laritheloud Posted January 28, 2022 Share Posted January 28, 2022 (edited) So I've been offering my new red bristlenose an algae wafer (or a piece of one) from Northfin -- the Kelp wafers. I'm trying to offer veggie-heavy foods since I know Bristlenose favor algae and veg in their diets. NOW I've only had him for a few days, and I know he could totally still be settling. So far he hasn't touched the wafers I've offered. I'm leaving it in the tank until I get to bed at around midnight, I am trying to put it in when the lights are dim/out because he's still settling and seems to be most active at night. Now, this is my freshly cycled 20 gallon long... and in the two months it's been cycling it's grown a massive algae farm. Diatoms, green algae, staghorn. Should I not worry that he's not touching the wafers? I've tried Bug Bites Pleco, too. I bought Zucchini today and plan to try to feed him some tomorrow. I figure he's probably feasting on the algae buffet in the tank but I also want to make sure he's behaving normally! It's my first pleco! Thanks, everyone. Edited January 28, 2022 by laritheloud 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beardedbillygoat1975 Posted January 28, 2022 Share Posted January 28, 2022 @laritheloudi think the zucchini is a great place to start. @Guppysnailwill be along I’m sure but my go to’s are cucumber, zucchini, green beans, broccoli and Brussels. I use the Sera catfish tabs and the Aquatic Arts algae wafers. I’ve had good success with Xtreme spirulina flake and Repashy both the Morning Wood and the Super Green. I’ve mixed in some bee pollen and vitachem in with the Repashy as supplement. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
laritheloud Posted January 28, 2022 Author Share Posted January 28, 2022 @Beardedbillygoat1975 I have Repashy Morning Wood and Soilent Green. I still need to get my hands on Super Green! Can I leave the zucchini raw? I'm not sure whether to blanch or peel it before weighting it down in the tank. I have some green beans I can try, too. I'm just puzzled that he's been seemingly busy with the sponge filter and the glass but not touching the wafers. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beardedbillygoat1975 Posted January 28, 2022 Share Posted January 28, 2022 Well the highest nutrition he can get is in that biofilm. They may not have raised him on the wafers so he may not know what they are. With the baby plecos it took several weeks for them to find the Repashy and the wafers so I’d give it more time. Yes I blanch the veggies or steam them. I either cut long thin pieces or coins with the zucchini and cucumbers. The skins depends on how they’re looking nice and smooth I leave if it’s not so nice I trim it off. I used to be annoyed when the kids wouldn’t eat their veggies in their lunches but now the plecos get them. Do you have a couple caves and plenty of wood for him? Sometimes they need several different caves and places to feel safe. I think I’ve got 3 different kinds of caves and they prefer the Amazon watering spikes best. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
laritheloud Posted January 28, 2022 Author Share Posted January 28, 2022 On 1/27/2022 at 10:15 PM, Beardedbillygoat1975 said: Well the highest nutrition he can get is in that biofilm. They may not have raised him on the wafers so he may not know what they are. With the baby plecos it took several weeks for them to find the Repashy and the wafers so I’d give it more time. Yes I blanch the veggies or steam them. I either cut long thin pieces or coins with the zucchini and cucumbers. The skins depends on how they’re looking nice and smooth I leave if it’s not so nice I trim it off. I used to be annoyed when the kids wouldn’t eat their veggies in their lunches but now the plecos get them. Do you have a couple caves and plenty of wood for him? Sometimes they need several different caves and places to feel safe. I think I’ve got 3 different kinds of caves and they prefer the Amazon watering spikes best. Yep, I have an enormous piece of driftwood in the tank that was originally in the 55 gallon tank and I decided to remove to increase swimming space. Still plenty of wood in the 55! There's also a pleco cave and plenty of plant cover... And where does he choose to hang out? Behind the sponge filter and in the sponge filter tube, grazing on the airline. 🤣 He's (she's?) still pretty young, but I chose this guy because he was so active and out and about in the LFS tank! