I don't really know. I've never kept ribbons. I do know that with any garters I've ever kept, the fish eaters didn't care if it is dead. However, from what people tell me, including the pet store keepers, ribbons are more visual hunters and they can be hard to convert to dead food. The local petco wanted to get the ribbons off of goldfish after I told them how bad it can be for them. They were able to get a few of them to take f/t silversides but they had to hold them in tongs and make them wiggle.