BN Pleco Diet

[AcornTheBetta]

Hi all!
I had a few questions about feeding my BN (future BN is should say). 1) What (besides zucchini and algae wafers) should I feed my BN? 2) Can I feed my Bn fruits? If so, what kinds? 3) Is there any special prep that goes into making the food (EX: taking out seeds)? 4) How often should I feed my BN when young, adult, and old? 5) How much should I feed my BN when young, adult, and old? 6) Do you have any other tips for me on feeding or general BN care? Thanks!

 

[Demeter]

All sinking foods are good, shrimp pellets, algae wafers etc for when you are too lazy to prepare fresh foods. Repashy gel foods are pretty good too. For veggies I often feed roman lettuce, blanched squash, green beans, broccoli, cauliflower, peas, green bell pepper etc etc. For fruits I've heard of using melon, strawberry, apple and such. I never actually fed fruit to mine, just doesn't seem right. I wouldn't use overly juicy and acidic foods and don't use fruits very often. I feel sugars wouldn't be too healthy for fish to consume often.

 

[AcornTheBetta]

All sinking foods are good, shrimp pellets, algae wafers etc for when you are too lazy to prepare fresh foods. Repashy gel foods are pretty good too. For veggies I often feed roman lettuce, blanched squash, green beans, broccoli, cauliflower, peas, green bell pepper etc etc. For fruits I've heard of using melon, strawberry, apple and such. I never actually fed fruit to mine, just doesn't seem right. I wouldn't use overly juicy and acidic foods and don't use fruits very often. I feel sugars wouldn't be too healthy for fish to consume often.

Oh yeah. I forgot to add I was going to supplement shrimp pelets once a week. He'll probably eat some of the corys food so he'll get protein that way lol. Any special prep that needs to be done on those veggies? How often and how much should I feed a young bn, adult bn, and old bn?

 

[Demeter]

Young BN need to be fed more often, for ones under an inch 2-3 times a day IMO. Juveniles and adult should be fine with once a day. For fresh veggie prep I usually blanch (boil) to soften and make them sink. Frozen veggies just need to be thawed and if cut thinly fresh cucumber and squash can be easily consumed. If it floats then use a stainless steel fork or skewer to make it sink. I sometimes use suction cups to stick veggies to the glass. If there are left overs after a day then remove it. I never worry about left overs as I'm also feeding lots of snails and shrimp, my tanks are near spotless when it comes to left overs!

Today I skipped feeding as I fed my plecos plenty of Repashy the last 2 days. Usually they get daily shrimp pellets and/or algae wafers. I try to feed veggies at least once a week, preferably twice but I am lazy.

 

[AcornTheBetta]

Young BN need to be fed more often, for ones under an inch 2-3 times a day IMO. Juveniles and adult should be fine with once a day. For fresh veggie prep I usually blanch (boil) to soften and make them sink. Frozen veggies just need to be thawed and if cut thinly fresh cucumber and squash can be easily consumed. If it floats then use a stainless steel fork or skewer to make it sink. I sometimes use suction cups to stick veggies to the glass. If there are left overs after a day then remove it. I never worry about left overs as I'm also feeding lots of snails and shrimp, my tanks are near spotless when it comes to left overs!

Today I skipped feeding as I fed my plecos plenty of Repashy the last 2 days. Usually they get daily shrimp pellets and/or algae wafers. I try to feed veggies at least once a week, preferably twice but I am lazy.

How much a day? 1 after + 1 slice vegetable? Do I need to take out the seeds of cucumbers or zucchini when feeding?

 

[BettasAreSuperior]

Hi all!
I had a few questions about feeding my BN (future BN is should say). 1) What (besides zucchini and algae wafers) should I feed my BN? 2) Can I feed my Bn fruits? If so, what kinds? 3) Is there any special prep that goes into making the food (EX: taking out seeds)? 4) How often should I feed my BN when young, adult, and old? 5) How much should I feed my BN when young, adult, and old? 6) Do you have any other tips for me on feeding or general BN care? Thanks!

I would feed repashy community plus or Reapshy soilent green they are both very yummy foods for BN plecos and corydoras. They are a staple food. These foods I listed are a gel mix. just get the powder and some water and mix, mix, mix! Until it is well mixed and all the lumps are out. Then wait 5-10 minutes and then break it out into soild pieces and feed!

