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OH I also give my plecos (clown, bristlenose, spotted rubbermouth) melon, watermelon seems to disintegrate a bit fast but they LOVE honeydew and cantaloupe.

Okay, thanks for the idea.

Update:

Hi, All. In addition to the current driftwood I have, I'm adding more caves and varieties of wood to my clown pleco tank (I put my first dried Manzanita branches in. Manzanita branches look really nice with their twisty shapes ). In my other tanks I've used halved coconut shells before, and I've seen my clown plecos feeding on the outer husk of the coconut shell until the hairy outer layer is almost entirely gone and the surface is smooth.

Quoting from another thread:

Kostas wrote:...Can i also feed him coconut flesh?...

After searching the PC forums for more on coconut shells, I found this 12-year old thread by @Kostas (quoted above), and it got me thinking about coconut flesh as a food for plecos. The question didn't get answered specifically in that old thread, but I'm imagining that if I were to try this, I would still need to separate the coconut flesh from the shell, because otherwise there is probably too much flesh inside the coconut to be eaten quickly, and it would start to rot before it can be all eaten.

Have any of you ever tried feeding your plecos coconut flesh? If so, how did you do it and what was the result?

Thanks. Cheers, Eric

EDIT: Here's a photo of how my breeding tank appears after I made the changes described above. In addition to the extra wood and reduced amount of gravel, there is black "construction paper" covering the back, the sides, and half the front for increased privacy for the fish (this makes viewing the fish almost impossible, LOL; I had to remove the front cover for picture taking):

Hello,

I know I am quite a bit late but I just saw the notification. I did feed coconut and Panaque liked it a lot. It lasts pretty well in the aquarium with Panaque feeding on it as they eat the piece all around and don't let it rot. I usually added a 4x2x1cm piece and lasted 3-4 days. By then, there was nothing left to remove

Thanks, Kostas. Don't worry about being late.

Cheers, Eric

I cannot say it applies to clowns, but my first bristlenose spawned in white PVC caves. This lasted until they got too big to fit in a 1 inch diameter cave. I discovered this when I found the egg mass out of the cave against the front glass in the middle of the tank. By then I had discovered the "wonders" of buying caves online and branched out into clay and slate.

If one wishes to make their own slate caves I would suggest using tank safe epoxy and not silicone to glue them together. Over time (a couple of years) silicone will start to let go when used on rock, slate, terra cotta etc.

Re frozen veggies- I used to buy fresh zuchini and slice it up. I then used waxed paper to lay out slices and then fold over the paper and add another layer of slices. I would freeze them and then, when I needed to feed a few, I would defrost them in the microwave which also helped "par-boil" them so they sank on their own. Now I only keep Hyancistrus, so its mostly meaty foods plus some veggie or spirulina sticks now and then. Another thing I like is the Hikari Brine Shrimp gut loaded with spirulina.

Thanks TTA. Cheers, Eric

I'm not sure if this is available everywhere or if it's a typical Dutch/European vegetable, but my Ancistrus and P. maccus love Brussels sprout. I put them in boiling water for about 5-10 minutes. After they cooled off I give a few of them to my fish (app. 1 per fish) and I put the rest of them in the freezer. When I put them in the aquarium (I use saté skewers to keep them from floating) my fish literally come rushing towards them and within seconds all the sprouts are 'occupied'. Very much fun to watch.

I've never given much thought to "leafy" veggies. Interesting. Thank you. How much of a single Brussels sprout will be consumed? How much gets thrown away?

I'm not quite sure, because my Ancistrus sp4 and Ancistrus claro are in the same aquarium and they get three sprouts, so I don't exactly know who eats what. The last time, after about 24 hours, one sprout was completely gone and of the other two about 1/2 or 1/3 was left. My P. maccus are eating not as much as my Ancistrus, but they haven't been in my aquarium long, so they are still adapting to their new surroundings and are not that interested in food yet. But still, one of their sprouts was also almost completely gone after 24 hours.

Because pictures say more than words: this is what's left of the sprouts after approximately 24 hours.





In the aquarium are two P. maccus and (unfortunately) some snails.

Okay, thanks for the pictures. Yeah, there's not much left on that stick.

I thought my clowns would be the slow eaters compared to my Ancistrus (my clowns take a bite, swim away, come back, take another bite etc. while my Ancistrus seem to be stuck on the sprout for at least 10 minutes or more ), but it's the other way around now.

I'm going to try that one for sure! Though they won't get too much of it, I love to eat those myself

Tried the Brussels sprout today. I put some to my L260s, l168s, P. Maccus and my ancistrus. Always one half boiled for 10minutes and one half raw.
The others won't eat until night, but the ancistrus fry came out to take a bite. The upper half is the boiled one. Picture just says it all! Looks like a great food for now!

Great picture!
Also good to see that they prefer the boiled one. This vegetable is also very easy to prepare and then store in the freezer. When you put them in warm water, the sprouts are defrosted within a few minutes. They keep their consistency when you freeze them, unlike other vegetables that can get very soft after freezing.

Interesting to read that your P. maccus only eat at night. I have two P. maccus and one (probably) L448 and they all eat during the day. Not only the vegetables, but also for example pleco tablets. I had some 100% spirulina tabs, that I bought a while ago for my shrimps (that won't eat them ;) ). I gave them half a tablet Tuesday morning and before lunchtime everything was gone.

I removed the sprouts this morning (except for the one in the Ancistrus tank, as they are still eating on it).
My Maccus didn't really touch it too much. But they don't seem to love any vegetables too much, they stay with their wood on me.
L260 and L168 did try a little, but they always need some attempts to start eating new vegetables.

I will try it again soon, think all of my plecos are going to like it, as the ancistrus fry are sitting on the sprout since I put it into the tank. The others probably need some more time.

I tried the Brussels sprouts yesterday, one each (prepared as described elsewhere - boiled 10 minutes then impaled on a bamboo skewer) with my ABNs and with my Panaqolus albomaculatus (oddly, I did not try sprouts with my clown plecos... Don't know why, but not on purpose). The ABNs are actively working on the Brussels sprout (although their progress is much slower than you experienced); however the albomaculatus haven't yet touched it. If anything, the albomaculatus seem more interested in the bamboo skewer than the sprout.

Cheers, Eric

Well, at the moment I really starting to get the feeling that my P. maccus were very badly malnourished before I got them.

Yesterday at lunchtime I put this piece of wood in their aquarium (it used to be in my Anatome Helena tank, that I'm now converting into a Shrimp tank):


This morning it looked like this:


When I put in a few pieces of algae wafer in this morning, my P. maccus rushed to them and have been eating on and off ever since, despite the fact that they probably have been eating all night on the algae on the piece of wood.
So I guess that at the moment they like everything 'green' I put in there...

I saw mine eat slices of cucumber last year. Took them a couple of days to totally devour it (big slice, little fish), but it was gone. Trying with a zucchini this year, because they appear to have an appetite for green vegetables. And I can freeze the remaining parts which I could not do with the cucumber.

bekateen wrote:I tried the Brussels sprouts yesterday... however the albomaculatus haven't yet touched it. If anything, the albomaculatus seem more interested in the bamboo skewer than the sprout.

I guess I spoke too soon. When I went to bed last night, there was a big chunk missing, and when I awoke today, the sprout was almost completely gone. As with past experiences, I guess the fish need time to realize that new foods are "food." Once they realize it's edible, they jump for it.

Cheers, Eric