Michigan Cichlid Association
General Category => General Discussion => Topic started by: Steve on January 28, 2014, 12:14:20 AM
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Wondering whats the best pleco food/treat?
I recently got some juvie plecos at the MCA auction, I was told what was good for them veggie wise, but my memory sucks lol...so just wondering, I hear peas, and zuchuni (sp I know) whats good for plecos? And far as whats good....do you have to actually cook the peas etc?
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Zucchini and blanched romaine for the vegetarian plecos.
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Do you do anything to them ahead of time? You don't just drop them in right? I've heard people cook or do things to them ahead of time. Do you cook them or?? Whats the standard procedure to do ?
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You can cook them to soften them up. If you do that, you want to blanch (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blanching_(cooking)) them. Personally, I find blanching small portions not worth the effort and would just feed cucumber or lettuce without any preparation.
For ease of feeding, I use a mag-float to hold lettuce against the side of the tank. For cucumber I'd rubberband it to a small rock, them attached a small length of fishing line to the rock so I could easily pull it from the tank. I'd normally remove the seeds from the cucumber too because the fish never seemed to eat them and it would just add waste to the tank. Another popular method I've seen is to stab a fork through it to hold it down.
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I used a vege clip until it broke, now use the fork method. Mine love zuccini, romaine, and sliced sweet potato. They destroyed a piece of zuccini last night.
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Someone recommended Sweat Potatos ! I tried this and WOW - my plecos LOVE it and best of all there is absolutely NO MESS ! Just fork it and drop it in the tank and you are done...
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I tried blanched broccoli stems once and was so surprised at how quickly my plecos consumed it, it's become my go-too food for them now. They prefer it to all the prepared green flakes or pellets on the market.
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Unsalted green beans will work also........
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Unsalted green beans will work also........
Do you use a fork with these ? ???
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I think I'll try some cucumber. How long should I leave it in the tank? guessing a couple hours or so?
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zucchini works the best for me it is gone in a day I also put a rubber
band around it to a rock. I like Ron's idea with the fishing line to pull it
out I'll have to try that.
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I think I'll try some cucumber. How long should I leave it in the tank? guessing a couple hours or so?
Zucchini is much better. Not much nutritional value in cucumber.
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To add my 2 cents..
Zuchinni is the best in my mind. We grow it our selves in the summer. But, dont let it grow to big or the seeds will make a mess in the tank. When it is smaller... cucumber size, no mess.
Hard to find this time of the year though. All I see is zucchini squash... and it tends to cloud my tank.
Havent tried sweet potato, but soon will.
I see no reason to blanch or cook any of it. Just more time. Use a clip, my preference. Using the fork method works too, but then you have to fish it out of the bottom of the tank.
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Ken, if you've ever fed them sweet potato or broccoli stems, you'd realize the fish have a difficult time eating these without first softening them a bit. I agree with things like zucchini and lettuce. Green peas work much better also with some parboiling or steaming in the microwave in my experience.
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My pleco's demolishing some zucchini last night.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tyjO9PCBJx0&list=UU0gvdvBbSa1IdzsUeJhNa2A&index=3
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wb9ydMMxSWU&list=UU0gvdvBbSa1IdzsUeJhNa2A&index=2
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wow, those are sweet!!!
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wow, those are sweet!!!
Thanks, I like them alot.
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I picked up some lettuce and just put it in a chip clip tied to a fishing line and dropped it into the tank. Took all of about 20 seconds for the first of the plecos to find it and start chewing on it ;D
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Mine like romaine lettuce too, but it's really messy in the morning.
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FYI
Iceberg lettuce has no nutritional value.
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FYI
Iceberg lettuce has no nutritional value.
Exactly, just crunchy water. For people it's just a way to get the salad dressing into your mouth.
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Iceberg lettuce has no nutritional value.
