Goldspot Ancistrus

[Aqua Tom]

I have a solitarty Goldspot Ancistrus Catfish who is doing very well in my 180 litre.
I would like to know what to feed him with as he doesnt touch algea wafers at all. There is a lot of mopani & bogwood in the tank & he is always grazing on that.
I drop a half slice of cucumber wieghted down into the tank every few days & he eats it all in a day or so.
Is there anything else I can feed him/her?
I have heard of blanching courgette but I dont know how to do this. I have tried peas & although i have not seen the plec eat it it always dissapears.

All help appreciated

~Tom~

 

[Aqua Tom]

After a bit of googling I found how to blanch courgettes. Have done it now & a piece is in the tank with the plec happily munching away on it.

Also regards to peas. I have read thet it is wise to skin the peas first. why is this? The plec eats wood so a bit of pea skin isnt going to stop it is it?

 

[JenCliBee]

I have a solitarty Goldspot Ancistrus Catfish who is doing very well in my 180 litre.
I would like to know what to feed him with as he doesnt touch algea wafers at all. There is a lot of mopani & bogwood in the tank & he is always grazing on that.
I drop a half slice of cucumber wieghted down into the tank every few days & he eats it all in a day or so.
Is there anything else I can feed him/her?
I have heard of blanching courgette but I dont know how to do this. I have tried peas & although i have not seen the plec eat it it always dissapears.

All help appreciated

~Tom~

Literally most veg/fruit matter, courgette, cucumber, lettuce, butternut squash, potato, apple, melon, pear lol.... as you can see virtually anything. People have even tried banana but this is very messy and i wouldn't personally advise trying this also citric fruits arn't advised.

Blanching really isn't necessary, people will advise while plecs are very young just to help them but adult are usually pretty good with anything. Ive never pre-cooked/part cooked nor blanched anything ive added to plec tanks and ive never had a problem in all the years ive kept them.

After a bit of googling I found how to blanch courgettes. Have done it now & a piece is in the tank with the plec happily munching away on it.

Also regards to peas. I have read thet it is wise to skin the peas first. why is this? The plec eats wood so a bit of pea skin isnt going to stop it is it?

Not all plecs eat wood, it is usually only panaque species that do, they also take very little/tiny pieces that are more rasped off than pulled off in chunks so with a pea shell been so big and well..... nasty, it could cause the plec to choke and die.

If you see none panaque species rasping on wood they will be eating organic matter or algae not actually eating the wood.