Feeding Baby Bristlenose plecos

[ClearSky57]

Ok... I have a bunch of baby Bristlenose plecos, and egg sacs are starting to dwindle now.... what are the best foods to feed them, and should I wait till their yolks are gone or start before they are completely absorbed??
thanks
david

[huffmagx]

I feed mine blanched veggies like squash, zucchini , carrots even broccoli and just about any of the reg. fish foods I feed in my tank. I also feed algae wafers periodically and another type of sinking food called plecocaine that I purchased off AB.

They eat all the time!!

[RIPbiglad]

Corgette (zucchini) algae wafers, flake food. I dont blanch it first but it does need weighing down with something (not the flake of course).

[MatsP]

Babies eat the same thing as the parents. And no feeding until yolk sack is gone. They are pretty good at finding food, so not difficult to bring up as long as you keep the water quality under control.

--
Mats

[ClearSky57]

thanks folks...
so far so good.... have them in their parents tank in a fry keeper...
they are starting to move a little more now, but still have yolk sacs...
will take all your comments to heart...
david

[PeterUK]

Can I ask why you have them in a fry keeper ?

The parent will NOT bother them in any way and will protect them from most fishy predators.
They can also find their own food easier in the main tank where there will (generally) be more to eat than a bare fry keeper.

[andywoolloo]

I also left mine with the parents. But I had a 40 gal breeder solely for my BN colony.

I fed them NLS Grow and they ate whatever the parents ate, zuchinni, cucumber, sweet bell pepper strips, mango, papaya, mushrooms, romaine lettuce.

A few times a week i fed the tank defrosted frozen Hikari, bloodworms, spirulina shrimp, tubifex etc. And also the Hikari algae wafers and Omega one veggie rounds.

The babies could shred a piece of romaine lettuce in no time!!

[apistomaster]

I feed my pleco fry mainly earth worm sticks and supplement that with some Spirulina Sticks and frozen blood worms.
All pleco fry will do very well on earth worm sticks. It is a food which breaks down into a mush shortly after you feed them and baby plecos eagerly suck up all this mush. Earth worm sticks are a food which is mainly used as a breeder conditioning food for Channel catfish in commercial aquaculture but it is one of the most useful foods to use for all plecos. It also contains plenty of Spirulina, shrimp meal and fish meal so it is very good for omnivorous catfish and their fry.
These foods can greatly simplify feeding plecos and their fry and the fry will grow very fast as long as you maintain good water quality.

[ClearSky57]

I took them out for a couple reasons... 1st, because I didn't know better, but more importantly, 2nd... I have some perugiae's in that tank, and figured they would snack on them..... I suppose I could take them out and let the fry go with parents....
but didn't have a tank available at the time....

[apistomaster]

I leave all the fry in the breeding tank until their numbers exceed the tank's carrying capacity.
This makes it simpler and you can often get by with just one breeding/fry starter tank and another one to grow them out to a salable size.