Bristlenose Eating My Amazon Swords

[KISSfn]

It appears my Bristlenose's favorite food are Amazon Sword leaves. He ignores algae wafers and supplements his leaf diet with some fish flake. I tried some courgette zucchini once but he wasn't interested. Maybe I didn't prepare it to his liking? I microwaved a peeled slice in a cup of water for a minute, cooled it, stuck a plastic fork in it and put it on the sand. Suggestions appreciated!

 

[Liquid skills]

well bristlenoses are not plain herbivours they are omnivours they love bloodworm and will happly eat it although you will need a balance too much meaty foods isnt good for them but blood worm twice a week may help try that frozen or live i havnt had luck with freeze dry

 

[XFiSh_CichildX]

try some courgette as it it withouth heating or anything mine all love it they also enjoy bloodworm and brineshrimp ans said above

 

[ZoddyZod]

mine eats....

Baby corn & brocoli (after boiling) and slices of raw pepper.

 

[Liquid skills]

yeh mine love courgette but if i leave it in too long it stinks make me nearly retch lol mine dont really eat anything else ive tried pepper grapes cucumber courgette lettuce greens carrot but they never really like them besides the cucumber and courgettes lol mine are picky

 

[scatz]

Keep trying with fresh veg, it sometimes takes a few goes before they realise its actually food. Once they work it out, they should leave your plants alone

 

[snazy]

I tried mine 5-6 times with a zuchinni and other veg and he doesn't want to know, but jumps on romaine lettuce like crazy

 

[Iiriva]

Brisles tend to do that. Try fresh cocumber and shrimps, should like them. Fresh watermelon (the red part, not any skin) will be like the best thing they have ever tasted, so that should do the trick. In my tank I have 6 brisles and they pretty much leave the plants alone, because they get some kind of fresh food every other day.

 

[TwoTankAmin]

Most Ancistrus, aka bristlenose, are what is known as Aufwuchs feeders. This means using their long slender teeth that are arranged in a single row like a comb,

they scrape the algal growth and the micro-organisms it contains from the bottom, and from rocks and wood which is then sucked into the centrally positioned mouth-opening by the creation of negative pressure

From the "Back to Nature Guide to L-Catfishes" by Ingo Seidel.

What yours is doing is scraping this stuff off of your Amazon sword leaves. The problem is that amazons have pretty thin/delicate leaves and the act of scraping them off also scrapes off the plant matter itself. Other varieties of swords with tougher leaves would fare better in a tank with bn. The other solution is to have the Amazins growing faster than the bn can rasp them into extinction. Then you just prune off the damaged leaves and new ones are quickly ready as replacements.

 

[adrianborg]

I had a lot of amazon swords and the BNs destroyed them all, much faster than they could grow back. In the end I pulled them all out and replaced them. I feed the BNs daily (mostly sinking wafers but sometime veggies) and I even tried lengthening the lighting time to encourage algae growth - the algae did grow but it didn't save the amazon swords.

There's plenty of other plants they don't touch - they haven't harmed the vallis, giant bacopa, cryptocorynes, anubias and ceratopteris (which grows like crazy by the way) - all seem to be immune. On the other hand rotalia rotundifolia is suffering, and when I went away for 3 days without feeding the BNs they even partly destroyed the floating amazon frogbit.

 

[adrianborg]

I had a lot of amazon swords and the BNs destroyed them all, much faster than they could grow back. In the end I pulled them all out and replaced them. I feed the BNs daily (mostly sinking wafers but sometime veggies) and I even tried lengthening the lighting time to encourage algae growth - the algae did grow but it didn't save the amazon swords.

There's plenty of other plants they don't touch - they haven't harmed the vallis, giant bacopa, cryptocorynes, anubias and ceratopteris (which grows like crazy by the way) - all seem to be immune. On the other hand rotalia rotundifolia is suffering, and when I went away for 3 days without feeding the BNs they even partly destroyed the floating amazon frogbit.

replying to my own note I know, but would it be useful to have a thread on bn-proof vs bn-fodder plants? It could save us some money on wasted plant purchases...

 

[xingumike]

^ Never had an issue with Anubias and Java Fern.

I have 4 Ancistrus in my main tank now that clean Anubias leaves without damaging them.

They don't go near Java Fern.

hth

 

[TwoTankAmin]

They will rasp all kinds of leaves. The Amazon swords have a particularly delicate leaf which is why the fish rasp it as well as the Aufwuks. The much tougher/thicker leaved plants such as anubias can survive the rasping.

I guess i am running mugher light levels in tanks where I have had any of the amazon sword favieties and my plants are able to keep pace with the bn. I have a compacta sword (a dwarf variety of Amazon) which is now about 9 years old. Until this year it was in a tank with several bn and it is now in a tank with some altum angels. It always outgrew the bn appetite.

I have always fed my swords with substrate ferts which, imo, explains my good growth for so many years.

It is pretty easy ti tell which plant leaves mat be flimsier or sturdier. Pick up an Amazon sword and its leaves all droop down. Pick up an anubias and it stays straight and tall. The thicker the plant's leaves, the better it will resist rasping.

 

[KISSfn]

Thanks to all for your kind replies. Unfortunately I found my Bristlenose dead today. http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?/topic/386002-lost-my-bristlenose-today/

 

[snazy]

Sorry to hear that. Besides trying to feed him with veg, did you give him manufactured food like wafers or similar?