I run out of algae wafers and decided to finally give veggies a shot. I don't like the look of a fork or office clip to hold the bits of veggie down, so I googled aquarium vegetable holder. I found a pack of 5 pleco screws for about $20 online, so purchased that. It arrived in the mail on Friday, so today I decided to give one a shot. Don't really need 5, so if anyone wants one send me a PM and I'll give you one at the next PCS meeting. First thing I did is put the pleco screw in a cup of boiling water for an hour. I then rinsed it off with fresh water.
Pleco screw:
Ducked up to my local IGA and got a HUGE green zucchini for 99 cents. Bargain!
Given that it's not organic, its probably covered in pesticides. That's something you wouldn't want in a fish tank. Therefore I gave the zucchini as wash and peeled it:
I then measured the length of spiral thread on the pleco screw and its 60mm. Therefore I cut the zucchini into 4 quarters at approximately 60mm a piece:
I then cut those bits in half again so they'de be about the size I want to put in my fish tank:
After watching some videos on youtube, a couple of videos mentioned that it's a good idea to cut the seeds out as they can foul the water:
I then put a piece on the pleco screw like so:
I'd like to blame my astigmatism for the crooked angle the screw was inserted, but to be honest I'm challenged when it comes to anything hands-on. Typical office worker.
I bagged the rest of the zucchini pieces in a snap lock bag, as I will only need to put a bit in maybe once or twice a week:
And about 5 minutes after the lights went out, I put the bit of zucchini in the tank:
I walked away then came back to the tank 10 minutes later to have a look. There were a couple of bristlenose catfish munching on it like their life depended on it. From one zucchini costing me a dollar I have 16 feeds for my catfish. Pretty happy with that, and hopefully the catfish like the zucchini. I also got 3 different packets of zucchini seeds from Bunnings, as I'll have a crack at growing them in my veggie garden. At least then I'll know no chemicals are in the veggies.
Thanks for reading, and hopefully the images work. It's my first time using postimg.org since photobucket decided to not play nice. Thanks for the recommendation malawiman. And thanks to bigjohnofish for recommending I use veggies instead of algae wafers, and to stormfyre for mentioning that zucchini is the way to go. Apparently cucumber has little to no nutritional value for catfish.
Hope this works, as I hate how much algae wafers cloud the aquarium water.