# Feeding BN pleco



## Laki (Aug 24, 2011)

I feed Chewy Omega One sinking algae wafers and zucchini but I feel like he needs more. He is growing fine and his whiskers are still coming in but I feel like giving him more to help diversify his menu. 

He also eats cucumber every so often because its expensive and goes rotten before he eats the whole thing. He also eats driftwood and IAL. 

I have tried blanched kale and blanched carrots and he has not eaten those. Though, I stopped blanching the zuc and cuc so maybe I can try unblanched kale, spinach and carrot. 

Any tips?


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## jeaninel (Aug 24, 2007)

Mine love Omega One sinking shrimp pellets as well as frozen foods such as bloodworms, krill and brine shrimp.


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## Laki (Aug 24, 2011)

Thanks, does yours come out to feed on frozen bloodworms at feeding? Chewy is so shy he barely comes out when the light is on, which I think is normal for BN. I saw him throw a tantrum at one of my Crystal Red shrimp though so I know he's a sassy healthy boy. 

I cannot leave frozen bloodworms out because I fear it would contaminate the water since I'l have to leave it out for a bit.


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## Warhawk (Feb 23, 2014)

My plecos (BN and Common) love cucumbers, I feed them about 3 times a week. On other days I feed sinking cichlid pellets or shrimp pellets. 

I did feed zucchini but the price for one small one is twice what a large cucumber is. I also feed peas about once a week, they go thru the fish pretty fast so I don't do it often. 


Some of the plecos will come out as soon as I drop the food in the water and start eating but others will leave it until I leave the room. 

Also I don't know this for sure but I have read the the algae wafers don't have any nutrition value so I stopped feeding them.


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## jeaninel (Aug 24, 2007)

Mine come out when I feed and are out a lot when not feeding as well. When I feed the frozen bloodworms I thaw the cube in a cup of tank water for a few minutes and then dump it in.


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## Laki (Aug 24, 2011)

Thanks. errr I'll have to look at the ingredients of my algae wafers. All this week I have been falling asleep and not feeding Chewy at night so in the morning I have been dropping in a wafer. This morning he came out right away to eat it, poor thing must have been starved. 
I'll see if I can get more wafers tomorrow- any suggestions?

And he did munch on spinach the night I posted the last comment so I have that. I will try kale tonight.


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## Akeath (May 12, 2009)

I've fed my Bristlenose primarily on sinking pellets/wafers. He grew to 6 inches in quick order on them, and is doing very well and will come out in the day to eat them. 
The food I have for him is Omega One Veggie Rounds, Fluval Multiveggie Formula, and Hikari Algae Wafers. I chose those because they either had lots of spirulina algae and other vegetables in the ingredient or because they had a low protein/higher fiber content. I liked having all three for the variety. Compared to these, he just isn't as interested in the veggies I've tried, and I just kind've let him have his way with that. 

I also have some Corycats, and put in food for them that is more geared toward omnivores, with more protein in it. For them, I put in Aqueon Bottom Feeder Tablets, API Bottom Feeder, and Wardley Shrimp Pellet. My Bristlenose gets some of these too, of course.

A thing you might want to check is that your wood is soft enough for him to eat. For a while I had just African Mopani wood with mine. I bought a Bristlenose Book and they mentioned that sort of wood is too hard for them to rasp off any food from. So I ended up getting some Malaysian Driftwood for mine, and he loves it. He's eaten enough of it that he's actually changed the shape of the driftwood.


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## NickAu (Sep 28, 2015)

I feed mine
Omega One Veggie Rounds
Hikari Algae Wafers
Kens veggie sticks.
Blood worm
Brine shrimp
Every now and again a tiny bit of OX heart
New Life Spectrum Thera Plus pellets.

And they need fresh veggies.
This is a list of vegetables and fruit that are popular with most plecs.

Zucchini/Courgette
Cucumber
Peas (deshelled)
Sweet Potato
Green Beans
Melon/Melon rind

Aubergine/Egg plant
Avocado
Broad Beans
Broccoli/Stalk
Butternut Squash+ other squash
Capsicum/Bell pepper(not the hot ones)
Cauliflower/Stalk
Carrot
Coconut
Grapes
Kale/Collard Greens
Kiwi Fruit
Lettuce
Lima Beans
Mango
Mushroom (common plecs and goldspots love mushroom)let it float,they will reach it.
Papaya
Potato
Pumpkin
Spinach
Sprouts
Swede
Tomato
Yam


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## Laki (Aug 24, 2011)

THat's an extensive list! Thanks! 

An update. 

Since moving Chewy to the 20 though I don't see him much he is growing pretty quickly. I have partially solved my fresh veg problem in that I am no longer wasting 3/4 of cucumber and zucchini! I sliced them up and freeze them, each night I just thaw one. 

But my honey gouramis all died and I got an opaline gourami. Boy does she love to eat. Orianna, the gourami, will eat and bulge on the omega one veggies wafers so I poke them into the cuc/zuc on the underside. So Chewy can eat them but Orianna cannot. 

Thanks for the list, I wil try some new foods! Chewy has tried spinach and likes that; not kale so much. Will try others.


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## NickAu (Sep 28, 2015)

> But my honey gouramis all died


Sorry to hear that, Do you know why they died?



> I got an opaline gourami. Boy does she love to eat. Orianna, the gourami, will eat and bulge on the omega one veggies wafers so I poke them into the cuc/zuc on the underside. So Chewy can eat them but Orianna cannot.


I have a Betta thats like that, He loves eating veggie sticks.


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## Laki (Aug 24, 2011)

Thanks, I bought the honeys off someone locally so I don't know how old they were. They did not die all at once, they each developed symptoms of age (I think) and died over the course of a few months. One had a tumor or spot which I suspect killed it but none others exhibited the same signs. 

Never tried veggie sticks but I did have to move Chewy out of the betta tank and into the 20 because the betta would just binge eat whatever Chewy had.


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