Frozen Prawn Etc

[Davo86]

do you have some info that I can read regarding this?

Baryancistrus is one of the omnivorous pleco species that requires vegetation and meaty foods,

Taken from planet catfish

These fish are grazers, but not in the sense that they eat only vegetation. They actually sift and chew at the film of organic matter on hard surfaces in search of higher protein foods. In the wild this would constitute a variety of foods from small insect larvae and crustaceans to other animals eggs and possibly even recently dead animals. With this in mind, frozen foods such as bloodworm and blackworm should be offered along with frozen prawns. Algae and plants are avoided, but cucumber and courgette appear on the accepted menu. Accepted food morsel size changes with age in all of these fish.

L018 Gold Nugget - PlanetCatfish

There are also fully carnivorios species like Pseudacanthicus which i believe have very little algae or vegetable matter in their diets?

 

[joshrm115]

Clams,shrimp,ext will be fin, and if your that worried boil it for like 15 sec..

 

[Colin_T]

Although I agree they do eat small crustaceans and insect larvae when they are grazing over rocks and wood, and they might on occasions come across a body in the river, in general they don’t get a lot of meat protein from these foods. Insects and their larvae have lots of indigestible bits and this provide roughage. Likewise small crustaceans like daphnia and copepods do as well. Fish eggs are high in protein but they are small and the chances of a fish finding a lot of them is unlikely. If a suckermouth catfish finds a rotting body and feeds off it, then chances are dozens, if not hundreds of other fishes will also be feeding off the carcass, thus limiting the amount each fish can consume. And predatory fishes will be able to take big chunks out of the body whereas the suckermouths will only be able to take small amounts over a period of time.

Tropheus cichlids from Lake Tanganyika in Africa have a similar diet. They graze on algae covered rocks and in the process they pick up small crustaceans, fish eggs and insect larvae. The small quantities they consume are quickly pushed through their body by the large amount of plant/ algae that they eat. They are fine with an occasional very small amount of protein from fish/ shrimp meat sources but any more than a tiny amount causes major bloating and usually the death of the fish.

Catfish like Pseudacanthicus might be considered a carnivore (although technically they aren’t because they don’t even have teeth) but they require plant matter as well. See planet catfish http/www.planetcatfish.com/catelog/speci...?species_id=208
Basically they are omnivores with a preference for meat but also need vegetable matter in their diet.
Most of the other suckermouth catfish are omnivores with a preference for vegetable matter and they will take meat foods when the opportunity arises. However, they should still not get large amounts of meat food in their diet. Insect larvae and small crustaceans aren’t such a problem, but if they eat an entire whitebait or cocktail prawn, then they could have problems.