Questions about feeding mussels to L264

[PaperDoves]

I have recently gotten two L264. They are settling in nicely, eating well and seem happy. I've had them for 2 or 3 weeks. They are in my community tank with mostly angels and several bns.

I've been reading as much as possible about them, and have been feeding them various vegetables (zucchini, broccoli, green beans, blanched carrots, and English cucumbers) with small bay or salad shrimp, cooked, being offered every few days. They seem to enjoy everything that I have so far offered, along with frozen bloodworms, frozen brine shrimp, nls pellets and whatever flakes make their way to the bottom of the tank at feeding times. They come out and actively forage around at feeding times twice per day, and each morning I can see clear evidence of their having eaten the veggies that are in there from the night before.

I've come across several references to people feeding them mussels. I live at the beach, on the Pacific ocean in the US, and we have beautiful mussels here, I gather and eat them myself. So, I was wondering about offering some of these to the fish. If this sounds like a good idea, what is the best option for feeding them, out of the options that I can think of?

1) Well scrubbed, half of the shell removed and fed live and raw.
2) Well scrubbed, lightly steamed just until the shell opens (to kill any organisms that are on the shell) and fed barely-cooked either in or out of the shell, but whole.
3) Removed from the shell and fed (barely dead) and raw, either chopped or whole.
4) Removed from the shell, cooked and fed either chopped or whole.
5) Something else.

Or am I just overthinking this completely? The shrimp that I've been giving them is caught locally, so it's pretty fresh prior to being cooked and frozen, but I can give them mussels that are as fresh as anything could possibly be. Option 2 or 4 would be the easiest for me, but really any of these are obviously very simple.

Also, would it be better to give them smaller, younger, more tender mussels (if at all) or larger ones that aren't as tender, thus providing more resistance and slowing down the consumption maybe? Or again is that overthinking things way too much?

[Linus_Cello]

My recollection from other posts (do a search) is that mussels are ok occasionally. It seems that these can succumb to bloat from eating too much meaty foods (or at least market shrimp, which I think the posts mention). So as long as these are getting lots of veggies and variety in their diet, these mussels, maybe once or twice a week, should be ok. Of course remove any uneaten mussel after a few hours to not foul the water quality.

[PaperDoves]

Thank you very much.