Silver dollars.. what exactly do they eat in the wild?

[NeonFlux]

Besides eating insects and worms.

I'm feeding raw whole lettuce pieces to my school of regular variety silver dollars, and a red hook. They tear them all up pretty quick!! Pretty awesome.. But I was wondering what plants do they eat in their wild natural habitat?? Mostly aquatic plants obviously, I know, but what certain kind? Hygrophilas probably, ya think? Have you guys ever gone out hiking in the Amazon forest or somethin and know a bit about them? And do terrestrial plants, such as: lettuce, cabbage, etc the wild types, somehow get to rivers/lakes they live in via land animals that carry around, dropped and sd's would manage to eat them? Just curious. Have you guys tried feeding silver dollars raw fresh seaweed? Do you blanch your vegetables first before feeding yours?

 

[Aquanero]

I don't know exactly what plants they eat in the wild but they are like a hungry nonstop pack of omnivorous Piranhas. They swim and eat and eat and swim all day. My Red Hooks are insane and growing at an incredible rate, they scare me....lol.

 

[convict360]

Don't know about food, but their growth rate is insane; easily the fastest growing fish I've had, even in front of Oscars.

 

[Wailua Boy]

I heard in the wild they actually end up feeding on a fair amount of fish eggs, while feeding on aquatic veg. Terrestrials plants are best avoided.

 

[MN_Rebel]

I heard in the wild they actually end up feeding on a fair amount of fish eggs, while feeding on aquatic veg. Terrestrials plants are best avoided.

They do feed on terrestrial plants, especially during flooding season and fruiting season as well.

 

[Wailua Boy]

They do feed on terrestrial plants, especially during flooding season and fruiting season as well.

The reason I had mentioned to avoid is because of the lack of nutritional value.

 

[NeonFlux]

I don't know exactly what plants they eat in the wild but they are like a hungry nonstop pack of omnivorous Piranhas. They swim and eat and eat and swim all day. My Red Hooks are insane and growing at an incredible rate, they scare me....lol.

Don't know about food, but their growth rate is insane; easily the fastest growing fish I've had, even in front of Oscars.

True! They indeed are big eaters and grow insanely fast!! Within one year, I've got a pack of five silver dollars from one and half inch to a four and half inches already and still going.

I heard in the wild they actually end up feeding on a fair amount of fish eggs, while feeding on aquatic veg. Terrestrials plants are best avoided.

Hmm, cool and interesting! Thanks for your input.

The reason I had mentioned to avoid is because of the lack of nutritional value.

IMO Unless they're organic though, haha. I feed mine mostly organic.. Way more nutrition. Probably a good idea to blanch land vegetables lightly so they are more easily digestible for fish, but meh, sometimes raw is good too cause of all the enzymes, vitamin c, and such etc. I feed raw most of the time. To each his/her own.

 

[Stone Like Fish]

I feed cooked peas/corn to my carp, they love it.

 

[MN_Rebel]

The reason I had mentioned to avoid is because of the lack of nutritional value.

Oh Really? Where's the link? Because peas and spinach are excellent for fishes. Not to mentioned that lot of fish species feed on terrestrial plants during flooding season.

 

[Thekid]

Unless they're organic though, haha. I feed mine mostly organic.. Way more nutrition. Probably a good idea to blanch land vegetables lightly so they are more easily digestible for fish, but meh, sometimes raw is good too cause of all the enzymes, vitamin c, and such etc. I feed raw most of the time. To each his/her own.

"Organic"? You probably feed all organic food! Organic food is a load of bs. The term of organic literally means contains carbon. Pretty much all of the food under the sun contains carbon from McDonald's chicken nuggets to romaine lettuce.