BN Pleco questions

Hello,

I currently have a BN pleco and a male betta in a 55 gallon tank. I moved them (and the entire filter assembly) over from a 10 gallon tank to cycle the 55, as per members' suggestions.

Because there is not much algae in the new tank, I've been giving him 1-2 algae wafers per day. Is this too much?

A). I think he may be a little fat; he seems a little round in the abdomen. When he was in the 10 gallon, the betta tried to eat the wafers, and he had to compete with a pictus catfish, so I usually tried to give a little extra to make sure he ate, because he wasn't as aggressive.

B). What makes me worried is that when I just walked over to see him eating (I put one in last night, and 1/2 of one in this morning) he was actually upside down at a roughly 45 degree angle, not really eating it, but it was in his mouth. As soon as I got close, he righted himself and swam away.

I tested the water of the 10 gallon tank right before I moved them, which was one week after the previous water change (so maximum time between changes; had I left them in there, I would have done a change that day). Parameters were all normal (all zeros), though my water is a little acidic, so I'll buy some pH down next time I'm at the store.

I tested the new water yesterday and the parameters were also all normal, with the same pH. (I will test again when I get home this evening.)

We've had absolutely no problems with him in the few months we've had him - he doesn't pick on anyone or get picked on, fins look great, etc. If it helps, I can also upload a picture later this evening. Since I moved him over on Saturday night, he's been busily scooting about the tank, sucking on the walls, rocks and plants, showing no signs of stress or illness.


Should I be concerned? With all the problems of aggression we've had with other fish, he's always been great and kept the tank clean, so I hope he's alright Thanks for any info!

 

Don't bother the pH, it'll be fine. Both bettas and BN plecos are very adaptable. It'll just cause you more problems.

Sounds to me like he was protecting his food! I used to have a school of Cherry Barbs in with my BN, and she would go ballistic every time a barb would come near her food LOL She spent more time guarding it and chasing away the barbs than eating it It might help to only feed either right in the morning as the lights go on, or a bit after you tunr the lights off. That way, the pleco will be awake, and the betta will be just waking up, or settling down for the night.

You should consider feeding veggies, too. My plecos like yellow squash, zucchini, fresh halved green beans...

Just keep an eye on your parameters, and let them settle in for now

 

Phew! I guess I panicked a bit, (he's always sort of been our favorite since he's friendly and does such a great job cleaning, though the betta is back in our favor...even though he has been a bit of a jerk!), but glad to know he's okay.

For a roughly 2-3" long BN pleco, how many wafers should I feed per day, with the understanding that there isn't any algae in the tank yet? I had been feeding at night, but I didn't want him to be hungry, so I threw an extra 1/2 wafer in this morning.

I will definitely consider getting him some veggies! Will I need to attach them to something heavy so they sink? It seems like he wouldn't think to swim up to the top.

 

Feed him as much as he'll eat in a few hours. How ever much this is depends on the fish, so its just something you'll have to play around with.

Lots of members stick raw (well rinsed) veggies on to an aquarium only designated fork or spoon, with fishing line or 100% cotton string tied to it, and just let it sink. No wet hands! I boil my veggies, just long enough so that they sink on their own, or I use a veggie clip (I boil if I can't find my clip lol). The clip doesn't work well for larger amounts of food, though, so its better or lettuce and seaweed.

 

I have a bunch of norI (used to make sushI but it's dried out now), would he like that?

 

I'm not sure... I'm sure Google would give you an answer, or searching it on the site.

 

As an update, here is a picture of my pleco (Professor Nubbins). I was going to get a view of him from the top/side as well, but he was being uncooperative. Does he look chubby?

 

He looks good

How long is he?

 

As best as I can estimate with a ruler by the side of the tank, about 2 inches. We've had him since early January, and he's definitely grown (if not only laterally, hah) since then

 

Ahem, he is a she my dear . Of that I am most certain. Anyways the easiest way I find to feed my clown pleco is to fork a slice of cucumber and let him have at it for as much as he wants, once its gone I leave him for a few days to force him to eat drift wood and then ill give him some more cucumber or carrot or spinach, no lettuce, they normally don't eat it and its not the best for them. Also, do you have any drift wood in your tank? IMO all plecos should have some drift wood to munch at will, the fiber helps keep things running smoothley since all they do is eat. BNs are a tad food aggressive lol. My clown does the same thing, those gold barbs never give up though(possibly the most ignorant fish on the market.)

