If you’re new to the world of raising a fish as your pet, you might be left stumped by what to feed them. You could go for fish food that’s in supermarkets and pet centers, or you could give them a bit of food like vegetables and some meats.
Among the most trending veggies to give your fishy friends are cucumbers, high in water content and enjoyable to most species. Below, we’ll take a look at platies specifically, giving you the scoop on their cucumber-eating abilities and how you can incorporate it into their diet.
Can Platies Eat Cucumber?
Platies can eat cucumbers! Platies are omnivorous, typically snacking on veggies, fruits, and meats. When it comes to cucumbers, they love the fresh taste, the watery consistency, and the nutrients it gives them. While you might enjoy seeing your platies gobble up fresh foods, you might want to limit their consumption as too much can cause digestive issues.
How To Feed Platies Cucumber
Before taking off and buying a bunch of cucumbers, you’ll first want to read over this, because you can’t just give platies cucumbers. They will need to get most of their nutrients from fish foods. So, you should only feed them cucumbers here and there.
If you have more than a few in your tank, you could cut up half of a cucumber, grating it into your tank. You can also slice thinly and add the slivers into your tank for them to enjoy. Do this a few times a week as a treat and don’t feed them too much to keep them healthy.
Are Platies Bottom Feeders?
Some fish don’t really like to come up to the surface for food, instead of waiting until it drifts down to the bottom to pick at it. Platies kind of do a bit of both, feeding off the food you add to the tank at the top and also picking at little things that fall into the rocks at the bottom.
Platies have a set of very small teeth on both the top and the bottom of their mouths, using them to gobble up food when it hits the tank. In this way, they aren’t too afraid to float to the top or take a stroll along the bottom.
Though they don’t mind picking up the scraps that fall, you should take measures to ensure that you’re not feeding them too much, making sure that only a few bits and pieces make it to the floor. In this way, you can avoid overfeeding and keep them healthy.
How Many Platies Are Too Much?
A lot of times, fish keepers like to add platies to the mix. They are beautiful and easy to maintain, two things that make them the perfect fish for keeping in a tank. Just like any other fish, you don’t want them to be too crowded, especially when it comes to feeding time.
As a rule of thumb, try and keep no more than 6 platies in a small to medium-sized tank at the same time. This will give them room to swim and allow you to keep track of the amount you’re feeding them. If you’re a rookie, try to start with no more than three, getting the hang of caring for them first.
What Else Can I Feed My Platies?
Platies like just about anything, so it’s up to you to control their diet. You want them to be healthy and live long, so you should focus on providing them with the nutrients they need. You may watch your fish eat and think they’re hungry for more, though overfeeding them is dangerous so caution is needed.
Feed them twice a day and only give them about 1/8 of their body weight each. These tiny amounts might not seem like us, though platies are much smaller than we are and don’t need very much food to survive.
Monitor them while they’re eating and make sure most of it is gobbled up before falling to the rocks at the bottom of your tank, doing so to prevent them from eating more and overdoing it.
You want your platies to have a diverse diet with access to fresh fruits and veggies, as well as some fish foods. The majority of their diet should come from fish flakes, all of which you can purchase at your nearest pet supplies store.
Apart from fish flakes, you should give them some veggies and meats once or twice a week. Some veggies include cucumbers, zucchini, and lettuce. Meats you can feed them are insects, blood worms, and some small crustaceans, all of which are like a delicatessen to your platies.
Variety Is the Spice of Tank Life
Just like us, fish need a variety of foods. When they’re out in the ocean, they have a buffet of protein from plants and other swimming friends, as well as anything that happens to float into the ocean. In a tank, you help them keep their variety, which aids them in boosting their immune system.
The more types of foods you feed them, the better equipped they are to fight off diseases and grow healthy and live long.
What About Platy Fry?
Like most fish species, babies do not require any kind of different diet. They can still indulge in all of the fruits and veggies as their adult friends, though they will just need less.
If you have platy fry in your tank, consider chopping up foods even smaller so that they can enjoy it too, and make sure you’re careful not to put too much in the tank to avoid overfeeding. You’ll find that many platies hang out at the bottom of the tank, knowing that they are small and scared to come out and socialize.
Keep your Platies Happy and Healthy
Be sure to feed your platies lots of yummy foods, including cucumber every once in a while. They’ll love the variety and live happy and healthy to add life to your tank. Remember not to overfeed and keep an eye on any food floating to the bottom.