands of fish in there and about 50 different types. Disney has reported the yellow tanks, convict tangs, squirrel fish, and others all spawning in the tank.
I saw Disney feed the fish lettuce. I would say if a company that has unlimited resources and has spent millions on a tank feeds it its a safe bet for you as well. Not to mention those are the fattest convict tangs and healthiest yellow tangs I have seen in my life including in the wild. If the fish are this healthy I would say you are safe and would am now even planning to feed it to my fish.
Again I'm not expert but if marine biologists do it and the real experts do it I feel safe to do it. I have seen it at other large public aquariums as well so not sure how someone in our saltwater aquarium world can argue against people who's careers and degrees are in the marine biology field.
If you don't know why they're doing it, you should be more conservative....what's the rest of their diet like? I doubt green veggies are the secret. :)
I've fed broccoli before to urchins. Can't see how lettuce is bad for tangs.
There's nothing toxic about it – it's a question of how valuable it is and how much they are eating vs everything else on offer.
Dear lord we are still talking about lettuce.. We are not fish. Not even close to fish. Fish are not humans. Not even close. There is no comparing at all. What our bodies and their bodies do are not even close. Do you see us finding the needs to eat algae even though we can find nutrients from it. No.
Well, that's mostly not true. Our digestive systems are surprisingly similar – or not so surprising since fish are the ones who invented our digestive system! :)
We both have what are known as fermenting guts. (No, not the same as a ruminant gut! Yes they are still a bit different as we have a few hundred million years of evolution on the idea....but the basics are still the same!!!)
Neither one of us have too much problem pooping out the useless parts of what we eat. :)
For any that are still reading. Look at the guaranteed analysis on the back of flake food, whether spirulina or veggie, or whatever. There is a catagory for ash. Ash has absolutely no nutritional value and is not digested.
That's not really true either....it represents the mineral content of the food. Calcium, Magnesium, et al.
Vitamins and minerals are both important. :)
After the analysis is done (aka burning the food) all the protein and other things burn off, but the minerals just oxidize.
Like any nutrient, it's possible to have too much or too little......label reading is good, but you have to know your organisms first!!! What do they need?