EDIT: I thought id mention, my clown(2.5-3") can finnish of a .5" thick slice of cucumber in about 2-4 days.

 

And here I've been calling him a he! How can you tell? Do they still get the "bristles?" I think I read that they get them in a different place (chin vs nose or something).

We were thinking of getting an albino; if we got a male, would they breed?

 

Sol has made my point lol. If you aren't seeing bristles at this size, then you have a female. She might get bristles but she most likely won't. If she does, they'll just be around her 'chin' area.

 

I wouldn't worry about his resting angle, mine does that all the time and she's perfectly healthy. Sometimes they just like to eat off the side of the pellets, I think it's easier for her to chew that way. And mine does like to swim about upside down from time to time, just to get that annoying bit of algae she missed the first time round or to enjoy the filter current more.

 

Good morning,

Your Pleco does appear to be a bit on the plump side. Have you seen the fish have a bowel movement? Easier said than done I know, but these fish should poop a lot. Their digestive tract is pretty much in a straight line so what goes in comes out rather quickly.

Try dropping in a few frozen peas, thaw them first, slice them in half and remove the skin and let them sink to the bottom. Peas can act as a laxative for fish. I'm afraid it may be constipated. Do not use canned peas, they may contain salt.

I feed my Bristle Nose a slice of raw zucchinI stuffed with an algae wafer every morning. I remove any uneaten portions late afternoon. I use plant anchors pushed into the zucchinI so that the slice sinks. Too, pushing the wafer into the zucchinI may help prevent other fish from getting the wafer before the Pleco has a chance to eat.

Great little tank cleaners. Mine also loves to munch on driftwood. The driftwood is good for the digestive system.

I use tongs to remove uneaten portions. Tongs come in very handy and too they come in a variety of sizes. I use the ones below:

These same tongs can be found at ACE Hardware and at a cheaper price!

Best wishes for your fish!

Ken

 

BN breeding requires a separate tank. Luck and some terracotta. Breeding a brown to a albino can bring you a few resaults. We recently found albino to be true recessive. and browns are normally hetrozygous for albino, though a homozygous brown may exist. Breeding a Bb to a bb will bring about many albinos. Even breeding a Bb to Bb brings some albino(my friend got 5 out 25) but if your fish is homozygous for brown then no albinos for you. XD.

 

Thanks for everyone's info!

Ken, I think you may be right...she's always been chubby, even in the 10 gallon, but she used to be a little poop machine, and I haven't seen much since we moved her to the larger tank. I'll have to get some peas ASAP! As long as she's still very active and scooting around the tank, it shouldn't mean impending doom, right? I noticed her coloring is more dull (I read that vibrant colors means good health) and her midsection seems a little too round.

I was looking for driftwood online...often they'll call it "driftwood" but really it's just ceramic or whatever they make aquarium ornaments out of. At least buying it in person, I'll be able to tell if it's real.

 

Good morning,

I think once the fish has a bowel movement it should be ok if indeed constipation is the issue. If it were a tumor the swelling would only be on one side. Looking at the photo it's swollen on both sides leading me to believe it's constipation. No, the fish isn't doomed.

I bought Malaysian driftwood from the link below. I'm very pleased with what they sent. For my 265g tank I ordered the large pieces.


Ken

 

Ken,

Do you have a preference between Malaysian and MopanI driftwood? Are there any differences besides aesthetic ones?

 

I have both types, but only of them in my aquariums. The MopanI is in my lizards terrarium. Its knobby, and has darker and lighter spots. Really fun, and its nice and dense, so it would sink if I were to use it in an aquarium.

