What to feed my Pleco tank...help

[Syno Rey]

Ok so I have a 120 gallon tank that I had setup and now I'm making it a pleco tank. So far this is my stock list:

L200 lemon spotted green pleco
L239 Blue panaque X2
L018 golden nugget pleco
L288 (or L015) Peckoltia

There is some wood in there and small and large round river stones and a pump for some water current. Temp is at 80f and ph at 7.3 and I have Ada Amazonia as substrate.

My question would be....what would be the best mix of foods to feed this group?


Right now I'm giving them algae and veggie wafers and some carnivore pellets and some cucumbers.please let me know what else would be good or better.

[Zeno]

For this mix of fish there is quit a large range of products available.
I suggest a balanced diet of 33% veggie products and 66 % meaty ones.

Greetz, Zeno

[krazyGeoff]

I would feed as I feed my current stock.

A base food of JBL Nova Fect.
Basically a vege pellet with 35% protein.
Mix it up with zucchini, and then occasionally some shrimp pellets or something like that.
I want to try some of the reapshy products, but I can't get them down here (yet).

As Zeno said there are lots of foods out there that will be fine, and everyone will have their favourite brands.

The reason I like the nova fect, is that it breaks down quickly, and I feel that the "carpet grazers" can then graze all over the tank to find it. Just my opinion.

Good luck.

Cheers

[Syno Rey]

Thanks for replying guys.

[Syno Rey]

I would love to get some of that JBL Novo Fect....but I can't seem to find any place that sells that here.

So far I had this group in my tank for a week and all they have touched in the veggie wafers and bloodworms. They haven't touched the carnivore pellets or shrimp pellets and they haven't tried the zuchini or cucumbers either.

Should I keep putting that food in there to see if they would go for it ?

[Richard B]

When fish get used to certain foods it is often hard to integrate other foods into their dietary regime, but a week or two of fasting often will trigger them to try new foods. Perserverance with other items to create a wide & varied diet is a good thing.

Dr Michael Hardman wrote the following about feeding plecos: ..."cooking up an artificial algae. I blend spinach, broccoli, peas and shrimp into a smooth paste and then add molten agar. Agar is a gelling agent available at health food shops that, unlike gelatin, does not dissolve in the warm and circulating water of an aquarium. While the agar-paste mix is still molten, I coat pebbles with it and place them in the fridge or freezer until I want to feed"

[apistomaster]

Some wood for Panaque.
For those and everything else I have bred it is earth worm sticks for the staple diet supplemented with frozen blood worms.
I've bred and raised many Hypancistrus species, Peckoltia compta(wild and my F1's), Sturisoma(wild and F1's, domesticated Discus, wild Blue Discus and F1 Blue Discus.
I am very much into adopting the simplest ways of feeding and caring for fish I breed and still get good results.
It is a variation on what Buckminster Fuller described as, "The doing more with ever less." approach.