PlanetCatfish.com

Hi everyone, sorry for my bad english.

I have had two Dekeyseria brachyura L168 in the tank for just over a month. On the web it is reported as a mainly herbivorous fish, but my parents don't eat any vegetables. I'll explain. They greedily devour any type of granulate, vegetable or protein, it makes no difference. The shrimp is also eaten immediately, but only if I cut it into very small pieces, a large piece is instead ignored. In fact, it seems that my fish do not like to gnaw any type of food but only suck something small. I had to stop giving them the plecos tablets as well, as they are not at all enthusiastic about them, they go on it for a moment, nibble for a few seconds and then go away and leave it there without going back. Only if I break them into small pieces that they can suck up will they eat them. In short, any small food that they can suck in a single bite is eaten immediately, but they do not like to waste time gnawing. Did you also have similar behavior?

I currently feed my L's with the best food available in specialized trade for plecos and discus twice a day, the fish seem in excellent health, they are always hungry, they are not shy and indeed show themselves without fear during the hours of light and the their color is gorgeous.
However, if they should have a plant-based diet, I am a bit worried that in the long run the lack of vegetables and too much protein may be a problem.

What experience do you have with them? Looking at mine, it would seem that in nature they feed more on vermicelli than on vegetables ... On the web I read that he normally eats raw potatoes and courgettes ...

My aquarium is 120x40x55
PH 6
NO3 10
NO2 0
KH 1-2

movement in the tank 3,200 liters / hour plus 2 aerators

I put some photos of my L168s and a video where you can see when happy sucking granule feed.

For a month they were the only fish in the tank, now they are together with Corydoras, Apistogramma hongsloi, L236 Super White and L260

Hi emanuel,

I've got L052, which scientifically are considered to be the same species as L168 - . I have my breeding group in a tank with very high flow, so conventional vegetable feedings don't go well (the plant parts just swirl around in the tank). I feed mine various brands of pleco algae wafers (Sera, OSI, Hikari), plus Fluval Bug Bites, and Spirulina or Chlorella flakes as prepared foods. I also feed them live California black worms and finely chopped cooked shrimp. Occasionally they get Repashy too.

They do quite well and are prolific breeders (read this thread: viewtopic.php?t=48765). I think you should be able to find some foods that will work for them.

Good luck,
Eric

P.S., I edited your post to fix your YouTube link. When you use the [ YouTube ] [ /YouTube ] tags, you should only place the unique code for your video (in this example, Ytae1pMtavI) in between the tags. Do not write the entire URL there.

bekateen, thanks for your answer! If you reproduce your L052s without giving them real vegetables like potatoes and courgettes it means that I have nothing to worry about. You gave me good news, I'm happy! I will try not to miss the vegetable component in the feed that I will give them.
I have read your entire thread on playback, congratulations! I also hope to be successful with mine! My two have grown a lot in a month (I give a lot to eat), now there is little to become adults.

And thanks for fixing the YouTube link

I write an update on my experience, maybe it can be useful to someone.
Until a few weeks ago I only had omnivorous plecs tending towards carnivore in the tank (you can see the list on my profile), so I never gave vegetables. Then I added Hemiancistrus subviridis and started giving a lot of vegetables. So I discovered for example that my Hypancistrus L236 are greedy for courgettes, while L168 absolutely doesn't want to eat any vegetables. I observe H. subviridis behaving like a true herbivore, when I put vegetables and shrimp together in the aquarium, he eats only the vegetable and completely ignores the shrimp, while L168 on the contrary only eats the shrimp. In general she seems to love meaty foods and feed on protein tabs.
Furthermore, H. subviridis immediately ate all the algae that covered the rocks, while L168 never ate any algae.

All this makes me think that in reality it is much more carnivorous in nature than is believed. Even more carnivorous than Hypancistrus. In short, L168 seems to me an omnivore very tending towards the carnivore, but absolutely not a vegetarian.


I hope I was helpful

P.S. Mine are now over 10cm, they have grown very fast, I am very satisfied with them, I love L168, it is a beautiful pleco

My L168 eat anything including blanched zucchini, chopped shrimp my males are big above 15cm and do breed regularly form early spring till late summer