Bristlenose pleco

[elaine5182]

I have recently got a bn pleco (yesterday) and since then it has been hiding under the rock. Am used to crazy active fish like danios and guppies so am frustrated this isn't moving.
I've read on different websites you can feed them cucumber, spinach and green beans am I right in thinking that I can cut up a small piece of cucumber and feed the plec?? What would this do to my tank readings and other fish though?? I have 5 danios and 9 guppies.

Many thanks in advance

 

[phatpaul]

I'm new to bn plecos too. When I feed any greens I leave them in over night and if there's any left in the morning I take it out so it dosent foul the water. I haven't to date had any problems with my water quality so it can't be that bad.

 

[allaboutfish]

all plecos are very shy especially when they are first introduced to a tank.give it a while and it'll come out more often. most people feed them greens by tieing them to rocks and sinking the rock once he seems to be done eating it you just remove the rock

 

[elaine5182]

so it'd be ok to give cucumber or a spinach leaf

 

[phatpaul]

So far all iv used is cucumber and blanched peas

 

[allaboutfish]

ive never heard of the spinach ive heard of romane lettuce.

 

[AquaOne]

Blanched peas work well, but guppies like them too !
Put a couple of shelled/blanched peas in just before your 'light's-out', no need to tie down, they will sink anyway. Drop to front of tank and hopefully you will entice your BN pleco out.

 

[siva]

Cucumber and zucchini work best. Make sure you have a nice peice of driftwood in the tank for it too!

edit: also they appreciate it if you blanch the veg a bit for them first.

 

[amesdrew]

I just got a bristlenose yesterday too! but, it is an albino. Mine isn't shy though, I am actually wondering if it can possibly eat to much algae...

 

[phatpaul]

I wouldn't of thought so. Mine are pretty active little critters. They are doing just fine so much so it looks like iv got a male and female pairing up lol

 

[elaine5182]

The plec died after 2days of bein in tank. We tested water and ph levels was 8.2. Our water quality is bad and we only ever drink bottled water. Lfs said this would have caused plec to die. We got powder stuff to reduce the ph level and been advised to only use bottle water to put into tank instead of our tap water.

Gutted about it though

 

[AquaOne]

Elaine, sad news, but 8.2ph isn't so bad. Try to find out what your lfs ph level is, they probably do 'local tap' (find that out too). You want to be doing 'local tap' ph if possible, otherwise it's a bind having to try and 'correct' ph every pwc. If the lfs stock in buffered water it makes for hard work and I would be looking for an alternate supplier. I don't imagine there's anything in the tap water (other than chlorine) that could cause a problem, but I'm not a bio-chemist so someone may know different. If your tank is well established, test using a quality liquid test-kit (API Master) and you are sure to find out how your water condition measures up.

 

[AquaCheatah]

sad news that your Bn pleco died i got one my self yesterday
and its a bit shy i hope he eats soon i dont want him to go thru the same fate

but if anything i wouldnt buy water for my fishes or even think of wasting poland spring on them bottom dwellers i might just britta the water and give em some :0)

if your tap water is a bit high in ph its ok to call your local water treatment center and ask what ph lvl is coming out your tap

in nyc we can always call DEP and they can tell us what ph is around our area
altho sometimes it can change they let us know its any where around 6.5 and up no higher then 7.5 and up

but if this is a problem you can always get API's Proper PH
they sell quite a range from 6.5 and up its a buffer/water conditioner
so you wont have to do much after you change your water just follow the
instructions on the bottle and your good to go

once you put this in sometimes your fish might go crazy and get all bright
and perrrttie but this soon goes away if your water starts to change in quality

i hope this helps for future ref

 

[siva]

The plec died after 2days of bein in tank. We tested water and ph levels was 8.2. Our water quality is bad and we only ever drink bottled water. Lfs said this would have caused plec to die. We got powder stuff to reduce the ph level and been advised to only use bottle water to put into tank instead of our tap water.

Gutted about it though

Do not use that power stuff! It burns fishies gills and throws off your water chemistry. In general, you do not not want to alter your pH. Your lfs is completely off base by saying your pH killed your pleco. In general if they sell you any fish that dies they are going to say anything they can to get around it. It is highly unlikely that your pH had anything to do with it. Your fishies need a consistent pH, not a lower one. This is one of the reasons that junk that supposedly alters your pH is no good, you're going to end up with big pH swings.

Are you using a API liquid pH test? Otherwise, that pH reading might not even be accurate.

Is your tank cycled? If not, the pH hasn't even settled down to what it's going to be permanently yet.

Acclimate fish slowly and they should have no problem with your pH, especially something rather hardy like a pleco. Look into drip acclimate, or you can do what I do, which is float the bag for about 20 mins then start slowly removing some bag water and adding some tank water every 10 minutes until their bag water has become pretty much tank water, then add them to tank. If your pH does stay above 8 I would do the drip method. Put the fish and bag water in a bucket and start a flow from your tank with a peice of airline tubing, tie a knot in it so it just slowly drips into the bucket.

 

[elaine5182]

Been advised to try the powder stuff to bring down the ph level, but i didn't know if that would help long term would I need to do it every water change. Wonder what has caused the plec to die

 

[AquaOne]

Elaine, as Siva.. avoid using ph buffer if you can. It adds another element to monitor/adjust and can be worse than a simple and stable ph. If your lfs is using buffer, I would be looking for another lfs. It's much easier to go 'local tap' and most lfs's would surely do the same. Some fish need a narrow band ph, but for general community stock a 7.2 - 8.2 should be okay. My ph regular at 7.8, measures from dechlorinated tap or from tank, easy !

 

[FoxRob]

Sorry about your BN pleco, mine has been very active since we got him, he is always in plain sight but there are places for him to hide but he is out all the time. Our rubber lipped pleco on the other hand just hides in one corner of the tank, he has disappeared for a few weeks after we got it and we though he died and the other fish ate him but one day he was just out in the corner during PWC he never came out and I had removed the drift wood and repositioned plants but never seen him, till he wanted to just hang out in one corner of the tank.

 

[elaine5182]

MAybe I need to just do a 20% change once a week and not the 40 I was doing. I also got a new filter called fluval u2 but am currently running two filters still to let new one build up its maybe that as well. Will monitor water and ph and maybe introduce new bn plec next weekend.

 

[siva]

MAybe I need to just do a 20% change once a week and not the 40 I was doing. I also got a new filter called fluval u2 but am currently running two filters still to let new one build up its maybe that as well. Will monitor water and ph and maybe introduce new bn plec next weekend.

I think their might be some problems here that haven't been addressed:

1. What size tank is this?

2. Are you familiar with the nitrogen cycle/cycling your tank?

3. Do you have an API Freshwater master test kit?

I do atleast a 40% pwc on my tanks every week. You may have a tank that's mid cycle and needs daily water changes. Please answer the above questions and we'll get to the bottom of it. Your pH is simply not the issue, and using a pH buffer is never advisable. If you were going to lower your pH, you would need to use peat.

 

[elaine5182]

Our tank is a 60l tank.
Not so sure about the cycling of tank though all I know is I do a change every week. Was doing a 40% change every few days due to algae build up.