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Hi folks, seems that a lot of my time lately is taken up with shopping trips to buy the various things my plecos like to eat! These days my food shopping lists invariably contain more items for my plecos than me! During a shopping trip to the veg stall last weekend I was faced with the seasonal changes in available vegetables when i found there was no courgettes, the local shops hadn't had them in for a few days and its their favourite food, though they do get a variety. So i start making a comment I needed them for my fish and then being looked at like i was having a funny five minutes! Sometimes people are curious to know more and i show them pictures of my various plecos and what each one prefers, then they kind of see what those little sucker mouths can do to a sweet potato! And they dont think I'm as crazy as they first thought. I even met someone who gets me one day as he keeps them also, then the looks became, well- less strange, it was bucketing with rain and it then meant a bigger shopping spree to find some. After checking in several shops with none in stock, i eventually found some at one of the less expensive shops and seeing as there's was quite a few left i grabbed as many as I could, along with sweet potatoes, brussels sprouts, runner beans, carrots, squash, and red bell peppers, only to find out the fussy little plecos didn't eat most of them as they weren't from the more expensive shops, and i couldnt use them then as they'd been in a fish tank. . Anyone else here get my point, I'd like to know what the foods on your lists are, as will it give me more ideas and potentially lessen the ammount of shops i need to visit, but also start a discussion on good foods for plecos that others may get to see. But please feel free to also extend this to other catfish.

I used to feed my bn canned green beans. I would only ones which stated they had No Salt Added. I would rinse them under cold water (we have a well some no chlorine etc.). Then I would run a finger nail down the seam and split it open. For smaller fish i would remove the seeds but for the bigger ones I left them in.
I don't know if it is coincidence, but it seemed as if they often spawned not to long after. But they would also be getting a few blood worms in the same time frame, so who knows.

The canned beans sink on their own which was a plus.

I couldn't find any salt free tinned ones anywhere, but i do buy the fresh ones, i cook them in the microwave for a couple of minutes, rinse them well, doing both with tank water, and remove the seeds and feed them to them, they do eat them with relish, and have recently spawned for the first time, they also get frozen bloodworm and brine shrimp, but is live better?

Has anyone fed edamame beans (in hull or dehulled) to their plecos? Do the plecos like them? Are they too rich a protein source for vegetarian plecos when you're trying to condition them for spawning? Would you still be at risk of causing bloat, like can happen when over-feeding vegetarian plecos with meaty foods like shrimp and worms?

Cheers, Eric

Not sure about the edamame beans but someone else may know, i bought some frozen peeled cooked prawns today, to you guys in the US , shrimp. But they contain a very small ammount of salt, but i purposefully choose the ones that contained the least, but I'm still a bit unsure if they are suitable. They are intended for the ABNs, but only as a very occasional food, dont want to give them bloat. Also at the LFS they sell frozen clams in half shells intended for fish, could these be better?

My ABNs, previously not eating, but it could be down to the fact they are in full on breeding mode, are currently tucking into a piece of mango, (of all things!) i read somewhere they like it, what's even better is it sinks.

I think it is good you offer a variety but you don't need to give them everything in the vegetable aisle. I stick with cuccumbers, zucchini, and lettuce.

My different plecos have different tastes L397s eat sweet potatoes and courgettes (zucchini) but the adults dont really bother now, they go more for repashy and New era pleco pellets, the ABNs, usually anything, the Para I dont see what he eats in terms of veggies, the ABNs were in with him, until recently but he is very healthy, though quite nocturnal.

Well at least you have the mindset that you are doing to do everything possible to make them prosper.

I try! Mostly it's the repashy all round.

Try Cassava root sometime. Remove rind.

Any particular ones like it- like wood eaters?

Does anybody feed banana peel to their plecos? I ran a forum search and only found banana peels mentioned for worm colonies.

Thanks, Eric

Not sure, but i think banana peel would deteriorate rapidly in high temperatures, I found out today that L397s will go bonkers for tetra prima, but obviously I'd personally recommend that its only to be used very sparingly, because of the protein content. It was a tip given from the guy who breeds these, where i got them. I found two females today jostling over a cave to be right next door to a hairy tail male, i think the challenger has now reached maturity.. His advice is a couple of pellets, in exactly the right place, is enough to distract them when they behave like this.

My common Ancistrus seems to love broccoli above all else. The part of the broccoli is not so important. She will never fail to eat all of the skin off the stem portions, but will devour beyond that as well. I see her eating the buds as well, though my Corydoras seem to take that as a first choice. Mikrogeophagus ramirezi and Hemigrammus rhodostomus enjoy coming over and ripping off some buds as well. Have to be careful not to give too large a portion of the bud portion as it only takes a day or so to make a big mess if not eaten up. The rest holds up pretty well for ~3 days, maybe longer if fresh.

