BN Pleco and wood eating

[Disgirl]

I am a new keeper of BN Plecos. I put one 2"er in my 125 gal tank full of driftwood with anubias on it. All were algae covered. In about 2 weeks this one little fish cleaned every bit of algae from everything, much to my joy. But now he is eating the wood, all poop is now brown instead of green as before so I assume he is doing this. Is this normal and if so should I be feeding him algae wafers and zucchini since all algae is gone? Is this why he is eating the wood? I have to do lots of sand cleaning every day to keep it all cleaned up. He is in with 12 discus. The discus eat all foods given them so nothing much left for the pleco.
Thanks for info!
Barb

[MatsP]

Yes, it's perfectly normal. And yes, you can feed him (her) some algae wafers and courgette(zucchini).

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Mats

[apistomaster]

Hi Barb,
You should give earth worm and Spirulina sticks a try. The BN will eat both and the Discus will eat earth worm sticks. I have been using earth worm sticks as the staple food for my F1 Nhamunda Blue Discus. Heckel Discus will eat Spirulina sticks. I quit feeding Discus beef heart blends years ago and they grow just as well as they every did on beef heart and these stick foods produce much less mess than beef heart blends. I supplement their diet with frozen blood worms, Tetra Color Granules and live black worms. BN will eat all of these foods. My BN breed prolifically on this diet which is really not my goal. I feed baby BN to my Discus.

[Disgirl]

Thanks Mats and Larry. I have plenty of Zucchini, algae wafers and other good dried foods. But haven't tried earthworm sticks, sounds yummy. I feed my discus a mix I make and freeze which is a seafood mix. Never have used beefheart and don't plan to. I will do as you both suggested, but I could never feed baby plecos to my discus! They get no live foods from me unless a housefly or a mosquito should fall in...
Barb

[apistomaster]

Barb,
I had too many BN back then and in fact, one trio of large albino BN were producing at least 200 fry per month let alone the other miscellaneous BN spawns I was having. I can't make breeding BN pay their own way so using them as Discus food was their best use. One big pair of wild Blue Discus could eat 200 BN fry in just two days.
Even when I have tried to discourage BN from spawning by keeping one per tank, if for any reason I have to consolidate the largest to dump off at the LFS, they spawn before I take them in. Just recently I had them all gathered up to take in to the shop in almost bare tank with just a enough sand to cover the bottom glass. The only cover was from a sponge filter equipped with a power head at least one pair spawned under the sponge and produced about 45 mixed normal and albino fry. I can use a few up to two inches but some were pushing five inches or more counting a big pair of albino long fin BN.
Years ago I had an albino breed with a normal BN spawn and their descendents have produced a mix of albinos and normals ever since. My best friend raises them for the LFS and they are so easy to breed and so prolific that we jokingly call them "Guppyostomus".
I need what space I have for more valuable species. Pretty soon I should have some pairs of F1 Nhamunda Blue Discus spawning and I will need almost half my tanks for at least two pairs of Blue Discus and grow out tanks for their fry.

[Disgirl]

Wow Larry, sounds like you need another house and many more tanks just for those fertile plecos you keep! I see why you use the excess for discus food. I only have one BN in each of two tanks so I guess I won't have any fry Thanks for the explanation.
Barb

[apistomaster]

Barb,
Only BN produce far more fry than I can deal with and since so many people raise them there is no profit in breeding them.
I keep 15 aquariums and that is my limit. I mainly raise more difficult species and I am close to being back in the wild type Discus business again so just their large size assures I have to make a large enough number and sized tanks to breed them. I manage to squeeze a few other fish in like Red Lizard Whiptail Cats(L10a), wild Betta coccina, Betta smaragdina and I just received 140 Aphyosemion australe "Orange" eggs yesterday. They are fill in projects until I need the spare tanks I currently have for my other Plecos and hopefully the wild type Blue Discus.