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I have fed my fishies, everything from spaghetti noodles (cooked of course), peas, corn, carrots, shrimp, oranges, zuchinni, heck just about anything I'm willing to shove in my mouth, I'm willing to try in the tank just about, not everything!. The only thing I find with the oranges is that the fish make a horrible mess with them, and I only feed them oranges right before a water change, because of the mess. Otherwise, it is perfectly fine to feed them oranges, the pH won't be affected enough to really matter unless you are doing this daily, and dropping the whole orange into a small tank.

Heidi

"I've got a great ambition to die of exhaustion rather than boredom." Thomas Carlyle

oranges (as well as any fresh foods for that matter) won't affect the water quality unless it's left to rot.

i used to work for a *chain* pet store and the tanks at my store were actually run on a centralized filteration system. The filter system itself was state of the art and run by computer brain power. It was almost as big as the wall of tanks itself. And as far as the overstocking goes... it's perfectly safe and normal to overstock tanks at the stores. Most of the fish are sold within a week of receiving anyway.

oranges (as well as any fresh foods for that matter) won't affect the water quality unless it's left to rot.

Actually, many will affect the water. And yes, the citric acid will effect the ph. This is of course related to any buffers that are already in the water. As in, if you have very hard water, you will probably not see the change. But, place an orange half, in a 10 gal tank of pure RO water, and you will see a devistating drop in ph. Apples are another that is not good to leave in the tank long, for another reason. I cannot remember the exact name of the substance in apples, but it will increase the ripening process in all organic matter. In other words, it will increase the rotting of organic matter. And thus could cause an ammonia spike. Apples have long time been used to ripen other fruits. An experiment to show this; take two green, not fully ripe bananas. Place on on the counter some where out of the direct light. Place the other in a brown paper bag (can breath but will hold in the substance I am talking about). Pull out the banana from the bag in 2-3 days, and compare it to the one left out on the counter. The one on the counter will just be turning yellow, and barely be ripening. And the one in the bag will be very ripe, and may even be very brown, depending on how green it was to start with. The reason bananas are so good for this experiment, is they have the same substance in them, just not as concentrated as the apples.

I am not saying not to feed these things to your fish. As many will relish them. And they are good food sources for them. In nature there are fruits and such constantly being dropped into the waters. I am saying to use caution, and to remove any uneaten parts after a short while.

HTH.....

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