I also like to feed carrot, though if both broccoli and carrot are available my Ancistrus goes to the broccoli. My common Otocinclus prefer the carrot, though. Carrot is another that holds up quite well in the aquarium. Everyone likes zucchini, but it can melt away so quickly, even if I feed it raw...

bekateen wrote:Has anyone fed edamame beans (in hull or dehulled) to their plecos? Do the plecos like them?

Another bean question: Has anybody tried black-eyed peas (BEPs; also called black-eyed beans)? I bought some frozen BEPs and boiled them for 20 min, then dropped them in my ABN tanks. I pinched the BEPs first to open the skins, but I didn't peal their skins away because the BEPs turned to mush if I did.

The ABNs went for the BEPs instantly. I've also added BEPs to my tanks with P. maccus, P. albomaculatus, H. guahiborum, and my baby Hypancistrus (of still-unknown ID); but so far I haven't witnessed any other plecos to eat the BEPs.

Like edamame, BEPs have significant protein content (but not as high as edamame, and with more carb). So I'm thinking that the BEPs have to be fed in moderation to avoid protein bloat.

Anybody else have an opinion or experience the BEPs (or edamame for that matter, since nobody replied earlier in the affirmative)?

Thanks. Cheers, Eric

Black eyed peas' music was never really to my taste, I'm afraid! I didn't know they were also a foodstuff.
My twiglets have been enjoying the red hot chilli peppers this week.

... Now I'm scrambling my brain to think of another vegetable - music band name pun to keep this going. But then, that'd drag me away from the intended post, so it's just as well that I don't have a reply for now. Back to pleco diets and these black eyed peas as a food option. LOL

Better go buy some myself. My ABNs did the deed - finally. .

bekateen wrote:Has anybody tried black-eyed peas (BEPs; also called black-eyed beans)? I bought some frozen BEPs and boiled them for 20 min, then dropped them in my ABN tanks. I pinched the BEPs first to open the skins, but I didn't peal their skins away because the BEPs turned to mush if I did.

The ABNs went for the BEPs instantly. I've also added BEPs to my tanks with P. maccus, P. albomaculatus, H. guahiborum, and my baby Hypancistrus (of still-unknown ID); but so far I haven't witnessed any other plecos to eat the BEPs.

I've been giving BEPs (now boiled only 10-15 minutes, to keep them semi-firm and not too mushy) to all of my plecos about once or twice a week now, and everyone seems to be eating them. Besides the ABNs liking them so much (here's a short video), I've also seen my new s (probably L201 big spots, but that's another story) eating them. And they are definitely disappearing in the tanks with my H. guahiborum, P. albomaculatus, P. maccus, and my mystery black/white striped Hypans. I haven't yet witnessed these other plecos eating the BEPs, but the food is disappearing and I'm finding other tell-tale signs, i.e., transparent/white pleco poop (the poop resembles cooked mung bean noodles (cellophane noodles)... which is really too bad because I like mung bean noodles. )

I may be imagining this, but it seems like my small ABNs are growing much faster in the last few weeks since I've started supplementing their regular foods (algae pellets, NLS Thera A+ pellets, and raw sweet potato) with these higher protein beans. No signs of bloat yet, but as I said, hopefully the infrequent feedings with the BEPs don't lead to that.

Cheers, Eric

https://youtu.be/tA07mIWHTtw

Another one for my shopping list. Seem popular.

My curiosity about beans as food stems (no pun intended, but it works, LOL) from the fact that our fish need protein to condition and grow, but for many plecos too much meat causes bloat. The amino acid composition of plant proteins differs slightly from that of animal proteins, so I wonder if plecos can handle more protein in their diet if the protein is from plants and not from animals. That may not be true at all, given that our plecos are, after all, animals and therefore we should expect that their proteins are more like those of other animals and not like those of plants, but the question is still worth asking. Is it the absolute amount of protein in the diet that causes bloat, or is it the amino acid composition of these dietary proteins that causes bloat (or both?)? I'm not looking to muscle-up my plecos with excess proteins (like an athlete on steroids) but I do wish to expand the food options for them, especially for juveniles to promote healthy growth.

With that as a starting point, I can add DRY HULLED BLACK BEANS (soaked overnight in room-temperature water, skinned, then boiled for 10-15 min) to the list.

Soaking allows the bean skin to peel off (relatively) easily with your fingers. My plecos didn't eat the skins of my black-eyed peas, so those skins became waste floating around in the aquaria (you can see the empty skins in my most recent video of my clown pleco fanning eggs, here). So I'd rather not put inedible skins in the aquaria if I can help it.

