Question About Overfeeding?

[typhoon]

I have 3 bristlenose plecs about 2 - 3 inches long 1 snowball plec about 5 inches long and a chunky fat royal plec. i usually put in about 4 algae wafers about 3 times a day and sum cucumber every now and agen or sum lettuce! my question is, is that way too much food? i dont wanna jsut stop cos they will b use to it all

 

[stang1]

We only feed our Plecos once a day and this seems ample enough. The trouble with putting too much food in is if it's not getting eaten, it'll just pollute your tank.

 

[LisaLQ]

Plecs need veggies 2-3 times per week, and wafers in between as a supplement - and depending on the species - omnivores (BNs) need some protein, carnivores (snowball) need less veg (I'm not 100% sure but I doubt they'd eat much - so that's leaving them with only plec wafers - which aren't "meaty" enough for them either), and royals (herbivores) need bogwood as the main part of their diet, and then veg, wafers being a supplement to all. It's not a very good combination of plecs for feeding purposes as royals should have little/no meat in their diet, whereas the snowball needs it. It would be best to have the royal in another tank as if they eat too much protein it can dramatically affect their health. Unless your tank is large and you can feed at opposite ends of the tank - then clean up any left overs. Either way, 4 plec wafers 3 times a day is excessive and will only pollute the water, and your snowball needs a meatier diet - shrimp, squid pellets, bloodworm etc - things the royal shouldn't be allowed to get to.

 

[typhoon]

but surley if royal gets them then he lieks em he wouldnt eat them unless he dont like them will he>? i do have bog wood and i put 4 in 4 times a day :\ not four per day they all dissapear very quickly tho !

 

[LisaLQ]

The royal can eat plec wafers - my point was that your snowball needs meatier food and your royal cant have that - so unless you're willing to fish out any uneaten food as soon as they've eaten, your royal may need to be in another tank.

Part of fish keeping is researching your fish and finding compatable ones - royals and meat eaters aren't compatable - unless you're willing to put in the extra work (feeding at opposite ends of the tank and cleaning up uneaten meaty food), he may get poorly and die much younger.

As for the plec wafers disappearing - that's because they disintegrate in the water after a while. There's no way they could eat 4 wafers 4 times a day - it's just disintegrating and floating round your tank or sinking into the gravel, which in turn will make you need to do more water changes (what are your ammonia/nitrite/nitrate readings?) and gravel vacs - or else bacteria will grow and your plecs may get internal infections.

 

[typhoon]

its usually the cichlids that take the big chunks of the wafers that are left !as for research i bought the royal when i was a young boy ahhaha i didnt do research wen i was young sorry

 

[DiscusAngel]

to make life alot easyier you mayaswell rehom the snowball as Bn's ad royals eat mostly same things, algae wafers, bogwood and veggies. where as the snowball is compley different. i think you'd be best to rehome the snowball and feed them in a weeky routine

EG.

Monday - 2 Algae wafers at night
Tuesday - Some kind of Veggie,
wednesday - 2 algae wafers at night
thursday - Veggies
friday - 2 algae wafers at night
saturday - veggies
sunday - Veggies/2 Algae wafers.

 

[smithrc]

Do you have a scientific (Latin) name for the snowball?

It depends what it actually is - The LDA33 - Big white spot Baryancistrus is often called a snowball and their diet is perfectly compatible with a royal.

One other thing to mention is that there is no hard and fast evidence that a meaty diet is bad for royals - it is rumored to cause fatty build ups in their bodys - but surely this could be a problem with all plecs if they are not fed a balanced diet

An extract from PC with regards breeding royals....

"I have heard that the fish has been spawned in captivity using some form of tube in a large tank (approx. 125 US Gallons). A false dry season of two weeks (low, warm, still water) was used. Then the tank was topped off with cooler rainwater (refilling about 80%). Lots of meaty and veggie foods were offered. The pair spawned within days."

 

[dane261]

first i have heard that royals have spawned in a tank thats good news were did you get info from smithrc

 

[smithrc]

first i have heard that royals have spawned in a tank thats good news were did you get info from smithrc

"An extract from PC"
sorry should have put the full name - Planet Catfish

 

[dane261]

first i have heard that royals have spawned in a tank thats good news were did you get info from smithrc

"An extract from PC"
sorry should have put the full name - Planet Catfish

feel like a noob feel free to slap me

 

[LisaLQ]

Just because the pair spawned after having meat doesn't mean that the meat should be part of their diet. And if the majority of plec savvy folks say meat is very bad for royals, and dramatically shortens their life, and one of your plecs is a carnivore (as snowball plecs are) then surely that means they're incompatable?

As for the rumour being a rumour, when that rumour is passed on from extremely experienced people, then it's definitely worth at least thinking about when planning your tank.

I'm not saying it's the be all and end all - I had a royal in with BNs, and commons - they're not carnivores but according to the experts even their omniverous diet isn't even compatable with royals. I also had cichlids in the tank. I worked around it by feeding at opposite ends of the tank, and making sure I didn't over feed the meatier food.

But I had a 6ft x 2ft x 2ft tank - there is a big difference between that and the average tank.

 

[typhoon]

My tank is a juwel vision 260 and the royal and the snowball stay at opposite ends of the tank anyway! im uncertian of the exact number of my snowball, My roayl is a L190 and i was told my snowball was a L102 but aitn sure if correct uno what pet shops are like! heres a pic

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