today's adventure...

[sweetsuvvyb]

Well, I decided I'd neglected my poor pleco long enough, in my attempts to find him a new home (what do you do with a "gift" fish...sigh).

So i decided I'd finally make him welcome in my little tank, and get him some driftwood. It was rainy (in seattle..go figure), so I decided to go to the much closer petco than the lfs I prefer...I figured, how hard would it be to find a chunk of driftwood?

And sure enough, on a bottom shelf, I found some attached to pieces of slate. Just what I was looking for.

The fish dept associate came by at that moment, and asked if i needed help. I asked him if he thought the piece I'd picked out would work for my pleco. He said he'd never heard of putting driftwood in for plecos. His words were along the lines of "just give it the little wafer things, it doesn't need wood. Those smaller fish stores are always just trying to convince you of stuff. But if you want to, you can buy it, it's up to you". serious going on.

Alls I gotta say is, thank goodness for the internet LOL

[Allivymar]

*grin* An opportunity to educate.

Next time you pop in there, take a moment to explain to Mr Dense about the plecs digestive tract and the need for lignin

I took this from the Catfish Basics Pt. 2 : Feeding Your Catfish article by Chris Ralph over at www.planetcatfish.com if you want to use it:

"Bogwood, why do I need to use this I hear you ask? Well I advocate its use with all sucker mouthed catfish as it not only provides them with somewhere to hide, but it provides them with a very important substance in their diet called lignin. Lignin is required in their diet as an aid to helping catfishes to digest their food."

Theres lots more in the article if you want to bore Mr Dense to death as well

[sweetsuvvyb]

Well, I *attempted* to explain (but since I'm pretty uneducated as far as the catfish go...)...

I got a "well, I'm not saying you're wrong, I'm just not saying you're right either".

Ha.