L204 Feeding + New Tank Substrate Question

[stuart264]

I need some advice, I bought a L204 "Flash" pleco last week and all the data sheets say that vegetables are a favourite of them, I always keep a slice of courgette (zuchini) in the tank on a feeding frenzy clip which this little guy has ignored but he has been munching the mopani wood and I saw him eat some tetra prima this morning any advice on alternative veggies to try as I am giving mango a try at the moment having read about it on here and my BN Fry are going nuts for it.

Secondly I just inherited due to my best friend (and fellow fish keepers) sad demise his 260 litre tank which I have part set up (filtration and airation but no decor etc) which is running a fishless cycle, and I wanted to ask if it would be better long term for my Plecs' if I mixed some sand in with the gravel as now is the time to do it as I can mix it with the filter off and give it 4-5 hours to settle before restarting the filter.

[MatsP]

Like most small

Panaque

, I expect it will eat mainly wood and "tasty" food - like Tetra prima. Make sure you don't overfeed on the prima, as they can get too much of the protein food and this can lead to health problems (bloat/internal infections).

There is some discussion on this in the L397 thread just a few posts down.

For ideas of other foods you may want to try, have a read of my feeding pleco article in Shane's world (also linked to the right of this post where it says "Articles(1)").

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Mats

[MatsP]

To answer your second question: I have 12 tanks, and aside from my hospital tank, there is sand substrate in all of them. Some have a mix of sand and gravel, and there are different types of sand in the ones with sand, but there is a lot of sand in my tanks. And all of my tanks have some sort of Loricariidae in them.

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Mats

[stuart264]

Matt

Thanks read your article and I am trying a slice of courgette in the tank at the moment on the screwcumber in the place the little chap likes to hide so I might see munch marks on it in the morning, I also have left a voice mail for a friend who I think is due to give his apple tree its winter pruning soon to see if he will save some of the apple wood for me.

I will add some sand in the morning, I have to go past Early Learning Centre and their sandpit sand is exactly the same stuff as aquarium sand just at 3/4 the price a fact I picked up off the PFK website.

Stuart.

[MatsP]

Yes, I have not bought any regular sand in the aquatics shop, but I do like the Unipac Limpopo and Senegal varieties, which is a slightly coarser sand than the play-sand you get in ELC or DIY shops - I've found that Hanson block "kiln dried block paving sand" (used for filling the gaps when using block paving) is a good grain size. Much of the play-sand is on the slightly finer side of what I like myself.

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Mats

[stuart264]

One other question springs to mind, once I move all my fish into the 260l tank, I plan to swap over the 125L tank I have to run Malawi cichlids as I promised Martin before he died that I would look after his fish (though they are currently in my community tank as I put them in a separate tank and they were tearing each other to pieces) the PH on a Malawi tank runs at about 8.0 and I will be using Seachem Malawi Buffer and Seachem Cichlid lake salt and I wondered how BN's fair in an ph 8.0 environment as I need to separate my male BN from my complete sl*t of a female BN or I will be knee deep in baby BN's and I am running out of people to give them too though I quite enjoy raising the fry.

[stuart264]

Matt

Is that sand US or UK brands as I have a builders merchant across the road?

[MatsP]

As long as you acclimatise the fish to the pH/conductivity of the Malawi tank, it should be fine.

Just make sure the babies are moved on before they are too big, or you will still get more even if you remove the male - don't ask me how I found that out... ;)

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Mats

[MatsP]

Matt

Is that sand US or UK brands as I have a builders merchant across the road?

Hanson is an UK brand, sold by Homebase amongst others. Unipac is a UK aquatics sand/gravel supplier.

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Mats

[krazyGeoff]

Hi,
Mine really don't go for the "soft" vegies.
I feed mine a reasonable amount of Kumara, aka Sweet Potato.

It is very fibrous, much more so than normal potato, more like a parsnip. Not sure if sweet potato is avaliable in the UK.

Also with this it is very easy to see that they are eating.... i.e. the waste is obvious.

Cheers
Geoff

[MatsP]

Yup, easily available here in the UK - most supermarkets will have at least one variety, some have more. Kumara is apparently the polynesian name for the tuber. Edit: Or the Maori name, I suppose...

And I know exactly what you mean by "it's easy to see when they eat it" - it comes out a very similar orange colour.

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Mats

[Farid]

hi there,
i keep all of my cats either in sand oder blank ground.

try to stick a big shrimp on a stick..and check next morning...my 204ers love shrimps...and red paprika, also try raw patato ...just dont let the vegies fall appart which happens after about 2-3 days...

farid

[stuart264]

Will give sweet potato a try, as I have to go past the supermarket this morning.

[stuart264]

Took your advice and added 25kg of Kiln Dried Block Paving sand, but it was "Brett" not Hanson as that was the only brand the builders merchant stocked, one question I rinsed it well and left it it a bucket overnight with water trickling through it but the tank water right now is pretty murky, should I leave it 24 hours to settle or should I do a full water change?

[MatsP]

I wouldn't worry too much - it will settle eventually. I find that washing sand is MUCH harder than washing gravel, presumably because the water doesn't rinse out the small particles between the grains of sand so easily.

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Mats

[racoll]

My L204 really liked sweet potato too.

Broad (fava) beans from a tin were also very popular. I used to freeze them in a plastic food bag and just drop a few in each night. I found this quite convenient.

[stuart264]

Currently trying the Sweet Potato, with much success I put it in raw yesterday, so I am going to try a blanched slice later and I called a friend who is going to bring me one of the branches he needs to prune off his apple to tree to try that.

Water in the other tank has cleared, after 2 doses of Seachem Clarity and putting the all the JBL Symec I had in the external filter, its starting to look good, though I still need the replacement lighting unit from the supplier to replace the transit damaged one to get the full effect.

[stuart264]

Well I tried blanching last night, not a lot of joy as I had to guess the blanching times so I put 2 pieces in one blanched for 2 minutes and one for 4 minutes, no signs of munch marks but the BN's are taking an interest in the one blanched for 4 minutes so I am going to try blanching a bit longer later once I get done with the housework and see how that goes.

[racoll]

You have to be quite patient when getting them onto new vegetable foods.

Treat them like children. If there's McDonald's (i.e. algae wafers) available, they will just eat that and ignore their greens!

Feed them nothing else for a couple of weeks, but put a new piece or two of sweet potato in each night. Remove any uneaten sweet potato the next day.

They'll get hungry enough to eat it, and then they'll realise that its actually quite good.

Best of luck.

[Farid]

i'd try the same. but to make sure check their bellies!
peeled shrimps should be loved by L204!
good luck
farid

[Bwhiskered]

My 204's eat everything. Sinking cichlid pellets, wafers all frozen foods as well as vegetables. They are not fussy eaters. But they are big 6 inch fish that are reluctant to spawn.