 

[AcornTheBetta]

I would feed repashy community plus or Reapshy soilent green they are both very yummy foods for BN plecos and corydoras. They are a staple food. These foods I listed are a gel mix. just get the powder and some water and mix, mix, mix! Until it is well mixed and all the lumps are out. Then wait 5-10 minutes and then break it out into soild pieces and the feed!

I wanted to try to make my own version of that...
How much should I feed per day? I was thinking of feeding a diet of algae wafers, gel food, fresh blanched vegetables, and shrimp pelets (not all at the same time of course). Would this be a good feeding schedule?
Monday: 1 algae wafer + 1 blanched veggie (EX: round of zucchini)
Tuesday: 1 ice block sized thing of gel food + 1 blanched veggie
Wednesday: 1 portion of gel food + shrimp pellets
Thursday: 2 blanched veggies
Friday: Algae wafer and gel food
Saturday: Gel food and Blanched veggie
Sunday: Algae wafer and shrimp food
I wouldn't follow this exactly, it's just a rough outline.

 

[BettasAreSuperior]

I wanted to try to make my own version of that...
How much should I feed per day? I was thinking of feeding a diet of algae wafers, gel food, fresh blanched vegetables, and shrimp pelets (not all at the same time of course). Would this be a good feeding schedule?
Monday: 1 algae wafer + 1 blanched veggie (EX: round of zucchini)
Tuesday: 1 ice block sized thing of gel food + 1 blanched veggie
Wednesday: 1 portion of gel food + shrimp pellets
Thursday: 2 blanched veggies
Friday: Algae wafer and gel food
Saturday: Gel food and Blanched veggie
Sunday: Algae wafer and shrimp food
I wouldn't follow this exactly, it's just a rough outline.

Wow. This schedule seems like a good and varied diet for both of your BN plecos and corydoras because it has a lot of variety and nutrition because they are getting exposed to more foods. Overall, that schedule is very strong and yummy and I am sure that is a schedule you can use for a ll of your algae eaters. Also, for the repashy you can pick soilent green or community plus. You don't have to do both. Although, I do reccomend feeding repashy you can always try and make your own! You can get repashy on amazon

Links for repashy:

Community plus: Amazon.com : Repashy Community Plus 6 Oz JAR : Freshwater Fish Food : Pet Supplies

Soilent green: Amazon.com : Repashy Soilent Green 6 Oz JAR : Pet Supplies

 

[AcornTheBetta]

Wow. This schedule seems like a good and varied diet for both of your BN plecos and corydoras because it has a lot of variety and nutrition because they are getting exposed to more foods. Overall, that schedule is very strong and yummy and I am sure that is a schedule you can use for a ll of your algae eaters. Also, for the repashy you can pick soilent green or community plus. You don't have to do both. Although, I do reccomend feeding repashy you can always try and make your own! You can get repashy on amazon

Links for repashy:

Community plus: Amazon.com : Repashy Community Plus 6 Oz JAR : Freshwater Fish Food : Pet Supplies

Soilent green: Amazon.com : Repashy Soilent Green 6 Oz JAR : Pet Supplies

That was just for the pleco, but the corys will probably steal XD.
Heres what I was going to do for corys:
Day 1: Shrimp pellets
Day 2: Frozen bloodworms
Day 3: Fish flakes
I would continue this on for ever and ever. They will steal from the corys and eat what my other fish miss so. I think it's fine. Thanks for the links! I'll check them out!
EDIT: I'm also going to be trying to make my own fish food (for micro preditors) using shrimp, fish, assorted veggies, and a small bit of dried out egg yolk. I would blend all that together to create a sort of fish super food mixture. For the pleco, I would do that all and then combine with unflavored gelatin to make it sink.

 

[BettasAreSuperior]

That was just for the pleco, but the corys will probably steal XD.
Heres what I was going to do for corys:
Day 1: Shrimp pellets
Day 2: Frozen bloodworms
Day 3: Fish flakes
I would continue this on for ever and ever. They will steal from the corys and eat what my other fish miss so. I think it's fine. Thanks for the links! I'll check them out!
EDIT: I'm also going to be trying to make my own fish food (for micro preditors) using shrimp, fish, assorted veggies, and a small bit of dried out egg yolk. I would blend all that together to create a sort of fish super food mixture. For the pleco, I would do that all and then combine with unflavored gelatin to make it sink.

