fiber for my pleco

[catfishmike]

lately my pleco has been eating the rough fibers of of my plant bulb and is ruining them i was wondering it perhaps anyone knows of a nice alterative to having my pleco ruin my plant bulbs.i haven't been able to get him some good wood lately and nor zucchinni either,but i will get him some more soon.he really seems to like the rough fibers of the plant bulbs and i was hoping someone knows of a good form of fiberous material that i may offer my pleco.

 

[1979camaro]

all i know is wood...how about some metamusal? psylyum is often sold for people, it is like a corn husk type thing, but i dont know how that would work either....will a pleco eat lettuce? it is high in fiber...

i would be curious about this as well

sorry

KB

 

[catfishmike]

you know thats not a bad idea about the metamusal,not perhaps that brand but something along those lines.corn husks is another good idea as well.yea plecos will eat lettuce but there isnt much fiber in lettuce,instead it has celulose which is hard to digest,and will foul quckly.thanks alot those are great ideas,i'll just have to make a paste food and dry it out into a wafer or something like that.if it works i'll let you know.

 

[1979camaro]

sounds good mike...you are right about lettuce, my mistake...

edit: what about some sort of grain meal? i dont know how exactly you would make it, but somehow create a little cake out of various ground grains like wheat

Kevin

 

[catfishmike]

yea i was thinking of that too,perhaps some wheat germ.or barley.i don't know?once i get to the store i will try these ideas.if it works i'll send you some to test.

 

[1979camaro]

hi again mike...just checking in to see how the project is going

KB

 

[catfishmike]

not too good i tryed to use the corn husk,no good.righ now i have just been fiddling with the recipe for high fiber homemade wafers but it's hard to get a good balance.also it's beentough to find suitable products to useas i am over prtective of my fish ad i don't want anything weird in my tank.but overal i'm still working on it.i wa trying to incorperate the corn husk into themixture i have comeup with and i almost killed my blender lol.

 

[FroggyFox]

haha quite the twist on that story about the guy and the fish in the blender "fish food kills blender"

how about buying a couple of "dummy" bulbs for the pleco to snack on? ask a lps if they have any plants that died or some inexpensive plants that are somewhat like the ones in your tank?

 

[Somonas]

and why can't you get zuchinni or driftwood? these 2 are the answers to your question.

Plecos love to chew on driftwood, especially the panaques (royals etc). toss in some driftwood and some bottom feeder tablets at night, and your pleco will stop feeding on your plants.

 

[catfishmike]

i am now able to get zuchinni for my pleco again.when i first posted this i had some things going on in my life that were demanding more time and i have a very odd schedule.but things haave cleared up some.my true goal though is to make a high fiber wafer so that i can make up for the lack of driftwood.it's very hard to find good driftwood where i'm at we only get rootwood and my pleco doesn't seem to like rootwood.also i find that most wafers don't have enough fiber for my liking so i have been toying with the idea of a high fiber wafer i can keep on a shelf.