Romaine lettuce-still used?

[Leko]

Hi all,

What's the latest on romain and fish health. Anybody still use it? Long term use affects etc...

Thanks

 

[Rocks reef]

Romaine lettuce is a poor choice for fish.. humans as well. There is no nutritional value. Find a package of nori at your local grocery store and use that, after all it is seaweed.
Also, fish are unable to break down the cellulose contained in terrestrial plants, the same as humans can't break it down.

 

[56longroof]

Once nori became more accessible the use of lettuce kinda went away.

 

[exnisstech]

I've never fed lettuce to fish. I never really understood why people do other than for convience sake.

 

[JumboShrimp]

... unless you are SeaWorld, and have a freshwater Manatee tank. Lol!

 

[mmodo]

I've never heard of this and I'm totally spitballing here, but wouldn't modern day pesticide use on major agricultural exports be risky to give marine fish in an enclosed system? I can't imagine the pesticide use has gone down since lettuce was used in marine systems, prior to nori being available. I hear some people say that lighting a candle or using febreeze across the room can create issues, so I imagine this would be the same?

 

[UncommonSense]

I've never heard of this and I'm totally spitballing here, but wouldn't modern day pesticide use on major agricultural exports be risky to give marine fish in an enclosed system? I can't imagine the pesticide use has gone down since lettuce was used in marine systems, prior to nori being available. I hear some people say that lighting a candle or using febreeze across the room can create issues, so I imagine this would be the same?

The majority of pesticides that are used on edible crops are water soluble; hence the “wash before using” label!

— lettuce is best fed to turtles, not fish!

 

[FishTruck]

Romaine lettuce is a poor choice for fish.. humans as well. There is no nutritional value. Find a package of nori at your local grocery store and use that, after all it is seaweed.
Also, fish are unable to break down the cellulose contained in terrestrial plants, the same as humans can't break it down.

Easy now... there is more going on with nutrition than your macros. Lettuces are great fiber (undigestible material) to keep your gut functioning properly and have some vitamins and minerals too. True, you can't live on it.

On the fish side... back in the day we knew that just pellets and flakes was suboptimal for tangs. There were two mindsets. One, was that romaine lettuce was easily available fiber and has some additional vitamin and mineral value versus others. That's it.

Some seemed to think it was okay as an exclusive food. Never tried that. While tangs don't have the same type of gut that a cow does (can't break cellulose down), there is some speculation that the gut flora in herbivorous can break down the cellulose in plant material. So, they MIGHT get more nutritional value than one would think. This is just the information that was passed around back then.

Now that we have nori, emerald entree, green flakes - romaine is probably best reserved as a treat - if your fish seem to like it.

Plus, nobody is getting rich on romaine - so probably not going to get much attention or support.

 

[Rocks reef]

Easy now... there is more going on with nutrition than your macros. Lettuces are great fiber (undigestible material) to keep your gut functioning properly and have some vitamins and minerals too. True, you can't live on it.

On the fish side... back in the day we knew that just pellets and flakes was suboptimal for tangs. There were two mindsets. One, was that romaine lettuce was easily available fiber and has some additional vitamin and mineral value versus others. That's it.

Some seemed to think it was okay as an exclusive food. Never tried that. While tangs don't have the same type of gut that a cow does (can't break cellulose down), there is some speculation that the gut flora in herbivorous can break down the cellulose in plant material. So, they MIGHT get more nutritional value than one would think. This is just the information that was passed around back then.

Now that we have nori, emerald entree, green flakes - romaine is probably best reserved as a treat - if your fish seem to like it.

Plus, nobody is getting rich on romaine - so probably not going to get much attention or support.

Point taken sir. My view is you don't see Romaine growing on a reef, so why feed it to your prized fish?

 

[FishTruck]

Point taken sir. My view is you don't see Romaine growing on a reef, so why feed it to your prized fish?

I would say if you only feed pellets and flake (like it is 1987 and you mow lawns for your money) you should add something with fiber it... and romaine is cheap and is known not to cause any harm. You can probably even convince your Mom to add it to the grocery list.

As an aside... there was a trend to NOT feed your fish at all if you had a reef. People with very big tanks and live rock, with a low fish load, often fed little or nothing to the tank. I had a friend who had a 600 gallon tank and a single sohal tang (which killed all the other fish) and he never put anything into the tank except light. It thrived 10 years that way. I teased him that maybe it was to mean because it was hungry. This no feeding goal also seems to be out of style with people more interested in fattening up their fish as much as possible. Also, with less people using actual live rock, might not work.

 

[OrionN]

Variety and freshness should help with nutrition for the tangs. I tried terrestrial vegetables due to this. However, terrestrial vegetables have more robust cell wall. I find that even with the most tender of the terrestrial veggie, the Red Malabar Spinach (Basella rubra) that I grew in my garden microwaved for 4 minutes in my MW, the tangs were not able to digest them. They pooped out moon shape bits of vegetable with minimal evidence of digestion. Because of this reason, I terminated my experiment and resume feeding with seaweed.

 

[Rocks reef]

Variety and freshness should help with nutrition for the tangs. I tried terrestrial vegetables due to this. However, terrestrial vegetables have more robust cell wall. I find that even with the most tender of the terrestrial veggie, the Red Malabar Spinach (Basella rubra) that I grew in my garden microwaved for 4 minutes in my MW, the tangs were not able to digest them. They pooped out moon shape bits of vegetable with minimal evidence of digestion. Because of this reason, I terminated my experiment and resume feeding with seaweed.

Thank you for this. That was what I was referring to in my first post was the inability to break down the cellulose in terrestrial plants.

 

[kevgib67]

Thank you for this. That was what I was referring to in my first post was the inability to break down the cellulose in terrestrial plants.

I used it back in the mid nineties and early two thousands for my yellow tang, it’s what my lfs used. We didn’t have the options then but with nori so available I don’t know why anyone would use it today

 

[JGT]

I still periodically will put a leaf of Romaine in my tank. What I like about it is there is no softening and and the floating away like nori does. My fish actually seem to prefer it over nori as well. There is nutritional value to romaine as well. How much of that makes it into the fish given the difficulty in digesting the cellulose is another story.

 

[Leko]

Wow...didn't expect such a large comment...thanks all very helpful