Bristlenose catfish questions....And tank help please

bushynose_cory · Post by **bushynose_cory** » 20 Dec 2006, 07:51

Hi all! Starting from this Christmas, I'm going to start a Amazonian river biotype tank. The decor is going to be a large fake cave, a tangle of bogwood, fake plants and maybe a large live Amazon sword plant as the decorations. The fishes I want to keep are these;
(I hope the mix is okay because I'm completly new to these fishes; if not, please correct me, I don't want suffering fishes)
70 gallon tank with
6~7 eartheaters(haven't decided)
8 dither fish(haven't decided either)
4~5 bristlenose catfish(not sure which species but they are all the same)
6 corydoras panda or sterbai

I have never kept BN plecos before but am itching to try. But I have a question: What should I feed them? The larger plecos I've kept in the past NEVER ate the foods I offered them! So I obviously don't want this to happen with these more expensive fishes that I like!
So the main questions are
1. IS this an okay setup for bristlenoses? Tankmates, etc...?
2. What should I feed them?
Any help would be gladly appreciated; I know this is a CATFISH forum but I want to have a peaceful tank where c*****ds live happily with catfishes(On another thought, thats probably what most people want

)

MatsP · Post by **MatsP** » 20 Dec 2006, 12:14

You'll have to be pretty careful selecting the right earth-eaters, as some of them grow pretty big - far too big for a 70g tank.

Other than that, it sounds like a good setup in general.

The other point is that if you want 4-5 bristlenoses to live happily in the same tank, you'll need at least 4-5 "bristlenose-sized" hiding spaces, as they will all want to have their own space.

Feeding bristlenoses is pretty easy. They eat many different types of vegetables, courgette/zucchini is a good food, various root vegetabls (potato, sweet potato, yams - someone reported golden beet-root in a post recently). Almost anything in the cucumber/squash/melon family is great food - water melon, honey-dew melon, canteloupe, butter squash, etc, etc. Peas and beans with the shell removed works really well too, as well as soft leaf vegetables, such as spinach and lettuce.

There are also prepared foods such as algae wafers and tablets. These are often quite meaty, so that gives some extra protein. But be carefull that these are not too much of the diet, as these fish are somewhat sensitive to high protein levels in their diet.

If the fish doesn't eat the food offered, it's due to one of three reasons:
1. There's something better to eat in the tank - fish are like people, if they have a choice of somehthing tasty that is bad for them, they will eat that before they eat the "healthy" item.
2. The fish is ill in some way, perhaps due to bad feeding at the shop.
3. You're not giving the fish the right food, or you're not patient enough.

--
Mats

bushynose_cory · Post by **bushynose_cory** » 21 Dec 2006, 07:19

Thanks for the reply, Mat. Now I see what went wrong with my past plecos. (Why does the spelling ple-co change to pl*co?) But it was hard to believe that one of them lived for six months before dying. But I'll take care of the ones I'll get for Christmas.
The earheaters I'll get will be either G. proximus or G. balzani(? spelling) Are they okay?
And for bristlenose hiding places-I have plenty of them(fake caves, rocks, pipe..) Maybe I should hide them under the driftwood so the ugly pipes don't show?

MatsP · Post by **MatsP** » 21 Dec 2006, 12:28

Pleco is spelled with a star as an attempt to avoid "ills" from mentioning their name in writing on forums/message-boards etc. This is of course superstition and more done as a joke than anything else. [See the FAQ].

Gymnogeophagus balzanii grows to about 200mm (presumably TL) according to some sources. Fishbase has it as 120mm SL, but that's probably not the ultimate max size. But it's certainly not one of the giants in the family, so probably a good choice.

Fishbase has Geophagus proximus down as 225mm SL, which is probably a bit on the big side for a 70g/300L tank. Depends a bit on the shape of the tank, if it's quite wide and low, rather than the "common" tall and narrow shape, then I guess it would be on the better side of things.

Making the pipes looking more "natural" by having them under pieces of wood is a good idea. Or just use natural material like Bamboo or such in the tank.

--
Mats

butterfly · Post by **butterfly** » 21 Dec 2006, 15:09

You can also make your pipes blend in a bit more by covering them in aquarium safe silicon and rolling them in the same type of substrate your using. Let the silicon dry at least 24 hrs and a little more if the substrate covering is thick. their almost invisible when you slide them under rocks and driftwood.
good luck with your tank and don't forget to cycle it before adding your fish

Carol

bushynose_cory · Post by **bushynose_cory** » 22 Dec 2006, 09:23

Thanks for all the information. I've decided to keep G. balzanii, is 4~5 a good choise? The tank is longer and wider than tall, so I hope it'll be good for keeping those species.
Acually Butterfly, I've tried doing that, but right now I'm clean out of silicone(have to buy more)
Thanks again, and I'll keep posting about what happens. By the way, can I reduce the number of eartheaters, and change the number of corys to 6 C. panda AND 6 C.sterbai?