Yep I know, I read up on it the other night. Mainly I just wanted to see if they would go for something new or be scared away from it first. I was actually looking for zucchini tonight but the only zucchini they had was squash zucchini, and the cucumbers they had looked really bad. So for $1 for the lettuce I figured I'd see how they reacted to it and then pick up some zucchini this weekend when I had more time to hit a better store.
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I feed romaine through the spring/summer/fall while I have it in the garden. (Don't buy it in the winter because it either goes bad too quickly in the fridge or if I eat it as salad, it's gone too fast.)
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Just got home with some zucchini and washed a slice and put it on a fork and dropped it in...They are MAULING it right now ;D lol. By far the zucchini seems to be a winner. Thanks for the help.
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Just got home with some zucchini and washed a slice and put it on a fork and dropped it in...They are MAULING it right now ;D lol. By far the zucchini seems to be a winner. Thanks for the help.
Snap a pic for us
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Here is mine from last night. Half a zucchini.
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Just got home with some zucchini and washed a slice and put it on a fork and dropped it in...They are MAULING it right now ;D lol. By far the zucchini seems to be a winner. Thanks for the help.
Snap a pic for us
Will do, there's only one on it now(think they are getting full?) so gimme a bit and I'll snap one when theres more on it. One is actually sucking on the metal handle of the fork at the moment....he must be the "special" one of the group ;D lol
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It amazes me how much these guys can put away. Kind of like teenagers.
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Just got home with some zucchini and washed a slice and put it on a fork and dropped it in...They are MAULING it right now ;D lol. By far the zucchini seems to be a winner. Thanks for the help.
Snap a pic for us
Here's one right now. I think they are starting to get full because the first hour there was 3 of the 6 on it. Now there's only one but they have all been on it over the past 3 hours.
(http://imageshack.com/a/img819/9155/m3ai.jpg)
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Cute little guys
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Been feeding the super red BNP's the zucchini slices about twice per week for the past 3 weeks now. It's funny how not only do they know exactly what it is now, but just how fast they can devour it now that they know it's food. The first few times it took a bit for them to come to it, then they would only eat a portion of it within 48hrs. Now when I put a slice in there's nothing left but a round green ring of skin by morning. I just put this slice in the tank, and not even 30 seconds later there were already four of them on it ;D
(http://imageshack.com/a/img208/5405/7n5u.jpg)
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I dunno if it's the zucchini or what but I swear these guys have been growing faster than any plecos I have had so far.
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(http://imageshack.com/a/img829/4899/bfm3.jpg)
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Try a sweet potato slice every once in awhile. It would be good to vary the diet.
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Try a sweet potato slice every once in awhile. It would be good to vary the diet.
Thanks for the tip. I picked a sweet potato up today and put a slice in the pleco tank as well as the Mbuna tank just a little while ago. Plecos went right to it. And the Clown Loaches in the Mbuna tank seem to be chewing on the one in the Mbuna tank now.
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Just make sure you remove it in the morning. It can start to get slimey. Probably the starch.
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Ah okay glad you said that, will do.
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Heard recently that Gordon Food Services sells a large bag of zucchini slices. I tried it and it makes it so easy to get a slice or six and throw into the tank(s). Most of them sink on their own. So you're just picking up green rings the next day. Its a riot to see the newborn bristle nose on the slices right next to the adults. :D
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So, I finally tried sweet potato.... my plecos didnt eat it like they do the zucchini. Not even close.
I will still toss some in every once in a while for variety, but zucchini it is at my house. Will be planting it in the garden once again this year.
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So, I finally tried sweet potato.... my plecos didnt eat it like they do the zucchini. Not even close.
Yeah same here. Mine eat it, but no where near as fast as they do zucchini. I've been adding zucchini about twice per week, I'll still give them sweet potato slices but probably just as a variety maybe once/twice per month. Zucchini does seem to be the favorite so far in my tanks. I've noticed even my Synodontis eupterus catfish seem to chow on the zucchini lately.
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All my clown loaches go to town on the zucchini also.