feeding loricariidae

T · Post by T » 20 Feb 2003, 22:49

My nugget chewed on a slice of carrot the other night, the mango tried it but looked wholly disgusted(hes such a fussy fish).

Ben · Post by **Ben** » 21 Feb 2003, 06:18

T wrote:My nugget chewed on a slice of carrot the other night, the mango tried it but looked wholly disgusted(hes such a fussy fish).

I tried some carrot in mine the other day, just put in a small piece when I put a large chunk of zuchini in. The Zuchini was gone in record time, but the carrot was still fully intact. I left it an extra day to see what would happen. The only one I saw showing any interest was my "mystery" whiptail. He was just kind of mouthing around it, but I think he was there because He's used to having the zuchini in that spot.

Caol_ila · Post by **Caol_ila** » 21 Feb 2003, 06:27

Hi!

Ive stopped throwing in hole carrots and eat them myself just giving them the ends that i cut off...the mouth them and prefer the other foods...but im usually gone over the weekend and leave the chunks in and they are usually gone when i return...so its not the food of choice but gets eaten. Imho the b-carrotine and vitamine d are really good for the fish and their color...

Ben · Post by **Ben** » 21 Feb 2003, 06:57

I was wondering when I put the carrot in if it might imrove thier eye sight like they say is the case with humans

My L187s are blind as bats ;)

But seriously, I was curious as to how it would effect thier colouration, as I've noticed that in some store bought foods that boast colour improvement are enriched with b-carrotine.

Caol_ila · Post by **Caol_ila** » 21 Feb 2003, 07:11

carrots should work to bring the colors out...but crustaceans do so too...dunno why actually

with he blindness sometimes i wonder if they are actually blind or just have no clue whats going on when i watch them or approach the tank...my mothcats are so blind they have virtually no clue whats going on and only react to light/darkness...not speaking about the banjo...

Ben · Post by **Ben** » 21 Feb 2003, 07:15

I'm pretty sure it is actual blindness with my L187s. When It is feeding time, they know there is food there but don't seem able to "see" it. The kinda just pat around with thier oversized mouth almost "tasting" the water untill the find the food. Then they just latch onto it and don't let go 'till full

GeoffO · Post by **GeoffO** » 21 Feb 2003, 12:46

After reading this thread I have started feeding courgette - I'm pretty sure this is 'British' for zuchinni ??? - but it doesn't seem to be as popular with my fish as cucumber .. maybe they just need time to appreciate it .. although this may actually be a good thing as I would never see my clown plec on cucumber - never got a chance beside greedy Severums & a much larger Royal Plec!!

I did an experiment with 1 of those packs of 'ready to cook' vegetables: the baby corn and mangetout went down a treat but the sliced carrot was only nibbled.

BTW, contrary to most posts on the subject, my Zebra plec shows classic 'scraping algae of the glass' behaviour ... maybe I just don't feed him enough!!

coelacanth · Post by **coelacanth** » 21 Feb 2003, 12:58

GeoffO wrote:- but it doesn't seem to be as popular with my fish as cucumber .. maybe they just need time to appreciate it
I did an experiment with 1 of those packs of 'ready to cook' vegetables: the baby corn and mangetout went down a treat but the sliced carrot was only nibbled.

Courgette supposedly contains more nutrition than cucumber. I find that carrot is accepted quite well in the absence of anything else vegetable-wise, although it does seem that the wood-eaters find it easier. I supposed their teeth are admirably suited to someting with the texture of carrot.
If you're treating your fish to those little veg packs I hope the'yre appreciating the expense!

asgard · Post by **asgard** » 22 Feb 2003, 19:23

Hey guys

I'm still quite new to pl*cos & my guy is still quite new to me!

I've been trialling out several different food types & haven't struck it lucky yet re: what it (not too sure of the gender!) likes.

I tried a thinly sliced piece of cucumber, it didn't touch it.
I tried Nutrafin's Spirulina tablets, and I don't know if the pl*co is eating it, or the other fish in the tank!
I'm going to try these sinking pellets my LFS recommended to me yesterday called DuplaRin G 'for all bottom fish.'
If all else fails, I'm going to hunt down some zucchini.

It looks well fed though; nice happy round stomach & it leaves it's *coughs* offerings behind in copious amounts; I just need to be sure he's eating the stuff I am giving him, and not the other fish!

polkadot · Post by **polkadot** » 22 Feb 2003, 19:36

They should be touching the cucumber. Plecos find them irresistable like the zucchini.

asgard · Post by **asgard** » 22 Feb 2003, 19:40

polkadot wrote:They should be touching the cucumber. pl*cos find them irresistable like the zucchini.

