Plecs Eating Wood

[Mako Man111]

I've got an piece of wood in my 105 gallon tank, that is not an authentic piece of driftwood from a river or whatever, but it is real wood and was made to look like a piece of driftwood and is made for the aquarium. MY question is, will a pleco still nibble on and eat some of this wood?

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

Depends on the type of wood and the type of plec, as far as i am aware though, a lot of wood eating plecs can be kinda fussy about what types of wood they eat .

 

[smithrc]

What type of wood is it? - 'made' for the aquarium??

If its dark brown piece of 'bogwood' they will love it (depending on the plec)

 

[Mako Man111]

What type of wood is it? - 'made' for the aquarium??

If its dark brown piece of 'bogwood' they will love it (depending on the plec)

Its one of these, although its not this exact piece. http/www.thatpetplace.com/Products/KW/F4...6/Itemdy00.aspx

 

[smithrc]

What type of wood is it? - 'made' for the aquarium??

If its dark brown piece of 'bogwood' they will love it (depending on the plec)

Its one of these, although its not this exact piece. http/www.thatpetplace.com/Products/KW/F4...6/Itemdy00.aspx

I Like that

they should be ok with that...

 

[Teelie]

I have a piece of that kind of wood, and my Otos like to browse on it. While they're not plecs, they're a relative and definitely seem to find it a hospitable place.

 

[LisaLQ]

I've heard wood eating plecs prefer the outer layers of wood, so any sandblasted or stripped wood wont be of any nutritional value to them.

 

[nmonks]

Not convinced this is true for Panaque spp. The research seems to suggest they digest lignin, which is the "dead" wood, rather than the living green wood close to the surface. I daresay they enjoy both kinds, but they can apparently digest any kind of wood. I ran up a Wikipedia article on this, with some links to the very helpful guy doing the science, Hirofumi Nonogaki.

http/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panaque

Panaque are unique in being able to live exclusively on wood. They need nothing else (this has been tested in labs: when fed only wood, they still put on weight, no other plec does this). Indeed, animal foods, such as shrimp, do them harm. According to Hirofumi Nonogaki, the dead specimens he gets sent by aquarists that have died prematurely invariably have fat deposits around the internal organs. Normal Panaque do not have these. Thus, feeding them anything other than wood and plants is not good for them at all.

Cheers,

Neale

I've heard wood eating plecs prefer the outer layers of wood, so any sandblasted or stripped wood wont be of any nutritional value to them.