The Malaysian is my favorite. Its real dark, which looks great with live plants. Its flakey, though, so you'll suck up lots of wood bits when you do water changes. My Clown Pleco really likes this type of wood, because its easy for him to munch on. I also find this type to come in much more fun shapes and sizes. It should sink on contacts, but might need a little help staying down for a while. It releases lots of tannins, so if that's not something you like, then soak it for a good long while.

 

Good afternoon,

Good information above by Akari. I like the Malaysian driftwood because it sinks by itself and stays put. Too, I like the tannins/tea color that the wood changes the water too. The tea tint will eventually go away. As stated above, you can soak it, boil it, to help remove the tannins prior to it going into your tank if you wish.

Ken

 

I have had both. Right now I have 2 pieces of mopani. I really like them. They come in some intresting knoty shapes or in flat pieces. I have 1 of each. Ill get you some pics in a few minutes. My clown loves his mopani, its also very smooth and the cory love it. The issues are that yes it does need to be submerged, for the piece in my pics it took 24 hours to sink. On the bright side it has a significantly lower tanin output in my experince.

Sorry about the DG in the pic, he was puppy guarding his new property -_-.


And the flat piece



Javafern likes drift wood

 

Thanks for the pictures! I like the first one. I was planning to get the smallest one I could, but I kind of like the idea of having it leaning against a side of the tank (I have a tall skinny rock leaning against one currently).

I got some peas and tossed one in after taking the skin off; the betta found it right away but the pleco has yet to notice. I'll have to check periodically to make sure the betta doesn't just eat it all...

 

Sounds ok, you may try spinach, it has a similar effect as the peas. This is the reason driftwood is great with plecos, it helps the digestive system tons.

 

I'll definitely try and pick some up this weekend.

She doesn't seem like the sharpest tool in the shed. She was nibbling on a piece, then dropped it and couldn't find it, and hasn't had any more since The betta has eaten maybe 1/4 of it, so there's plenty for her, but she's busy scuttling around the tank, doing pleco-things. Hopefully she eats it eventually. Her abdomen (as viewed dorsally) looks a little strange, textured sort of...as if scales were raised up (though I don't think plecos have scales), sort of like an egg-bound betta (as I now possibly have experience with that, as well).

In the end, she's acting like her normal, active self, so I won't worry too much yet.

 

You might try fasting her a few days, and then giving her a pea, and fasting her another couple days.

 

Seeing as she isn't eating the pea anyway, that was my plan. I fed her one wafer Sunday night and 1/2 wafer Monday morning, and nothing since then.

The tank is pretty deep, and with it being on a stand, I can barely reach the bottom, even with a net (which isn't very long; I should get another one). If the fish don't eat the tiny bits of pea sitting on the bottom, do I need to fish them out, or can I leave them?

Also, with the given dates/amounts I've fed her, assuming she doesn't decide to eat any pea tonight, should I wait until Thursday to feed her again?

 

Yeah, you could wait a couple days. If she doesn't want to eat, there's no need for the food to be sitting in there getting all gross.

As for getting the leftovers out, do you have a syphon? You could just syphon out just enough water to get the leftovers out, and then top off if you needed to. You'll still get wet, but not as much lol

 

As an update this morning, it doesn't look like she ate any of the pea overnight. Even though I told her it was good for her.

She was hanging on a rock, and as she swam away, a couple chunks of poop seemed to fall out. Definitely not like the long strings she used to have trailing behind her, but hopefully she'll get better soon.

Is there anything in particular that causes constipation in fish? I haven't fed her anything new, or any different amounts. When I pulled her out of the 10-gallon, she had a string, so everything was fine then.

 

She doesn't have driftwood, and plecos need wood for digestion. Best bet is to get her some asap

 

So I've read that plecos' colors are more vibrant when they are happy/healthy. Can anyone verify/extrapolate on this? Sometimes my pleco is plain brown, other times she's brown with white spots, and here I've included a picture of her now, during her marbled/banded phase. Is this a good thing? I think she looks pretty this way

 

Dark colored plecos change their colors and patterns to match their environments and mood. She's fine

 

I'm sorry I keep reviving a dead thread, but I'm worried about my pleco When I had a female betta who was possibly egg-bound, I saw people mention "pineconing," when the scales on their sides stick out like a pinecone. I know plecos don't have scales, per se, but it seems like her midsection looks different. The picture isn't very good (she doesn't like to hang out in well-lit areas), but you can kind of see the spots on her sides, like something is sticking out more than the surrounding area. Should be concerned? Any input will be greatly appreciated. If you think a better picture would help, let me know.

