# How to Prepare Sweet Potato



## FONE

Hi everyone,

Looking for some advice here. I'm looking to feed sweet potato to my otos and pygmy cories, but I don't know what's the proper way to prep the veg.

With the otos, I tried giving it just raw, and doing a blanching for 5-7 minutes on a stove, but both times they just completely ignored it. I know it takes some time for fish to try new foods, but I want to make sure I'm prepping it correctly first, and remove that variable.

Any advice?

Thanks!


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## coldmantis

Have you tried not feeding them for a few days then give them the sweet potato?


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## Fishfur

Did you slice it thin or give them chunks ? I haven't tried any root veggies yet, only leaves, but I have seen them fed, and most seem to slice them into relatively thin slices, and none larger than a small zucchini, say, an inch or 1/5 inch diameter. Not more than a quarter inch thick.

If the chunks were bigger or thicker than that, they'd take longer to blanch than if they're smaller. 

You might try cooking them until you can just start to pierce them with a fork. Then, dunk in cold water right away to stop the cooking process from going further, because if they are fully cooked, they can turn mushy soft, and then would break apart and mess up the tank.


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## Jackson

I feed my fish sweet and white potato daily. I never blanch defeats the purpose of feeding them the veggies in the first place. 
White potatoes sink, sweet potatoes need to be weighed down. I use a fork.

It might just take some time off them to get used to the new food.
I'd try some green peas, just squeeze them out of the shell. Carrots are also good. 

I don't think the corys will eat potatoes. Mine have never touched them.


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## FONE

I'm going to try withholding feeding for a bit and then give them a thin slice of raw sweet potato again to see if it takes. Online resources say Otos "love" sweet potato, so I was kinda disappointed to see that they didn't touch it at all.

The cooking process made the outside part of the potato softer, but the core was still hard.

I bought a bag of frozen peas a while ago, so I'll try that for feeding too. I also have some Harlequin/Glowlight Rasboras (the glowlights are in there because I didn't check what they gave me at BA's), and I don't know if they'll go for the veggies.

How do you keep the tank clean after feeding peas? They get all gooey.

Thanks for all the responses so far!


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## Jackson

If the peas aren't eaten in a few hours take them out. My fish don't leave anything behind so I don't really worry about it. 
Like any food you put in don't let it sit too long in there.


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## bob123

I've never seen my Cories or Otto's eat sweet potato or even white potato but I just tie sweet potato to wood or stone and watch the plecos feast.


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## Bwhiskered

Corries don't eat sweet potatoes. They would do much better with Grindal Worms. The otttos would be much happier with snow peas. I blanch them for 5 minutes and then store them in the freezer. First freeze them on a cookie sheet covered with saran wrap so they don't freeze together. Thaw one in warm water split it in half and they should be on it in seconds. All little plecos and vegetable eaters love them.


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## FONE

I'll set up some of the peas tonight when I get back. A couple of my pygmy cories are exhibiting flashing behavior, but I don't see any white spots. They move around too fast to spot anything on the gills, and when they settle down, I don't know which ones were flashing. :|

Any immune-system enhancing foods I can try with them?


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## Jackson

NLS Thera A is pretty good


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## characinfan

I don't think cories could bite through sweet potato, but fish that bite stuff can usually handle raw sweet potato peeled with a vegetable peeler into strips.


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## FONE

I haven't succeeded in getting my otos to eat the sweet potato. I think maybe the raw one might be too hard for them to get anything off it? I don't know.

I've left cucumber in there too, but I don't see them touching it either. Neither will the pygmy cories.

All they have been eating are the various sinking wafers I'm sending down there. I'd like to give them more variety...


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## Jackson

Various sinking wafers is a good diet

Try some fresh spinach maybe they'll like that.


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