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guppysnail Posted January 28, 2022 Share Posted January 28, 2022 On 1/27/2022 at 9:34 PM, laritheloud said: Northfin -- the Kelp wafers After a quarter bag of these going untouched by mom dad and three batches of fry snails and shrimp I threw the bag away. My little ones liked the omega one veggie rounds. They are the only wafer mine really liked and would consistently eat along with hikari sinking wafer in the orange bag. Bug bites pleco formula they ate after awhile. Mine like repashy soilent green super green and spawn n grow. For whatever reason they did not eat morning wood bottom scratcher or community so I mixed them all together with the ones they like and add a tough of garlic guard. Green beans are the all time favorite veggie of all my critters. I steam them then split in half and remove seeds not to soft or they deteriorate quick but not crunchy. I put a plant weight on and put them in meat side up. @Beardedbillygoat1975 gave some great options. look at the belly if it is full (a darker greenish black that is the food in the belly). You have no worries but still offer stuff for vitamins etc. if the belly is not visibly full all the time then be concerned. Pleco have short digestive tracks that are inefficient so they are like apsnails and need to eat constantly to get enough nutrients. Hope that help. 2 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beardedbillygoat1975 Posted January 28, 2022 Share Posted January 28, 2022 At this age it’s all about eating and feeling safe so that makes sense - he’s living next to the cafeteria which has his favorite food. I see mine often because of the shear numbers - 2 males and 5 females I’m bound to see one every time I look. They’ll be getting their own 20 long soon so it’ll be interesting to see how that changes their behavior. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guppysnail Posted January 28, 2022 Share Posted January 28, 2022 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
laritheloud Posted January 28, 2022 Author Share Posted January 28, 2022 On 1/27/2022 at 10:24 PM, Guppysnail said: After a quarter bag of these going untouched by mom dad and three batches of fry snails and shrimp I threw the bag away. My little ones liked the omega one veggie rounds. They are the only wafer mine really liked and would consistently eat along with hikari sinking wafer in the orange bag. Bug bites pleco formula they ate after awhile. Mine like repashy soilent green super green and spawn n grow. For whatever reason they did not eat morning wood bottom scratcher or community so I mixed them all together with the ones they like and add a tough of garlic guard. Green beans are the all time favorite veggie of all my critters. I steam them then split in half and remove seeds not to soft or they deteriorate quick but not crunchy. I put a plant weight on and put them in meat side up. @Beardedbillygoat1975 gave some great options. look at the belly if it is full (a darker greenish black that is the food in the belly). You have no worries but still offer stuff for vitamins etc. if the belly is not visibly full all the time then be concerned. Pleco have short digestive tracks that are inefficient so they are like apsnails and need to eat constantly to get enough nutrients. Hope that help. This helps a LOT. And yes, his belly is nice and dark, so that's a relief! I'll try repashy soilent green and some veggies next. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lefty o Posted January 28, 2022 Share Posted January 28, 2022 BN typically arent overly picky eaters. mine go banana's for wardley's (this is the only food from this brand id use, the rest is not very good) shrimp pellets meant for corydora's, and they are the one fish i have that likes repashy community. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brandon p Posted January 28, 2022 Share Posted January 28, 2022 Mine get hibiscus flowers and algae wafer mostly. I don’t feed these guys heavy. They get green from salads from diner and strawberry tops. I’m bigest thing is removing and thing left after a day. The hibiscus never last. I only use half an algae wafffer a fish. Is don’t break them just if I have 6 I toss in 3. I do put a few drops of fresh bbs in when I walk by. They seem happy the water is clear so I’m happy. I have issues when things get left in to long. I rather feed more often small amounts than have things sit in there. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StevesFishTanks Posted January 28, 2022 Share Posted January 28, 2022 https://gfsstore.com/products/118729/ This is what I feed my super red breeders and growouts 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colu Posted January 28, 2022 Share Posted January 28, 2022 Hikari algae wafers Sera wood chips and EBO spirulina tabs are all good quality wafer my bristlenose go mad for 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gardenman Posted January 28, 2022 Share Posted January 28, 2022 My Super Reds eat pretty much everything. Don't forget protein heavy foods also. They start out every morning with whatever flake food manages to escape the swordtails and quite