ha, lol! And wow the DIY fish food sounds very creative and yummy! I would even eat that but I'll pass, I am not really in the mood for fish food gel today. lol hilarious hilarious

 

[AcornTheBetta]

ha, lol! And wow the DIY fish food sounds very creative and yummy! I would even eat that but I'll pass, I am not really in the mood for fish food gel today. lol hilarious hilarious

Lol. Some people on here have tried their betta's food. To which I say: Ummm ok. I don't eat seafood (That's why I'm so good at keeping fish cuz they know they can trust me) so I wouldn't even eat my DIY food. I'm going to test it with my bettas and white clouds before trying it on other fish. Who knows, my food could become the next big aquarium trend like planted tanks. Maybe I'll eat the pleco's food if I make it with out fish. Oh yeah, the pleco's food would be a like 20% meat and 80% veggies where as the other one is 20% veggies and 80% meat.

 

[BettasAreSuperior]

Lol. Some people on here have tried their betta's food. To which I say: Ummm ok. I don't eat seafood (That's why I'm so good at keeping fish cuz they know they can trust me) so I wouldn't even eat my DIY food. I'm going to test it with my bettas and white clouds before trying it on other fish. Who knows, my food could become the next big aquarium trend like planted tanks. Maybe I'll eat the pleco's food if I make it with out fish. Oh yeah, the pleco's food would be a like 20% meat and 80% veggies where as the other one is 20% veggies and 80% meat.

Ha, lol! I don't think I'll try my fish's food and besides I feed a lot of food and variety to my fish so I will go thorough a lot if I eat their food....oh....well good luck eating your fish food! Enjoy! hilarious Yes, the food options and meat, veggie options are both good!

 

[Pfrozen]

Asking cus I don't know. If a tank has unlimited algae for the BN to eat do you need to feed veggies still

 

[AcornTheBetta]

Asking cus I don't know. If a tank has unlimited algae for the BN to eat do you need to feed veggies still

They will eat algae pretty sparingly. This tank will have algae for him to snack on, but probably not enough to be his whole diet. They heat A LOT!

 

[Mazeus]

Mine also like the insectivor food I feed to the cories (e.g. Bug bites and repashy bottom scratcher), but nothing beats zucchini! My longfin super red BN is the queen of my tank, she has veggies available to her most days (the otos like veggies too!).

 

[BettasAreSuperior]

Asking cus I don't know. If a tank has unlimited algae for the BN to eat do you need to feed veggies still

Well, algae does not provide all the food and nutrients BN plecos need. They need at least 2 types of food. When there is no more algae, they go hungry!

 

[Pfrozen]

thanks guys ill make sure to feed mine veggies too then. i just got him today

 

[AcornTheBetta]

thanks guys ill make sure to feed mine veggies too then. i just got him today

Nice! Could I see a picture?

 

[Pfrozen]

Nice! Could I see a picture?

Sure! I'll take one tomorrow morning. the fish are asleep now and I don't want to bug them lol

 

[AcornTheBetta]

Sure! I'll take one tomorrow morning. the fish are asleep now and I don't want to bug them lol

Ok. Sounds good!

 

[Pfrozen]

Nice! Could I see a picture?

Sorry I couldn't get a better picture, don't mind the algae lol. Working on stocking a cleanup crew

 

[AcornTheBetta]

Sorry I couldn't get a better picture, don't mind the algae lol. Working on stocking a cleanup crew

So cute. I kinda like the angle he is at. What are you feeding him?

 

[Pfrozen]

So cute. I kinda like the angle he is at. What are you feeding him?

ive only had him for a day but so ive only tried hikari algae wafers. he seems way to preoccupied with the driftwood still but the ghost shrimp are going to town on the wafer so all good. ill probably just give him zucchini and wafers. im guessing hes gonna be stuck to the driftwood for a couple days though lol

 

[AcornTheBetta]

ive only had him for a day but so ive only tried hikari algae wafers. he seems way to preoccupied with the driftwood still but the ghost shrimp are going to town on the wafer so all good. ill probably just give him zucchini and wafers. im guessing hes gonna be stuck to the driftwood for a couple days though lol

Ok. Sounds good!

 

[Pfrozen]

Ok. Sounds good!

ill feed them green beans too probably. the advice others gave in this thread is stellar, you should probably feed them more than zuchini and wafers once in awhile

 

[inari]

Maybe this has already been asked, but....do you need to steam and/or peel squash and such or is it ok to throw in there raw?