Rubbish With Plecs...... Tips Please

[Miss Wiggle]

Well I'd like to think I'm at least a reasonably experienced fishkeeper, but I've never had much luck with plecs. I really like them but they seem to pick up lots of diseases or if they're healthy just seem to fail to grow significantly. I've always done my best to keep substrates clean and make sure they have the right foods, maintenance is always done regularly. I've managed to keep a few of them alive but they've never really flourished and I have lost a couple.

Not had any plecs for a while now but we've decided we want a couple of Bristlenoses for our 60gal community tank. Wondering if anyone can give me some top tips to get them flourishing. Picked up a couple of babies yesterday, they've acclimitised fine and have seen both of them happily munching on the algae on the glass today.

Bit more detail on the tank

Fish - tank has been running a few years now, we've had a couple of old shoals die off recently (last 6 months or so) leaving the tank partly stocked, we're just starting to build up the stocking again now

Currently we have
5 melatona praecox
5 cardinal tetras
8 nannacara anomala
load of amano shrimp
and now the 2 babie BN's

over the next few months we will add something like this..... not 100% decided though
few more praecox's
few more cardinals
shoal of cories (undecided on species)
pair of angelfish

The tank has one large piece of wood in, and is moderately planted (perhaps 35/40% of substrate covered) we hope to have it planted more havily in time, giving the plants time to grow in. Playsand as the substrate

Filteres with a fluval 405 and an old eheim which is a comparable size although I can't remember the exact model. We hope to upgrade the eheim to a better new one in the not too distant future.

Tank gets a weekly clean of around 30% and a good substrate clean. Only algae problem we have is a bit of green/brown diatoms on the glass (BN's have done a great job on this overnight already!). We clean the tank glass of algae every couple of weeks and clean the filters when the flow rate drops, usualy every 6 weeks/2 months ish.

So yeah, let me know if you can see any immediate problems, want any more info etc.

Otherwise please just tell me what I can do to get these BN's to really flourish!

 

[JenCliBee]

TBH i think the tank should be ideal for them the only thing i can think of is feed them veg(im sure u know which 1's ) and supplement them with algae wafers and occasional treat of blood worm , brineshrimp etc etc , maybe add a couple of small caves/hiding places but ur tank is well covered so that prbably wont be needed


jen

 

[Miss Wiggle]

TBH i think the tank should be ideal for them the only thing i can think of is feed them veg(im sure u know which 1's ) and supplement them with algae wafers and occasional treat of blood worm , brineshrimp etc etc , maybe add a couple of small caves/hiding places but ur tank is well covered so that prbably wont be needed


jen

aye, we will be feeding veggies...... how often do people recommend to feed with them compared to algae wafers, meaty treats etc? what proportion of their diet should be fresh veggies.

the bit of wood we have is v large and twisty and the branches form a few caves/covered type areas, certainly at the size they are now there's plenty of hiding spots should they want to do so.

 

[JenCliBee]

live foods say 1 once a week veg i usually give evry couple of days i give mine on alterate days tetra prime ,algae wafers. and veriety wafers.... but i also give every other week in place of live foods bloodwrom pellets , shrimp pellets , squid pellets a few ithers i cant think of lol as u can see i have so many different foods for them



jen

 

[geo7x]

(Sorry for the long post, and don't feel offended/patronised by the italic sections, it's just to highlight the important stuff from the general rambling.)

I agree the tank sounds lovely for them. I would feed fresh veggies (such as a nice chunk of courgette) once or twice a week, leaving them in for no longer than 24 hours so they don't foul the water. In between fresh veggie feedings BNs will be happy to take any sinking pellets or granules that you may also be feeding to the other fish and algae wafers are good too. Whilst they are young I would blanch any veggies to soften them up a bit, with my batch of fry I found they were always reluctant to take roar veggies, but adults will happily munch on it as it is.

One thing I think is important with adult BNs is to give them a meaty element in their diet, they are by no means vegetarian like some other plecs seem to be. Most dried processed foods will have fish matter in them but BNs really like to have things such as bloodworms etc. If you have them in your freezer then definitely throw a chunk of prawn or whatever in every so often, I used to keep BNs with predatory fish (snakeheads, senegals etc) so I would regularly throw prawns in and my BNs loved to much on them too. However only adults are big enough to deal with the larger foods really, and don't leave fishy foods in too long.

Unfortunately BNs do tend to be more sensitive whilst they are small but once adults they are extremely hardy. Try not scrape off algae you see in the tank, they will really thrive off this and it is particularly important whilst they are small.

If you want a ratio/percentage of foods in their diet then I will make one of from my opinion but others may disagree.

