Royal Plec - food advice?

[simonas]

I have a Royal Plec about 5 inches long which I have had for a few weeks. He's been eating a lot of bloodworm and brine shrimp with algae wafers and the odd potato left in for a night. I really want him to flourish. Can anyone recommend any other foods for him as I'm well aware that plecs can miss out on food and nutrition unless they are target fed

cheers

 

[thefishkeeper]

Hi simonas,
A Royal will eat any of the below foods but always have some bogwood in the tank with any pleco as this aids its digestion which i found out after i lost a few nice plecos.
Algae; fruit; vegetables; peas, spinach, lettuce; live; crustaceans, insect larvae. Panaque species must have a large amount of "green foods" in their diet or they may develop intestinal disorders. Another result from lack of these foods is that the fish will go after plants.

 

[CFC]

Panaque species feed on lignum which is only present in the first few millimeters of bogwood, for this reason it is vital that they have a edible wood source in the tank at all times and new pieces of bogwood must be added regularly to ensure that there is enough lignum present for them to feed on. Mopani wood is not suitable for Panaque's as it has been sandblasted to remove the bark which also removes all the lignum.
You can also supplement their diets with algea wafers and meaty foods like mussels and bloodworm but these should be used sparingly to avoid upseting the natural bacteria in the Panaques gut which aid the digestion of the lignum they consume.

 

[ccg]

My pleco also loves:

Zucchini, Cucumber, and peas.

What I do is poor hot water over them or let them sit for a few minutes in a bowl of hot water. They will then sink, or use a rock/clip to hold them down. As for the peas, he loves them! Zucchini is his second fav, and he’ll be the Cucumber the odd time. Squeeze the peas out of there shells and feed him the insides, they will sink. You may find that you other fish love them as well.

 

[hellohefalump]

mine likes anubias . She doesn't touch the other plants... just the anubias. the plant went from HUGE thriving, green, many leaves etc... (it had outgrown the tank it used to be in so I moved it) to tiny weedy thing with lots of holes in one night.

She also likes bloodworm, algae wafers, courgette, wood... but her fav food is definately anubias.

 

[simonas]

Panaque species feed on lignum which is only present in the first few millimeters of bogwood, for this reason it is vital that they have a edible wood source in the tank at all times and new pieces of bogwood must be added regularly to ensure that there is enough lignum present for them to feed on. Mopani wood is not suitable for Panaque's as it has been sandblasted to remove the bark which also removes all the lignum.
You can also supplement their diets with algea wafers and meaty foods like mussels and bloodworm but these should be used sparingly to avoid upseting the natural bacteria in the Panaques gut which aid the digestion of the lignum they consume.

blimey I didn't know that cos my bogwood in that tank is about 15 years old and has had many a plex grazing on it in the past. I'll get some later. cheers

 

[simonas]

Hi simonas,
A Royal will eat any of the below foods but always have some bogwood in the tank with any pleco as this aids its digestion which i found out after i lost a few nice plecos.
Algae; fruit; vegetables; peas, spinach, lettuce; live; crustaceans, insect larvae. Panaque species must have a large amount of "green foods" in their diet or they may develop intestinal disorders. Another result from lack of these foods is that the fish will go after plants.

thanks very much for that. By veg matter do you include potatoe in that? I have always fed plecs potato. dothey get any nutritional benefit from that

 

[thefishkeeper]

never tried potatoe but mine love honeydew melon i can give my common and gold spot a 1/4 of a melon and its gone within 2 hours