I'll be getting a piece of driftwood tomorrow; I've read different things about different kinds, so it's hard to decide. What would you all suggest if I want to be able to put it in the tank as soon as possible? I think I've read that MopanI sinks right away, but release a lot of tannins, and Malaysian wood floats more and is flaky, but doesn't have as high of a tannin content. Of course, this is dependent on my LFS's supply, as well...



Update: (This is like my little fish diary!) I threw some more pea chunks in, and it looks like she's nibbling on one. I don't want to go too close to check, because I might scare her off, and I want her to eat it. It definitely looks like her scales are sticking up around her midsection though...and I haven't seen any strings of poop for the last 5 days or so. (Sometimes if she swims off suddenly, I'll see a small chunk drop, but not the 2"-long chains she used to sport.)

Tomorrow I'll get a piece of wood (I'm thinking Malaysian, I've heard it's softer and easier to digest, and has less tannins...maybe I'll just weigh it down), and I've heard they like zucchinI and cucumber (which is supposed to help with constipation), so I'll pick up some of that, too.

 

Does she kinda look like this:

Your pics so its hard to see >.<


I love my Malaysian DW

 

Its possible shes just constipated.

 

Akari: Yes! That's what it looks like. Like little raised squares, sort of. (I think she may have eaten some of the pea I put it last night, though it's hard to tell who.) What was wrong with the pleco in the picture?

soltarianknight: I'm assuming so...hopefully she can hold out until I get her some wood/veggies

 

If she looks like that picture then chances are she's just eggy, or constipated. Make sure you offer her high fiber foods and get some driftwood ASAP

 

You don't think it's dropsy/bloat, do you? If so I can look into getting some of the medications I've seen suggested.

If you think it is possible, what remedies do you suggest?


Edit: Nevermind about the dropsy, at least. I looked up pictures, and they are WAY WAY more serious than she is. Though I'm sure most of the pictures online are end-stage examples. Is bloat the same as dropsy?

 

No. Bloat and dropsey are very diffrent lol, well kinda. Bloat just means the fish is bloated, aka a symptom. You don't treat bloat you treat the cause. Dropsey is also a symptom caused by organ failure or inability to expel toxins. You treat for the cause of the dropsey, whish most of the time isn't possible. Dropsey fish can be bloated, but bloated fish do not immeadiatly have dropsey. Treating for dropsey is serious and shouldnt be done without trying other remedies for other possible aliments.

 

Luckily I found a store that carried driftwood at a reasonable price, though all they had was Mopani. They had one awesome piece but it was $30 and way too big. I wanted a less-branchy one (it will be replacing the location of a rock, so I wanted it a similar size/shape), and I think this one looks pretty neat. The picture doesn't really do it justice Also, the colors will become much more contrasted once it's wet, I'm guessing.

It is currently boiling; I'll boil it as long as I'm awake tonight (couple hours) then soak it overnight, changing the water once in between boilings and after boiling, and once if I wake up in the middle of the night. I know it may still leach tannins when I put it in tomorrow, but I'd rather the pleco be able to nibble on it, and just do extra water changes.

I also blanched a zucchinI slice and a cucumber slice and tossed them in the tank. The betta (of course) enjoyed the cucumber, and the pleco nibbled on it for a bit and then ignored it. So picky! She was much more interested in the rock that was stuck in the zucchinI (and fell out) rather than the veggie itself. (The rock used to be in the 10g, so maybe it had some goods still on it.) I've since turned the light off, so maybe she'll eat some overnight. I'll take out whatever's left in the morning.

 

That's great piece of wood!

Isn't it crazy how much they charge for driftwood >.<