Pleco not eating vegetables

[Alex_gr]

Hello,
in my tank I have a panaque maccus.
I feed him tetra prima (pellets) , hikari algae wafers (tablets) and Sera wood tablets .
I would like to feed him vegetable too, but he doesn't like it.
Some days ago I placed into my tank a piece of cucumber and I am not sure if he ate anything.
Yesterday Ι placed a piece of zucchini but as I saw it is untouched.

What can I do in order to make him it these healthy vegetables?

[andywoolloo]

my clowns won't eat any either, I keep adding it tho. I add yams and romaine lettuce and cucumber and zuchinni. But they do not eat it. they are always on the wood and they do eat the prepared and defrosted food. I add some defrosted herbivore minced so hopefully they eat some of that. it's gone in the morning.

[MatsP]

Agreed, they do not seem to like vegetables.

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Mats

[jerry58]

Hi Alex_gr
My leopard frog and gold nuggets did not eat cucumber or zucchini all it did was go moldy and had to be taken out I to was worried about not eating fresh veg so I picked a harder veg that can stay in the tank longer than say overnight.Parsnip was the one can be in tank 3 days and they love it even in the daytime(lights out)they are eating it also potato is another about 2 days it lasts it the tank.This allows them a bit more time to get used to it in the tank or find it .

Hope this helps Jerry

[MatsP]

Another "longer lasting" vegetable is sweet potato.

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Mats

[catmar]

Hello all,

I have two of these and, whilst they do eat mostly wood, they are not averse to the outer part of cucumber, indeed they seem to enjoy it and spend a long time feeding. I find they do well on JBL pleco tablets, these are claimed to contain 10% wood within the ingredients.

Regards.

[MatsP]

I must confess that the P. maccus that I have are not actively being fed any vegetables. I have some small Ancistrus in the same tank that do eat vegetables. But there is so much wood in my tank that it doesn't seem like they "need" vegetables - I have yet to see ANY of them on the vegetables. They did eat courgette when I had them in the big community tank. But since I moved them to their own tank, they don't seem to be bothered with much other than wood. They do eat a little bit of algae wafer from time to time, but not very active there either. Their bellies are definitely full, so they are not starving.




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Mats

[Alex_gr]

Thank you for the answers.
MatsP your maccus have ever bred in your tank?

[MatsP]

Thank you for the answers.
MatsP your maccus have ever bred in your tank?

I have had eggs before I moved them to the current tank. Never managed to hatch the eggs. The females (2) seem to be interested, but not sure if the male isn't up to the job, or simply they aren't quite ready or something else. I'm not trying hard tho'.

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Mats

[Carp37]

Mats' P. maccus in his aquarium photos link are the best-looking I've seen, so I'll definitely agree they're not underfed. Mine occasionally investigate cucumber/courgette but I'm not convinced they ever eat it either- I also never see them eat wood, but they produce so much wood waste that this must be their primary food. The only food they come out for are frozen bloodworms- other than that they stay in hiding.

[catmar]

Just as an afterthought, I have read somewhere that Panaque should be offered wood only, as a food source, because other food would inhibit the symbiotic bacteria in their gut. Any thoughts?

Regards.

[Chrysichthys]

I've never known P. maccus to eat vegetables, I compromised by feeding spirulina tablets or similar.
As for feeding only wood, I'm no expert but I would think it would not be nutritionally complete.

[MatsP]

I've never known P. maccus to eat vegetables, I compromised by feeding spirulina tablets or similar.
As for feeding only wood, I'm no expert but I would think it would not be nutritionally complete.

I agree. In nature, they will almost certainly take any meal from wherever it comes. Sure, most of that will be wood - because there is little or no competition there. But that doesn't mean that there are no other food in their diet, and I certainly don't expect a strict requirement for ONLY wood - they certainly should have wood to eat!

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Mats

[catmar]

I agree with you both, I don't believe Panaque would turn down an easy meal. I can't remember were I read this theory,it may have been on this site (?) I remember the writer came across as knowlegable, perhaps it's an old topic within this forum?

Regards.

[catmar]

hello all,

If anyone is interested there is a fascinating experiment available to read on this subject. Search for 'Panaque research' and look for a link involving 'towson'. There is a paper on respiration in wood eating catfishes.See what you think. If I have understood things correctly, Panaque are capable of existing on a wood only diet, although this does not mean they would do so in nature.

Regards.

[MatsP]

Here is the paper referred to in the previous post:
http://pages.towson.edu/nelson/Panaque/manaus.html

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Mats

[catmar]

Thanks Mats,

I don't have the know-how yet to insert links within posts.

Regards.

[MatsP]

Thanks Mats,

I don't have the know-how yet to insert links within posts.

Regards.

In this case, I just copied and pasted the URL from the top of my browser. PHPBB (which is what planetcatfish forums use) will make it look like above by simply using the full link.

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Mats

[Chrysichthys]

I remember the writer came across as knowlegable, perhaps it's an old topic within this forum?

It was discussed in a long thread about feeding hearts of palm, a couple of years ago. I can't find it using the search function, though.