Gold Nugget Pleco
- Thread starter ptd434
- Start date
I wouldnt try a gold nugget without driftwood. I tried it once a looong time ago before I researched any of my fish it lasted almost a month then died. I added a giant peice of wood to my tank and my gold nugget has been doing great for almost a year and a half.
Ok, here's the short and sweet on driftwood and plecos. Most plecos just use it as roughage, with little or no digestion taking place. It just keeps their long digestive tracts clean, and in healthy shape. A few species (panaque and related) have a colony of bacteria in their gut that breaks down the cellulose in wood into a nutrient the fish can use. Without wood, the bacteria dies off, then the fish slowly dies from lack of trace nutrients. This can take months, but once the bacteria is gone, is very hard to stop the process. The fish will start eating wood again, but without the bacteria in his gut, gets nothing out of it.
