I have a 65g that currently houses 6 longear sunfish (one adult, four juvies, and one baby), and three blacktail shiners. Yes, I know I need more shiners. I have five smaller ones, but the biggest sunny was eating them, so I've temporarily moved them to another tank to grow out. I'll also grab a few more large ones from the river near here.
My shiners will eat everything. I feed them a small food for tiny fish, and they happily gobble it up. However, they also eat the scraps from the sunfish, and I don't want to overfeed them.
The biggest sunfish eats cichlid pellets, and the shiners will sometimes grab pieces of those, though I try to avoid putting small enough pieces in because I'm worried it'll get stuck in their tiny throats. The other sunfish bite the pellets and then spit them out, no matter what I try- apparently they aren't fans. I can't try another pellet because anything with gluten isn't allowed in the house due to severe allergies in the family, and I can't find another gluten-free pellet. If anybody knows of a brand of pellet other than the cichlid pellets from yourfishstuff.com, I'll take that suggestion quite happily. Unfortunately, without them eating the pellets, I don't have a way to feed the sunnies some sort of veggie.
I also feed the sunnies bloodworms and/or table shrimp, and I plan to get some crayfish and mussels to offer them. I'm just worried that they aren't getting enough veggie-type stuff, since they won't eat the pellets. I'm also worried that the shiners won't get enough veggies, since they mostly eat the scraps from the sunfish.
I tried giving them nori, but they didn't seem interested. What veggies do sunnies and shiners like, especially the sunnies? Peas? I'm looking for suggestions on what to add to the grocery list. Do they like cucumbers? Broccoli? I know they don't like apple, I tried offering a bit. I've seen wild sunnies eat canned corn, but I don't know if that's very good for them.
In short: My picky sunfish won't eat pellets, what vegetables can I drop in so I'm not just feeding them random bits of meat?
On a side note, what vegetables should I absolutely never offer? I know peppers and onions are a bad plan due to irritants, is there anything that's toxic to fish or otherwise bad for them? If not, can I just offer bits of fruit and veggies until I find something they like?