Hemiloricaria L010a - feeding advice

[collingwood]

Hi,
I obtained a group of young ones of these 5 days ago and wanted some advice on feeding them. They're in a tank with some 2cm bristlenose fry and the whiptails themselves are about 3-4cm. They cling to the vertical glass and to the filters and filterwool and suck on this. They won't come down to the bottom where the food is! I assume that they are getting stuff out of the filter wool to eat (bellies look full, but could be plumper for some of them). I have put in green beans, slices of pumpkin, zucchini, algae wafers, babby brine shrimp.......the bristlenose will eat all of this but I've never seen the whiptails take any interest. Any advice? I am worried the whiptails are not getting enough.

Cheers,

Collingwood

[Achim]

Hi Collingwood,

juvenile Hemiloricaria can be tricky to feed, especially when they come from an lfs and have starved for some time. Apparently thats not the case in your Hemiloricaria though they have a filled belly as you write.
Hemiloricaria are omnivorous with a strong leaning to carnivorous and not herbivorous. My L10 never ate any vegetables, although i have seen adults eat cucumber at another breeder.
Try feeding Artemia naupli, frozen food like (chopped) bloodworms, black mosquito larvae, Artemia etc. and "non-algae" wafers. I raised my L10 mostly with Artemia Naupli.
In addtition Hemiloricaria juveniles are mostly no greedy eaters, so you might have to separate them from the Ancistrus. Also turning off the filter (i.e. current) during feeding time often helps. That gives them the possibility to come down to the ground because they don't have to stick to the glass in order to not being drifted away (I assume you have some current) while eating.
Another thing is that juvenile Hemiloricaria (and other "Rineloricaria" in general) often don't eat when the water quality isn't that good. Although L10 isn't that sensitive in that case.

Greetings,

Achim

[collingwood]

Thanks very much for that advice. I had wondered if I should move the bristlenose.....
as an alternative, perhaps I should move the L010a to a smaller tank? they are in a 2ft x 14in x 18in tank - perhaps if they were in a smaller tank they might find the food more easily?

Cheers,

Collingwood

[Achim]

as an alternative, perhaps I should move the L010a to a smaller tank? they are in a 2ft x 14in x 18in tank - perhaps if they were in a smaller tank they might find the food more easily?

That would be an alternative, but i don't think its necessary if you keep them alone/with non greedy eaters. However, if you have a smaller tank available it doesn't hurt as long as you keep an eye on a constant good water quality. Minimum tank size for 3-4cm L10 is imo 40x25x25cm. As they grow you need to relocate them in a larger tank, minimum for adults is imo 60x30x30cm.

Greetings,

Achim

[collingwood]

Thank you! You've been really helpful. I've removed the bristlenose fry and I'm feeding baby brine shrimp and a few chopped bloodworms. I'll keep them in there current tank for now unless they really don't seem to be finding the food.

Cheers,

Collingwood