40% fresh veggies (at least)
40% dried processed foods (pellets, granules, algae wafers etc etc)
20% meaty stuff (blood worm, prawns)

This is for an adult BN, whilst small they probably won't take bloodworms or prawns, so maybe feed meat-based processed foods or you can get various frozen foods that they may be able to take more easily.

I think the key to helping a BN thrive is variety in the diet, and fresh/frozen stuff is very important, I can't imagine how my BNs would thrive off a diet of dried foods, IMO they need plenty of fresh veggies and meaty stuff, and it is important to get both, as then you are balancing the fibrous veggies with the heavy protein meats.

 

[Miss Wiggle]

well geo you must have seen enough of my super long posts to know i wouldn't be at all offended by it. appreciate you taking the time to give such good advice.

that sounds brilliant, you're never gonna have an exact quantification of what's right food wise but it's v helpful to have a sort of guideline.

I keep plenty of fresh veggies in the house so will give them all sorts, also fairly regularly have prawns in my salad's for work so can easily stick them in a couple of times a week. We buy bags of live meaty food bloodworms, daphnia etc maybe once every couple of weeks and normally have some frozen meaty stuff in the freezer. Also got a large selection of dried, processed granules, flakes, algae wafers etc etc so we obviously hacve everything they need, will just try to get the ratio right to get them growing well and happy.

we won't scrape any algae off, we don't get a huge amount though and the two tiny BN's (they're maybe 2" inc tail) seem to have got through around one third of the algae in a day, that's about 3 weeks algae growth cos i haven't had a chance to give the tank a good clean. I'll monitor the algae growth over the next week or so to see how much they get through, if i'm seeing no algae (i.e. they get to any new growth before i see it) then do you think i should up the lighting to encourage more algae growth?

 

[geo7x]

do you think i should up the lighting to encourage more algae growth?

I wouldn't worry about it too much, there is obviously a fair bit of constant algae growth there so that's the main thing. The reason the current algae is going so quickly is because they have suddenly been plopped into a tank with untouched algae and have decided to scoff the lot, unfortunately fish don't seem to be able to 'save some for later'

They sound a little bigger than I was imagining, I was rather thinking of them as the same size as my 1" babies that I just sold, and at sizes like this or smaller algae provides good food that they can rasp at easily with their delicate mouths. At nearly 2" they should be able to munch on veggies much more readily which is good.

 

[SharonCC]

Your tank sound like a lovely place for fish to live...I have one suggestion, which may or may not be valid. You might want to "stir" the substrate periodically, as play sand can compact and form anerobic pockets, which would not be good for bottom dwellers...Good luck with them!

 

[Ian H]

seems strange as your tank is obviously mature and stable. What plecs have you had trouble with in the past and at what age?

i feed mine mostly on tetra plec wafers and frozen foods (feed one block of bloodworm and one block of tropical mix every 2/3 days for all the fish, if the plecs are quick enough they get some) and every now and then some cucumber (maybe only once a month) and all mine are doing fine.

Although saying that i had 4 baby bn in my tank about 2/3 months ago and now i only have 1, but im guessing they got eaten as they were tiny (the one thats left is only about this big -----------------)

 

[Miss Wiggle]

They sound a little bigger than I was imagining, I was rather thinking of them as the same size as my 1" babies that I just sold, and at sizes like this or smaller algae provides good food that they can rasp at easily with their delicate mouths. At nearly 2" they should be able to munch on veggies much more readily which is good.

maybe they're slightly under 2"..... not a whole lot though and def more than 1"

Your tank sound like a lovely place for fish to live...I have one suggestion, which may or may not be valid. You might want to "stir" the substrate periodically, as play sand can compact and form anerobic pockets, which would not be good for bottom dwellers...Good luck with them!

sorry but thats a myth..... there's no proof or even anecdotal evidence to support it, it's one of those old wives tales that goes around.

seems strange as your tank is obviously mature and stable. What plecs have you had trouble with in the past and at what age?

they were in various tanks at various ages, few examples of the problems

when i first started fishkeeping i knew nothing about cycling etc, tank was cycled with fish and filter media thoroughly scrubbed under the taps weekly so as you can imagine no great surprise that i lost a couple of plecs there

i had a lovely royal plec for a while in an oscar tank and he permanently tore his fins and got fin rot on them, i'd only just get them sorte and he'd do it again. just seemed to be stuck in a permanent cycle, ended up re-homing him as i decided i clearly couldn't give him the care he deserved

also had a sailfin plec in the same tank and he just never grew, there was plenty of food in for him, water was clean and stuff..... he just never seemed to take off, maybe he was outcompeted for food as there were some greedy syno's in there....