Hello!

[CanadaPleco]

Hey guys, I don't have any aro's but maybe someday, I really do love RTG's . I am a pleco head thru and thru and I know a lot of you guys are quite into plecos also

Just wanted to say hello!

 

[Cirrus]

Hi Rich - In the 90's I owned some beautiful gibiceps, a wonderful Blue eye Panaque, and a large L25 red scarlet.

Unfortunately, all my tanks now are acrylic and so I am paranoid about getting any plecos since I assume they will scratch my tanks. I also keep rays and have read that many plecos can bother rays.

What larger plecos would you recommend to keep with rays? With birchirs? Are there any to stay away from for keeping with aros?

And welcome to the club.

 

[CanadaPleco]

Honestly, not sure what kind of plecos I would keep with rays... Myself I wouldn't risk any, I did once and they killed the rays Was L600 and Big Royals in there. I would suspect that any pleco would be fine with Aro's!

Your pretty right about the acrylic and large plecos, definetly stay away from panaques, they would chew right through the tank given enough time! About the only pleco that wont are small bn plecos, and they would prob become food real fast.

If you've got a glass tank though large panaques would be awesome with aro's.

I bet you miss that blue eye! They are such pretty fish!

 

[Marowana420]

hi rich,
i have a L128 and it eats alot of shrimps, is that okay? will a diet with too much meat hurt him?
also i just picked up a pair of l330 watermelons few weeks ago. these ones wont touch any shrimps. i am wondering if feeding only hikari algae wafers is enough? i dont really want to throw vegetable in my tank unless i have to.
last question, how many wafers should i feed per day for 6" L128 and 6"+8" L330

thanks

 

[CanadaPleco]

Did you get the L330 pair from John? Jkhuu? If so they were my pair!

Shrimp will kill a panaque in no time. They NEED wood and veggies, be the veggies waffers or real veggies doesn't really matter. Those guys will chew threw a good amount of wood, its quite suprising actually. The algae waffers should be alright, but if you can try a piece of zucchini as well even if its just once a week. They also go crazy over a slice of sweet potatoe. Just take out what they dont eat the next morning, which is prob. none.

L128's tend to do better with more veg. then meat, but they need both for sure. I tend to feed my L128 & 200's mostly spriluna waffers and spirluna meat waffers from kensfish.com also some tetra color bits.

 

[Marowana420]

yes i bought them from john, his scarlet turned me into a pleco addict. small world huh!

okay i'll feed them zuchini or sweet potatoes once a week. do they know to stay away from food that is harmful? would carnivore pellets hurt them? its 47% protein and 3% fiber. i woudn't want them to get sick from eating tankmate's food.

 

[CanadaPleco]

If you feed your aro's during the day the plecos will likely hide and not eat much of it. They tend to just munch on wood all day and will look around for other food in the dark. A slice of sweet potatoe will sink on its own also, they dont need tons otherwise you get lots of orange poo in the morning

Those L330 came from the catfish convention 2 years ago in Baltimore. Awesome fish I hope you enjoy them.

 

[Marowana420]

thanks for the advice rich! its great to have a pleco expert join us.

 

[CanadaPleco]

Maybe I can learn a thing or two about aro's here

 

[CanadaPleco]

yes i bought them from john, his scarlet turned me into a pleco addict. small world huh!

okay i'll feed them zuchini or sweet potatoes once a week. do they know to stay away from food that is harmful? would carnivore pellets hurt them? its 47% protein and 3% fiber. i woudn't want them to get sick from eating tankmate's food.

Regarding the 330 diet... This is a copy and paste from TFH

Dietary Items by Volume

Wood - 25%
Other vegetal material (plant remains fruits & seeds) 7.5%
Sediment (includes mud and sand) 50%
Organic matter (detritus) 13%
Insect larvae (Beetles, caddisflies), insect parts (not further classified) and invertebrate eggs 4.5%


Dietary Items by Frequency
(presented a bit more generalised)

Vegetal material (which would include wood) 27.3%
Sediment 27.3%
Organic matter 27.3%
Insect material (all forms) 15%
Other items (not identified) 3%