First I fed raw (not boiled) skinned black beans to my plecos. They tried eating these beans, but after several days in the aquarium, the beans remained largely uneaten.

So then I boiled the pre-skinned beans and this time the plecos ate them well (true for albino BNs, Panaqolus maccus and Hemiancistrus guahiborum; the beans also disappeared in my tank housing P. albomaculatus and my black & white lined Hypancistrus, but I don't know who ate the beans).

Once boiled, the beans will last if stored in a small amount of water in the fridge for at least one week, and can probably be frozen for longer times (although I haven't tried freezing them after cooking).

Here's a photo of what remained of the soaked-and-skinned boiled black beans after just one night in my P. maccus tank.

Cheers, Eric

bekateen wrote:Does anybody feed banana peel to their plecos? I ran a forum search and only found banana peels mentioned for worm colonies.

Thanks, Eric

In "normal" sized aquaria, they degrade too quickly and the sugars seem to encourage heavy bacterial growth in filters which can lead to clogging issues, and the fibres left behind are tough, tangle round décor and are generally a pain. Fish don't care for them enough to make it worthwhile.

coelacanth wrote:In "normal" sized aquaria, they degrade too quickly and the sugars seem to encourage heavy bacterial growth in filters which can lead to clogging issues, and the fibres left behind are tough, tangle round décor and are generally a pain. Fish don't care for them enough to make it worthwhile.

My apologies, I hadn't reported back on that post as a follow-up. I fed banana peels to my ABNs once. They did take to the peels with enthusiasm, so the peels were accepted as food, but almost everything else you mentioned also happened, so I concluded likewise that banana peels are not a good food choice.

As the peel was eaten, fibers were released into the water and led to clouding, presumably a bacterial bloom; the mess required an unscheduled water change the very next morning. Fortunately I did not put a very large piece of peel in the tank, so no filter clog occurred. I definitely wouldn't recommend banana peel as a food choice and I won't use it again.

Thanks, Eric

BNs love mushrooms.

I'm always searching for purple, red, blue and orange fruits and veggies to feed plecos, with hopes that the pigments enhance the colors of the fish. Today I introduced cherries, previously frozen and pitted, then halved. I wish I had peeled them first, but for now I just want to see how well the fish do with them. First impression? They are tasty! Maybe next time I'll buy fresh cherries then blanch and peel them before putting them.

I also combined boiled, halved Brussels sprouts with live black worms in a bowl. The worms infiltrate the spaces between the leaves and my Ancistrus seem to like digging inside the leaves to get the worms. A double treat!

Cheers, Eric

I know someone thats fed strawberries to bns they like that. But they degrade fast. And melon rind of various types go down well. Beetroot, not pickled might be an option. Beta Carotine is also used in some colour enhancing commercial fish foods.

I know this is an old thread, and this info isn't new, but today I got a good example showing how well live blackworms can infiltrate Brussels sprouts in a glass bowl, to create an ideal feeding opportunity for BNs, Panaqolus, Peckoltia and even Hypancistrus.

For people new to this thread, the Brussels sprouts are boiled for a couple of minutes to soften them without turning them to mush, then they are halved (small sprouts) or quartered (large sprouts) and frozen in Ziplog bag for later.

To feed, a few sprouts are heated briefly (in water, in microwave or on stove), cooled, and placed in ramekin bowls with about 15-30 ml of live blackworms. The worms infiltrate the leaves of the sprouts. The sprouts provide a home for the worms, making it difficult for the worms to get washed out of the bowl by water currents or fish activity.

The plecos eat the sprouts and worms together, and they have to work for their food. This prevents large hungry plecos from just sucking up the worms quickly, and it leaves plenty of worms for subordinate plecos which have to wait their turn to feed. Also, I suspect (but no proof) the worms may feed on the softer sprout parts, adding nutritional value to the worms.

Cheers, Eric

Hi all,

bekateen wrote: ↑21 Sep 2019, 20:56 I know this is an old thread, and this info isn't new, but today I got a good example showing how well live blackworms can infiltrate Brussels sprouts in a glass bowl, to create an ideal feeding opportunity for BNs, Panaqolus, Peckoltia and even Hypancistrus..............

The plecos eat the sprouts and worms together, and they have to work for their food. This prevents large hungry plecos from just sucking up the worms quickly, and it leaves plenty of worms for subordinate plecos which have to wait their turn to feed. Also, I suspect (but no proof) the worms may feed on the softer sprout parts, adding nutritional value to the worms.

Genius.

Why didn't I think of that?

cheers Darrel

dw1305 wrote: ↑22 Sep 2019, 08:44Genius.

Why didn't I think of that?

cheers Darrel

Yeah, why didn't you?

Genius may be an overstatement. I only use the term when patting myself on the back.

Cheers, Eric