I bought an awesome Watermelon/Royal Pleco from our last auction and has cleaned up the tank real well. I usually drop in a few pellets or waffers late at night so my peacocks don't eat everything, not knowing if he's getting enough food. I know Greg M. says he loves zuchini but it floats, so I tried carrot pieces which sinks. Are carrots ok for plecos? Any other solutions? Thanks for your advise!
Stacy
Stacy ... blanch your zuchinni and it won't float. Blanch = bring some water to a boil, toss in the zukes, turn off the burner, wait a minute, remove zukes...
They should sink to bottom now.
Never fed my fish carrots, but I'm sure you can.
Unsalted canned green beans are another option. My BN plecos liked them...
+1 to everything Glen just said..
Boiling makes those veggies sink like a champ. I'm sure if they can eat driftwood, carrots wont be an issue. Never tried it tho.. My Google-Fu has turned up this info...
http://www.google.com/#sclient=psy-a...w=1597&bih=810
Feed it as a snack, or something different, but not a staple food.
I use frozen french cut Green Beans. No salt and more of the flesh is exposed. They float momentarily, but sink quickly once they begin to thaw.
Tony
You can also spear it on a fork then put it in, fork and all. =)
"My dither fish need dither fish!"
carrots, peas, cucumbers, and zuchini have worked great for me. I do give them pellets, wafers, and flakes as well.
One thing I noticed with both my BNPs and L-129s though is that they grow faster in my Discus tanks. Temperatures and tank sizes are the same. So my only guess is that it's either protein or WC schedule. I've had losses in my pleco only tank but none in my discus tanks, so the high protein diet certainly doesn't bother them.
So plecos in discus tanks eat seafood mix and a higher protein pellet (45%) with an occassional beef heart mix thrown into it. My SF and BH mix have kale or spinach in them.
I would guess it is the water change's . Most of them come from area's with plenty of current . I have noticed much more rapid growth in a large tank 90 with lot's of water movement vs. a 20 or 30 and a sponge filter even with 7 - 5 to 7 inch multipunctatus and 8 large corie's as competition and a dozen or so african's . There is a current strong enough to move large plastic plant's from the rena 3 canister filter circulating 350 gph and a 12 " airstone boiling the water on the top . Same here no losses in the big tank but lost 3 pleco's from the auction in a smaller tank . Some specie's of pleco's are not tough at all and seem to need better water condition's than most other fish . Mine go crazy for plecocaine a black pellet that drop's quick . All the cat's I have seem to love it ( near 200 in 30 or so varieties ) Have not used vegetable's but try to keep cholla or driftwood in with the pleco's . Anything I may have to remove if it is uneaten and can foul the water if I forget it sound's like a risk to me ( I know my limitation's not that vegtable's are bad ) . Mine also love meat - earthworm flake's , bloodworm's , blackworm's but they do eat algea and any leftover green flake if they can't get meat or plecocaine . Mine won't touch the algea wafer's even my shrimp's get tired of them and they will eat anything . I have tried 20 or so type's of food and have it narrowed down now to what the fish like best and what is good for them
Thank you all for your replies. It's great to have all different types of advise and knowledge! Thanks again, Stacy.
I just started keeping bushynose about a year ago, and I got about 40 1/4-1/2" little bushynose of varying types. What I've discovered in my keeping is that underfeeding has not been a problem: there were several water changes needed due to wafers and pellets not being eaten. I keep mollies and endlers with them, and noticed they started thriving when I began feeding heavier on flake (Ken's beefheart and super brine shrimp flake) and quit trying to find the "perfect food" for them. They are much larger now, and readily eat the falling flake. The real problem i have found with multiple plecos is that without enough spaces, they can become very aggressive with each other. One 5" albino male went on a killing spree one night, and i didn't know plecos would do this, but anyway: mine seem to love high protein flake...
Eveything is better on pay day.
The best thing I found for plecos is Sera catfish chips, it's the only wafer that has willow and alder cone as part of it's ingredients. My plecos come out of the caves for it. You can get it through Brantley (plecocaves.com), he's also our treasurer and sits up front during meetings. that gives you an idea of who he is, if you didn't know.
Candy
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