What do you feed?

I just added a new pleco to my tank thanks to Zerc. An L014 [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

I took my large piece of wood out of the tank, but I think I will put some back in to give the guy something to munch on. But was wondering what else to try and feed him.

I have used the Omega One Veggie rounds with great success.
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What are you feeding your plecos?

i saw him eat some shrimp once. Afaik they need some protein in their diet.

Nothing. Every once in a while I will drop an algae wafer, but they get plenty of food, IMO, from what the fish waste. Plus my greeting 's eat the damn wafers before they hit the bottom any way.

madness wrote:...my greeting 's eat the damn wafers before they hit the bottom any way.

This.

Zerc wrote:

madness wrote:...my greeting 's eat the damn wafers before they hit the bottom any way.

This.

Thissssssssssss, what?

I also have a wafer not hitting the bottom of the tank problem.

There really is not a whole lot of wasted food in the tank from what I see. Been throwing in a wafer every evening just to be safe. It dissolves over time so its not intact in the morning when I check. But I'm not sure if it gets eaten. I do feel I need to get some real wood back in the tank, since many of these plecos benefit from having it in their diet.

Yeppers

With the manzanita branches, I really dont want a repeat of the slime that seemed to grow on the tank walls and inside the filters. So I may cut a piece down and just put in a small branch instead. I have the mopani branch from my old 120g in the 29g that the bristlenose eat on and never have slime issues.

Just spent a lot of money on those large branches to be hacking them up....

Maybe I should just get some more mopani or some of the Malaysian driftwood instead.

I feed mine NLS mostly. The bristlenose also get vegetables of all kinds. The leopard frogs get earthworm sticks in addition to the NLS.

My plecos also like driftwood, but they don't seem to ever eat the mopani. They like the softer stuff. We live right by the Nisqually River and I pick pieces up there and buy interestingly shaped pieces from the fish stores. The bristlenose also like to eat sponge.

I do have a really interesting piece of driftwood in my front yard that I always thought would look cool in a tank. I might just have to prep that for the tank.

I just have to know.... How did you ever find out bristlenose like to eat sponge?

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My solution:
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I laughed so hard when I saw the picture of that sponge! Now I understand.

Maybe you should market your gadget. "Tired of your plecos eating your sponge filters, your problems are gone with new pleco guard!"

lol

for my bn's i give them green beans!!!! I put them in at bed time by morning there all gone..

Do you blanch the green beans? Or just drop them in fresh?

I use caned green beans. I open it and take it over and feed them. even my cory cats munch on it. The other night I tried some peas and that was fun to watch!!!!!

Good to know Jeff. Thanx.

I had forgot that Betty, who gave me my bristlenose growouts said she used canned green beans also.

DMD123 wrote:I had forgot that Betty, who gave me my bristlenose growouts said she used canned green beans also.

They love the green beans! And they want French style -- I buy the unsalted.

That's funny that they prefer the french style, though i suppose it's due to not having to mess with the skins as much to get to the interior makes sense