Mr. Plecostomoose - Feeding Questions

[ahmandi2]

Hi we recently got a bn pleco; he's small yet, maybe two inches (his body). He cleaned our tank up completely within the first five days. Now I am worried that he's not eating the wafers that we give to him and the loaches. He's too shy to come anywhere out in the open mostly, but I've noticed today that he's been out all day searching for food...sometimes running over the same area twice.
He LOOKS ok, like he's maybe even grown since we got him, but I have no idea how to tell if he's eating enough. Also, would they ever get "sick" of a food and not eat it again? Even if he's starving?
My cats would starve themselves, literally, if they don't like the food, so I am hoping that fish are different. The leftover from the loaches is there and I'm hoping he'll venture out later and eat it up...
Any advice, as to what to feed him/her, is there some pleco crack that I can give him?

[Diana]

It is not so much that a fish does not like a new food (like algae wafers) as it is that they do not know it is food. Try any of the following. Whatever he eats, slip an algae wafer into it the next time you feed that food. Then he will start to understand that it is food.

Raw: Fruit, cucumber, lettuce (red, green leaf, romaine), spinach
Lightly cooked: zucchini, peas, green beans, broccoli, firmer leaf vegetables
Better cooked: Firm vegies like yams, sweet potato, pumpkin, hard squashes like butternut. These are better baked, not boiled. Boiling seems to make them too squishy and they fall apart faster in the tank.

If you start with frozen vegetables then just defrost them. They are already cooked well enough.

Peas and similar vegetables: pop them out of their skin.
Green beans: fish seem to like the tender insides, so slice them lengthwise. My fish eventually eat the whole thing, but they leave the skin for last.
Oranges: I do not know if Plecos will eat them, but other fish like the same part we eat. The rind is good snail bait.

[ahmandi2]

Hi there,
Thanks for the food list; there's a ton on there that I haven't tried. I'll try the wafer on cucumber bit and hopefully he'll figure out that they're both food.
I'm thinking of trying a different wafer; I've seen "meat" wafers; sinking pellets that are full of protein and not much else. Is this ok for a pleco?

[Diana]

Not for a Bristlenose Pleo. They are really herbivores. A little protein is needed, but not as much as is in a carnivore wafer. Most Algae wafers that are more algae have enough protein for them.

Other Loricariads (Plecos and their relatives) are wood eating or meat eating, so carnivore wafers are OK.

[starsplitter7]

I feed my BN and plecos Hikari wafers. They love them, and I like the brand a lot.

As far as I have found out, BNs need wood in their diet too. I went out and bought little pieces of driftwood for each of my tanks with BN fry. The fry love the wood and are over them. I bought them from Petsmart in the reptile and hermit crab areas. Cheaper than fish supplies. Then I boil all the pieces in a big pot on the stove. I cool everything, and then I will put it in the tank. It still may float, but they sink slowly, and the fish all hang out with the wood even when it floats.

My BN may snag part of a shrimp pellet from my other fish, but I feed them veggies and algae wafers.

[ahmandi2]

I have a piece of mopari (sp?) wood in there for the bn guy. I've never seen him ...eat it lol, but I have seen him work his way across and over it..maybe that's him eating it.
Thanks, I will continue the algae wafers, and try some veggies again. ...can they eat corn?

[starsplitter7]

I am not 100% sure they eat wood, but that they eat the organizms growing on the wood.

Diana explained a great deal of what she has witnessed on my pleco feeding thread.

[ahmandi2]

riiiight. Gamekey you took the words right out of my mouth....if I were INSANE.