L136B feeding

[Ruud109]

So I am part of a WhatsApp group here in Spain that organizes draws or lotteries with fish and yesterday I won a pair of L136B's of approx 3cm's . They will be shipped to me somewhere next week and needless to say I am very excited. I happen to have an empty tank cycled, bare except for some wood and caves with plenty of filtration so this should be the perfect tank for them. I will share photos when they arrive. I assume they are still to small to sex at this point, or perhaps not.

My question is... them being Hypancistrus species and having a more carnivore diet... Can someone provide suggestions for pellet type food? I need to order some asap as I only have green wafer pallets and regular fish food here.

Thanks so much!
Ruud

[catfishmelao]

Hi Ruud,

I have never had to deal with L Pleco less than 5cm, not yet at least. I hope some others with breeding experience from this group should be able to tell you what food they normally use for that size.

I have been given my L134 and L236 plecos (3-4 inches) the following: Repashy Botton scratcher most of the weekdays, Hikari sinking carnivore pellets, Fluval Bug Bites for plecos and zucchini between meals. I have heard some others using Omega One Frozen brine shrimp but I haven't. Also I do recommend you to put some wood (Moping, driftwood, etc) in the tank, the plecos at that size feed from the slime of the wood too.

Once again, hopefully the most experienced breeders on this group provide you with some foods.

Good luck!
Melao

[bekateen]

Hi Ruud109,

Being from the USA, I don't know which pellets are available in Spain. I know the EBO Aquaristic pellets from Germany (HERE) are good. As far as the more mass-produced commercial types of foods, anything that is formulated with shrimp pellet has been safe in my experience. As an example, in the USA, I buy Cobalt shrimp pellets (HERE) and SeaChem NutriDiet shrimp flakes (HERE).

In the absence of commercial foods, I'd suggest you try, in very small quantities, human-grade shrimp. I boil it slightly, remove the exoskeleton and chop it into fine pieces, which I freeze in flat sheets; later I break off small fragments to feed fish as needed. Many people recommend not cooking the shrimp, as it destroys some of the nutritive value, but I find that the cooked shrimp (1) last longer in the tank without rotting, and (2) are easier for me to chop with a knife.

All that said, in my experience the Hypancistrus I've kept eat some veggies too, so I usually mix up their diet with some plant based pellets/flakes or fresh foods.

Good luck!
Eric

[Ruud109]

Thanks both! I have frozen food already (baby bine shrimp, red mosquito etc) so thinking they will prob take that. Plus I ordered Fluval bug bites and Pleco and Catfish carni wafers from Plecofood for now.

I will visit a few shops in the next week to see what else I can find. Didn't think yet of normal shrimp but can do that too.
Thinking it will be a bit difficult to figure out how much (or little) 2 small fish of 3cm each will eat.. will be difficult with pellets, maybe start with one y a quarter of a pellet or something. I heard about EBO but its not available here in Spain.

Best
Ruud

ps pics to follow once I have them

[bekateen]

Thinking it will be a bit difficult to figure out how much (or little) 2 small fish of 3cm each will eat.. will be difficult with pellets, maybe start with one y a quarter of a pellet or something.

Yes, do not overfeed, and remove anything not eaten within the same day.

Chop the shrimp very small and feed only one or two pieces per fish until you know how much they eat.

Good luck!
Eric

[Ruud109]

So... how do you achieve this with slow eaters and strong filtration and current? Apologies for my ignorance but my worry is most of the food will end up in the cannister filter this way. How do you do this?

Edit: for clarification, these 2 will go in their own tank so nobody else to clean what they don't eat. Is there a trick to make sure they are well feed but the food doesn't end up in the filter?

[dw1305]

Hi all,

So... how do you achieve this with slow eaters and strong filtration and current?

Edit: for clarification, these 2 will go in their own tank so nobody else to clean what they don't eat. Is there a trick to make sure they are well feed but the food doesn't end up in the filter?

Just put a big PPI20 sponge block on the filter intake. Something like the ones our sponsor sells - http://www.swisstropicals.com/filtration-shop/cubefilter-shop/.

I actually think that "Filter" is a misnomer, and it has caused all sorts of issues, because you just want dissolved gases (oxygen, Total Ammoniacal Nitrogen (TAN)) in your "Biological filtration vessel", you don't want to use it as a syphon and fill it up with saw-dust, faeces, old food etc.

The problem is that a canister filter is a closed vessel and you can't replenish the oxygen in the water in the filter, the risk is always that that oxygen is depleted before the water exits the filter.

Have a look at <Wood for tanks>.

cheers Darrel