5.19.2017

Cucumber Water in the Aquarium

I know, I know, it has been awhile since I have attempted any new little side experiments but being that I'm on summer vacation from University means that I have a bit more free time on my hands.
The Experiment
For today's experiment, I was curious what would happen if I added some homemade cucumber water into my goldfish aquarium (I'm not sure if you should try this with all types of fish but you can try it on yourself). I was originally hoping that it would work as a diuretic much like that of pea's being fed to a goldfish in order to alleviate some bladder issues because according to my research it's supposed to be more of a diuretic than that of peas. You may be wondering "why didn't you just feed it to them" and I did try to do that but they weren't that interested in actually eating it even though they acknowledged it being there. So by making cucumber water they basically have no choice but to ingest it via the aquarium water (right?). Cucumber water also allows the fish to get some nutrients and electrolytes in the process, just in case this diuretic ordeal doesn't work out, but as always try this at your own risk.

What you'll need...
1 - Cucumber (preferably organic)
2 Cups - Water, bottled

Start by washing the cucumber thoroughly. Peel the skin off of the cucumber. Slice the cucumber into 1/4 inch slices. Place the cucumber into a glass container of appropriate size. Add in the water (it should cover the cucumber), close the container, and place in the fridge for at least 24hrs. Discard the cucumber (or eat it yourself) and the pour the water into a cup. Allow the cucumber water to get room temperature and pour it into the aquarium.

Results
While I did not find that this worked as a diuretic (perhaps my batch was too small for a 30gal tank or maybe I should've turned off my filter) I did find this worked more as an appetite enticer (more so than when I used garlic drops for goldfish). Once the tasty cucumber water was added into the tank it took no time at all for the goldfish to quickly zoom about the tank in search of something tasty to eat (in which case I fed them some sinking pellets to watch them gobble those up). So perhaps if you have finicky freshwater fish that are into eating vegetables but they haven't been eating much lately then you could give this a try in order to entice them or perhaps force feed a sick fish (which is what I do with Vitachem).

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