L-183 starlight bristlenose pleco care?

homedog98 said:
Cool. :) i'll think about it. could I put the leaves in the filter so I wouldn't be looking at them all the time?
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Just use the Lipton flow-thru teabags in your filter, then add sugar to the bucket when you do partial water changes and refrigerate. It's all about recycling to "go green"... :thm:
 
As far as feeding, I feed NLS 1mm Cichlid or .5mm Grow pellets to all my fish. BN, 204's, Hypancistrus and Peckoltia spp as well as mbuna, peacocks, various SA cichlids and assorted catfish all thrive on them as a staple diet.
 
Congrats on the find. They are beautiful plecos. I'd use the leaves to create the blackwater/tannin rich water. As far as I know, Mopani is a very hard wood and does not leach anything. It's the softer malaysian driftwood that leaches a lot of tannins. But the leaching won't go on forever, so you still need a regular source of tannins like the almond leaves. From what I've heard about these fish over the years, most people shorten their life span considerably by not providing them with the blackwater that they need.
 
toddnbecka said:
As far as feeding, I feed NLS 1mm Cichlid or .5mm Grow pellets to all my fish. BN, 204's, Hypancistrus and Peckoltia spp as well as mbuna, peacocks, various SA cichlids and assorted catfish all thrive on them as a staple diet.
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I'd like to... But my petsmart/petco just don't stock it. :P so I use omega one. Any other ideas?
 
homedog98 said:
Ok... So do you think (s)he'd be ok without the black water for a few weeks? (QT)
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I still have your address. I can send you a few IAL (indian almond leaves) if you want. I think I can do it in a regular envelope with just a couple stamps. I got a few hundred from an Aquabid seller some months back. You can also collect dried oak leaves yourself, and this will work.

homedog98 said:
I'd like to... But my petsmart/petco just don't stock it. :P so I use omega one. Any other ideas?
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Nothing wrong with Omega One. With the veggies you're going to feed it won't be a big deal. IMO where a lot of people go wrong is not providing enough protein for their plecos since they are omnivorous. You'll want to supplement with bloodworms, shrimp pellets, etc, the same stuff that your ram likes.
 
Just thought I would add this, it comes from the wild angelfish site where I am a member.

I posted this:
Excuse what may be a dumb question, but are the catappa leaf "Indian almond leaves"? And another Q re leaves, would oak leaves do?
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He is the reply:
"There are no dumb questions, just dumb answers!"

Yes Chris, Catappa or Ketapang leaves, Terminalia catappa, are Indian Almond Leaves.

These are much stronger than oak when it comes to providing benefical acids, phenols, and other biosurfactants to the water than oak.

I also used oak years back but boiling a large amount of leaves to get a bit of blackwater color and they never give the result of catappa (leaf for leaf). But there free in many places.
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In addition to the catappa leaves, alder cones will also help a lot in this respect.

I got involved with black water because I am hoping to receive some wild altums in the very near future and had to set up a proper tank for this.
 
I actually went ahead and sent you some this afternoon, since I was going to the post office already. Hope you don't mind. ;)
 
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