Oranges as Food

[fishieperson321]

I went into PetsMart the other day and they had oranges in all of their tanks to feed the fish. These were both Goldfish and Tropical Fish. Is this safe? I always thought that citric acid would make your pH acidic. Is this safe for my Goldfish. They are about 2 inches long and are Fantails. Please leave me with any info possible.

 

[JoeRags3]

hats funny I saw the same here in Jersey at a local Petsamrt. I asked the girl that worked there and she said they only do that for the goldfish and koi tanks.

 

[fishieperson321]

They had these in all of the tanks. The weird thing is that they had big Oranda Goldfish in the Tropical tanks. There is only one per tank. What is up with that? ???

 

[joephys]

There probably isn't enough citric acid to affect the water. Places like petsmart have all of their tanks on a centralized system, so that small amount of citric acid would spread around all of those tanks. I think that in general it should be ok to add small pieces to your tank. I am no expert, but I would imagine that gold fish like oranges, and they add them to the tanks so the fish will get some fiber. Might have something to do with the vitamin C too. Vitamin C is needed for growth. They might use oranges to help the fish grow, since some people like large fancy gold fish.

Like I said though, its just a thought.

 

[Roan Art]

Oranges are fruit. Melons are also fruit. So is zucchini and cucumber. Most of us feed our fish zucchini and cucumber, so why not oranges?

The citric acid would be minimal, imo, I'm going to drop a couple of small pieces in my tank and see if my clowns will like it

Hrm. Maybe some apple, too.

Roan

 

[Candycat21]

Like most of you all know by now I'm sure lol I work for a petsmart here in charlotte, so I can actually answer questions that come up regarding certain things we do or don't do perse
The oranges are mainly for all the goldfish and koi because of the vit. C for healthy growth and to give them some variety in their diet...heck I'd be bored stupid if I had to eat the same food day in and day out :thud:
The reason the large goldfish are in random other tanks is for snail control...we move them around to different tanks to eat those small anoying, unsightly snails....they seem to know their job as well LoL
All our tanks except the ones with the feeders in run off of the same filtration system....that's approx 3300 gallons. The way the system is setup is that we constantly have fresh water coming in and old water being let out, so the waste etc that goldfish produce won't affect any of the tropical fish. It's not a closed system like home aquariums where the old water is just recirculated over and over until you do a water change.
Other than oranges, we feed peas and zuccihini to all the algea eaters, loaches, africans and a few others who may nibble on it. Many of our tropicals enjoy the oranges as well.

 

[Roan Art]

. . .
Other than oranges, we feed peas and zuccihini to all the algea eaters, loaches, africans and a few others who may nibble on it. Many of our tropicals enjoy the oranges as well.

Thanks, CandyCat! Always nice to hear from you.

Definitely going to see if my guys like oranges. All fish need the vit C anyhow.

Roan

 

[djblac]

oranges!? oh i gotta try that out too!! my fish LOVE fruit, esp my goldie pleco, he will just stick himself on a slice of zucinini and stay there all night!

I'm glad you all agree that acidic fruit won't hurt the fish, i feed my fish fruit maybe every other week once, and i leave slices of fruit overnight on a plant weight. i have left it in the tank ALL day once, and my fish bearly touch it....i leave it in there at night and the fruit is for sure gone by the morning. fruit is the only food i can actively get my goldie pleco to eat, and with such an investment i want him to get all the food he can eat! thats why i leave it in overnight, i always find him finishing off the fruit in the morning!


hows the oranges goin?

 

[DevonV]

I work at Petsmart as well and we also feed our goldfish oranges I've started feeding them oranges at home, and the slice is down to the peel within two hours. My fish LOVE them!

 

[fIsHy13]

so tropical fish can eat oranges too? i was thinking that my mollies might like it. i know this is off topic, but i only have fake plants in my tank, so my mollies don't have much pant material to eat except a bit of algea in the tnak and sometimes some peas. Mollies need stuuf like that for good health, so what other stuff do you suggest i try to get thme to have more in their diet?