Blanching Cucumbers

[divingne1]

I want to give my pleco's and otos a cucumber to munch on today but I have no idea what blanching means. Can anyone tell me and also should I peel the cucumber or cut it in half so they can get the middle part?

 

[AndrewMack]

boil

 

[kj5kb]

Well...not so much "boil" as "cook partway"...stick a slice inna a cuppa water and nuke it till it just starts to soften....or boil briefly.

If you have extra cukes/zukes/squash, slice and freeze. The freeze/thaw cycle will accomplish basically the same thing. If I clip a frozen slice in the tank, pleco's on it NOW....doesn't wait for it to thaw. I bought a huge basket of culls from a local produce stand for $3:headbang2:...sliced, saved the good parts and froze in sandwich bags.

I have a 75G with a ~7" common pleco and 8 4-8" GF they ALL eat cukes as well as wilted leaf lettuce and surprisingly...they love WATERMELON? I leave 1/4"-1/2" of flesh on the rinds and clip 'em in the tank. Pleco's hanging on one right now . I only feed melon once/twice a week.

 

[Rbishop]

I slice mine about 1/8" thick, shallow dish/saucer, cover with water, beam for 30 seconds at 50% power in microwave. Or bring water to a boil in sauce pan, drop in slices for one minute. Drain and cool.

 

[Mexican Racoon]

I am going to do that right now. I usually wrap spinache in a wet paper towel and zap it.

 

[KidInTheHall]

I just give cucumbers and zucchini to them rare, I don't blanch or anything, is that bad? The plecos love them and when I take away their veggie clip they wait at the spot it's normally at until I come back with more for them.

 

[mudskippers]

yea Kidinthehall - I do the exact same thing. I dont do anything special to my cucmber.. I just slice it up, stap it down. and toss it in...

(well, not exactly that way, i dont just go throwing stuff in my tank.. but you know what i mean... )

 

[Aaron89]

i never blanch minei just slice it to the desired shape, drop it in and the plec is straight on it fighting over it with the loaches and few of the fish like a nibble.

 

[divingne1]

I have discus', 2 plecos, 2 corys, 6 black neons, 8 neons, 4 GBR

Which of those will usually eat it? I'll try the slice at a time to see how long it lasts. How long do you keep it in the tank?

 

[Rbishop]

Overnight.