a few French-style green beans. (I buy the $0.50 canned ones at Walmart. A can lasts me two or three days.) And they also get the Wardley shrimp pellets (also from Walmart) in the morning. Depending on the tank I'll drop anywhere from ten to twenty in the tank. Around noon I'll drop in a cooked/frozen shrimp (the 71-90 size) and they'll graze on that most of the rest of the day. (Bear in mind I've got lots of Super Reds. For just one pleco a small salad shrimp might be better.) Then at four-ish more flake food and freeze-dried tubifex worms. The tubifex worms get pressed on the right front corner of the glass and if I'm a bit late each tank will have plecos lining up there looking for their worms. There's a big female in my fifty who almost takes them out of my hand. She gets very upset when the swordtails swarm her worm cubes. They're very easy fish to care for. I've got a lot of them and two more spawns in one of my tanks. These two spawns are showing quite a few albinos too which is neat. I wasn't expecting that. I think they're very neat little fish. You'll enjoy having one. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
laritheloud Posted January 28, 2022 Author Share Posted January 28, 2022 (edited) Hmmmm. Well, I added a green bean this morning and no bites yet. Going to leave it in until this evening, then switch it out for something with protein in it (like one of the orange-bag Hikari tablets)... Hoping he'll eat for me soon. He doesn't seem lethargic or anything, it's just strange that he won't eat what I'm offering. Here’s a picture of his belly! Her belly? Don’t know yet! Edited January 28, 2022 by laritheloud Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guppysnail Posted January 28, 2022 Share Posted January 28, 2022 (edited) He/she is fine (and cute as heck). There is probably a ton of other yummy stuff in there so he is not venturing to try new things. Eventually he will find it. Drip some garlic guar on a wafer. Like a toothpick dip in gg rubbed on the wafer or rub a garlic clove on it. But really. No worries he/she looks very healthy. Edited January 28, 2022 by Guppysnail 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guppysnail Posted January 28, 2022 Share Posted January 28, 2022 Feel free to laugh at my artwork. I actually had a baby that would not eat. This is one of my healthy lemon blue eye youngsters. The one that starved looked like the outline in red. It’s very noticeable. Hope that sets your mind at ease that your little cutie is doing great. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RonBFree Posted January 28, 2022 Share Posted January 28, 2022 I have plecos is several of my community tanks and they have always seemed to do quite well on the flake and pelleted food I feed the fish. I supplement with algae wafers and blanched zucchini. There is Malaysian drift wood and chola wood in the tank. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brandon p Posted January 28, 2022 Share Posted January 28, 2022 It looks pretty good to me I would be worried more if the. Belly was big. The glass were it is looks like there is some organic material on it so it’s probably eating. With Pleco if they are ruing to food they are normal starving or have a favorite. Bug lites is another food they mine with eat when it sinks. I’ve used extreme spirulina flakes as well. I feed a variety so mine see a lot but I rarely see them eating and my best reproduceers I don’t ever see eat and they get (pictures) one or two round each day. I don’t think people release how much they eat off the glass. Here is two day of me moving a small albino bristle nose out of this 20gal(last pic) glass was clear and you can see the snails were in the tank before. So that one fish kept all that clear. My kids like to give pleco crack(corn)to them when buy some at the grocery store. I think it’s because the the male leapord frog pleco comes out for it but so do some other by not all. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jwcarlson Posted January 28, 2022 Share Posted January 28, 2022 Not a huge sample size, but I got one (just a regular "black" bristlenose) about 10 days ago. Did the same thing with a part of a wafer. Never sniffed it. I thought that was strange as my common pleco 15 years ago always seemed to love them. This new one seems pretty aloof, but it's certainly active. It's eating something (probably all the weird biofilm stuff on the driftwood?). Not bloated by any means, but it's not a nice little ponch on it now... and it's pooping (when is a pleco no pooping?). Doesn't seem to be touching algae at all, but that's probably because it's got something else it likes better. Which I would imagine is the case with yours as well. 🙂 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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