This is my little L81. Sorry for the fuzzy pic.


My $20 L18.

as always funky looks great

US $20 !

That's not even the cost of two Common Bristlenose here! Betcha I couldn't find any tho'.

His belly is sunken. I feed them everything and his belly just doesn't look the way I want it to. The other plecs may be giving him the run around. I really need the 135 gallon going.

its possible he's not getting enough food due to your other plecs try putting a bit extra in but take any uneaten food out before it can foul your water

I usually leave the veggies in for about a week without fouling the water, prawns stay in for 3-4 days. As long as one of them is eating it then it stays in the tank. I might have to put alot more food in and in several places around the tank.

Anything I leave in the water for more than a couple of days turns to Pulp. The one exception is Sweet Potato, but it doesn't maintain their interest like the other stuff.

i tend to drop food into more than one area as that lets all of them have a chance at getting something funky how often are you feeding ?

I don't feed vege's on a regular basis. Maybe once or twice a week. Sometimes not for a fortnight. Although it's certainly becoming much more frequent this year.

Otherwise. they have plenty of regular manufactured food, catfish disk's and pellets of a variety. Good quality, I don't buy the cheap shit.

General terms, I feed daily. Usually skipping Sundays.

yes but HOW many tmes a day & do you varie the menu ? plus a lot of plecs require vegatble matter as a main part of their diet (if you have them you should know which ones)

I feed them everyday if there isn't anything left from the previous feeding. I feed the high protein stuff (shrimp pellets, algae wafers, carnivore pellets, prawns, frozen brine, frozen bloodworms) about 3 times a week and there is always some kind of veggie in the tank and flake food on alternating days with the frozen brine/bloodworms.

so they get a varied diet but how many times a day do you feed ?

I only feed once a day as a rule.

It's not difficult to judge wether it's worth a second 'snack' or not. If everything goes real quick, they may get a treat later. If there's the slightest bit left over, no.

I've only got the Bristlenose, as far as Plec's go, but I make sure I get the right food for them, with the vegetable matter, and 'wood chips'. Not that I don't have enough stumps for them anyway.

I only feed once a day.

Well, I guess I learned the hard way, what clunkster is talking about fouling the water with vegges. I noticed the L90 and a L183 hanging out near the surface (they normally don't do this) so I tested the water. Holy S*#t! Ammonia was up to 1.5, nitrate was 40, nitrite was 0, ph was 6.0. Did a 50% water change. Tested the water again nitrate went down to 20, ph went up to 6.4, ammonia went down to .25-.50. Thats a little better, but still needs attention. Doing a partial water change tomorrow or saturday (I don't want to change too much water too fast). My 50 gallon needs help too. Sheesh. I really need to pay attention to the vegges. Nitrate is at 40, ammonia at .25-.50, ph at 6.0 (what's this all about?), nitrite is 0.

From now on I'm only leaving the vegges in for 2 days.

this is one of the reasons i test my water every week as it can easily happen as funky has just found out luckily its not cost him any of his fish as a rule i try to feed my fish 3 times a day in the morning before i go to work, tea time & either just before lights off or just after the reason i do this is because i prefer feeding little but often, less chance of me having rotten food fouling my tanks also different fish are more active at different times the feed at lights out should be carried out by all keepers of catfish & bottom dwellers as this is when they are normaly most active it annoys me when i hear people cite the reason they bought the "cute little catfish is to keep the bottom of the tank clean" bulls***t they have their own requirments so THEY NEED their own food