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can someone please list all the known families of loricariidae that need wood in their diets?

panaque and I believe baryancistrus, from there I'm not sure, although seems most of the vegetarian plecos use driftwood at least as a home... possible they get some nutrition from it too.

Hi!

Read the paper by j.Armbruster about the woodeating Hypostomus (former Cochliodons) group. They definately need wood.

almost all loricariids need wood.. Its better to provide them some even a small wood only for them to chew and to hide..

No, they do not (except for wood-eaters, that is). Studies have shown that Hypostomus (not the fish formerly known as Cochliodon) will eat wood, but only if they are starving and no other food source is available.
Wood is something that provides shelter, not food, for most loricariids.

It has always been my impression that Ancistrus species tend to fare much better if there is at least a small chunk of wood in the tank.

Given that my fish (even very shy ones) will often leave cover (caves, rockpiles, etc.) to graze on the sometimes small pieces of driftwood I add to the tanks I have to believe that they are recieving some benefit from the wood beyond simple caloric intake.

Perhaps fiber to aid in digestion? After all these are herbivourous fish with very long GI tracts.

Sincerley,
Paul E. Turley

I was under the impresssion that ancistrus, panaque, hypostomus, peckoltia and cochliodon all gain lignin from bogwood ect, and use it to aid digestion. I did have a question mark against ancistrus and the other species, however i guess there is no major formal research into this. However i have always found it benifical to have wood in the tanks, however it might turn out that some are just cleaning there teeth.

Hi!

Well the species of the following genus surely don't need wood!
Hypancistrus
Leporacanthicus
Scobinancistrus
Acanthicus
Pseudacanthicus
Regarding the other ones...the tooth shape can let us think that they are probably using these to rasp, so they possibly could occasionnaly feed on wood when needed.
Cheers
Yann

I think it is only the Loricariids with spoon shaped teeth that "eat" wood. So that would be Panaque, Panaqulous and Cochliodon. Or, to follow Armbruster, Panaque (excluding Scobinancistrus) and the most high backed Hypostomus.

I think a lot of plecos appear to "like" wood as it is in their nature to find food and shelter in and on wood in the wild. IME, in the aquarium algae often grows more quickly on wood than stone which would provide another reason why some plecos like it. Maybe it is easier to glean algae from wood than from stone?

Jools

Add to this L 92 which I call "The wood -eating Lasiancistrus." These things go through driftwood like cucumber.
-Shane

Shane wrote:Add to this L 92 which I call "The wood -eating Lasiancistrus." These things go through driftwood like cucumber.
-Shane

Wonder if those things have spoon shaped teeth?

Jools

I don't think it's correct to say it's only Loricariids with spoon shaped teeth that "eat" wood - Ancistrus do eat driftwood even if there are all kinds of food all over (it's very easy to see in a bare bottom tank).
I think it's easier to say which ones doesn't eat wood - just like Yann did it.

What about Hypoptopomatinae and Loricarinae?

-Klaus

The reason I used "eat" in quotes was that I meant to ingest wood and actually do something beneficial with it - as opposed to <I>Ancistrus</I> which I haven't observed making the same sort of inroads into my bogwood collection. I mean large <I>Scobinancistrus</i> leave marks behind on soft wood, but I'm pretty sure they aren't eating large amounts of it purposefully.

Jools

I think that Ancistrus is (in some degree) able to digest wood ("softwood" not "hardwood") with the help from bacterias; they may not have the same number of these "wood-eating" bacterias in their intestines as the real wood-eaters and they may not be able to life entirely of wood, but I believe they have at least some of these bacterias to help them digest softwood.

It's just my gut-feeling ( ) based on the amount of wood I can see they are eating in my tanks.

Do you know otherwise?

-Klaus

Non wood-eaters (e.g. Liposarcus) can digest wood. It's just that they don't do it as well (as you mentioned, less of the appropriate gut microflora), and they will probably eat wood in the wild only if they are starving and no other food is available.