Pardon, it had eaten the middle part (where the seeds were) but thats about it

I think I have a picky pl*co.

Cartman · Post by **Cartman** » 22 Feb 2003, 21:37

asgard wrote:
polkadot wrote:They should be touching the cucumber. pl*cos find them irresistable like the zucchini.
Pardon, it had eaten the middle part (where the seeds were) but thats about it

I think I have a picky pl*co.

I've found many won't take to Cucumbers immediately, what I've done that works best is to quarter the cucumber and leave it in for a day and then replace w/ a new quarter, keeping this up for a week. If by the end of a week, the cucumber hasn't been touched, then they might just not like it...it happens.

asgard · Post by **asgard** » 23 Feb 2003, 00:58

Cartman wrote:I've found many won't take to Cucumbers immediately, what I've done that works best is to quarter the cucumber and leave it in for a day and then replace w/ a new quarter, keeping this up for a week. If by the end of a week, the cucumber hasn't been touched, then they might just not like it...it happens.

Hrrmm worth a shot

I only cut a thin slice; I'll continue to do that for atleast a week and see how things go.
Thankyou

Ben · Post by **Ben** » 23 Feb 2003, 05:57

Mine wouldn't take to cucumber right away either, at least not all of them would. My solution was to nuke the cucumber in the microwave in a glass of water just long enought to soften it up a bit and to make it sink. They took to the cooked stuff more quickly than the raw for some reason. Cooking does sap a lot of the nutients out of it, so it's not nearly as good for them, but after they started on the cooked stuff I changed over to raw after about a week, and now they eat the raw much more eagerly than they ever did with the cooked.

Now if I could just get them to take the the spagetti squash I bought today....they have no interest in it

....and I sure don't want to have to eat it!

coelacanth · Post by **coelacanth** » 23 Feb 2003, 11:26

Ben wrote:I'm pretty sure it is actual blindness with my L187s. When It is feeding time, they know there is food there but don't seem able to "see" it. The kinda just pat around with thier oversized mouth almost "tasting" the water untill the find the food.

This isn't actual blindness, but more of a blind-spot. Given the angle of their head below the eyes they are probably unable to see what they are eating, but I would imagine that they have no need to use vision to search for food, as they are not picking up individual food items (although they may be able to locate good feeding areas from a distance using vision).
The eye position suggest that this sense is used more for locating conspecifics and avoiding predators from above than anything else.

markyboy22 · Post by **markyboy22** » 23 Feb 2003, 21:26

I'm really surprised that nobody has mentioned Beef Heart yet! I feed this to my Zebra's and they really devour it every time. It is full of protein and is very low in fat, and is very clean- and I've not had any signs of Mad Zebra disease yet.
My Adonis and my L114 all seem to enjoy it also.
Cheers Marc

Post by **Dinyar** » 24 Feb 2003, 00:43

Very bad idea. Mammal meat should not be fed to fish, and certainly not to loricariids. They do not encounter it in nature, their digestive systems are not designed for it and it will kill them in the medium to long run.

Dinyar

Graeme · Post by **Graeme** » 24 Feb 2003, 01:22

White worms!!! Easy to breed and very good for fish!!

GeoffO · Post by **GeoffO** » 24 Feb 2003, 13:42

coelacanth wrote:Courgette supposedly contains more nutrition than cucumber. I find that carrot is accepted quite well in the absence of anything else vegetable-wise, although it does seem that the wood-eaters find it easier. I supposed their teeth are admirably suited to someting with the texture of carrot.
If you're treating your fish to those little veg packs I hope the'yre appreciating the expense!

Thanks coelacanth.

I'll perservere with the courgette (I guess nutritional value is the most important factor), particularly as cucumber seems to go straight thru them, just adding to the poop load!!

The veg pack was originally for me - just wanted to add another 2 veggies to the list

Caol_ila · Post by **Caol_ila** » 04 Mar 2003, 16:10

today at the supermarket i picked up some zucchinis to try these as ive mostly gone with other veggies so far. Are they so expensive everywhere? 5 euro 1 kg...well i have them in the tank now for over 2 hours and noone has come out to touch them except some snails and 2 baby ancistrus sp.. Really makes me wonder as they normalle come out immediately when foods in the tank.