(Disclaimer: LRS sells a seaweed product, as well as an herbivore diet mixed with nori. If this post risks being a shameless plug for either, please note that is not my intention, but it is hard to discuss the topic at hand and avoid mentioning either.)
There can be a wide range of quality in Asian grocery seaweed so try and visibly inspect it prior to purchase. Nori is graded, sold, and packaged based on many factors to include appearance, imperfections, palatability, etc. Some of the higher grades of seaweed are lab tested to be free from heavy metals, pollutants, etc but I have heard reports that some of the lesser quality Asian grocery nori is harvested from waters of questionable quality. Remember the nuclear reactor meltdown a couple years ago? I have not heard of any negative health issues with feeding Asian grocery seaweed, but I have seen and experienced certain fish which refused to eat it for whatever reason. (FYI-our seaweed is harvested from the only Internationally Certified Organic 4,000 acre harvesting site and we have quarterly lab tests on file showing it to be free from 400+ contaminants, including 22 isotopes of radiation.) We have some very demanding customers, as listed on our
testimonial page who want the very best, so we sought out the highest quality seaweed we could find. If you have great results with the economical grocery store seaweed then by all means have at it. Some customers with very finicky fish have found that trying different types or brands can make a difference.
As for terrestrial veggies in a marine diet the opinions are mixed in this subject. Many folks feed lettuce on a regular basis and report no ill effects. However, the general consensus believes that the cellulose in greens is difficult to digest by marine fish and is best avoided since there are more suitable alternatives available, such as nutrient dense seaweed. With that being said I have read some interesting reports, particularly one from the University of Indianapolis which claimed that feeding broccoli flowers over a period of 8 years helped reduce and cure HLLE in certain tangs in their display tank. Broccoli is rich in vitamin A&D and natural antioxidants. For the past two years we have been adding blanched broccoli flowers to our diets and have had nothing but great feedback. The blanching and subsequent freeze/thaw breaks down the cellulose and aids in digestion.
Uneaten seaweed can contribute to a rise in PO4 since it does contain phosphorous, so it is best to remove it if it goes uneaten. I stopped playing with algae clips when I began to just soak the shredded seaweed in the cup our food was thawing out in. When I added the frozen food to the tank I just let the fish get the seaweed from the water column.
If I had time I would spot feed them to, but as it shows at 30 seconds this guy wouldn't let anyone else get any.
[video=youtube_share;y5DW7gbNjF8]http://youtu.be/y5DW7gbNjF8[/video]
As someone posted earlier here is the link explaining our seaweed product offering:
Nori
This is our "Herbivore Frenzy®" balanced food:
Herbivore Frenzy
Thanks for reading along.
Larry
