Bristle Nose Pleco?

[Darkstar]

bristlenose plecs have teeth?

well, no not teeth as such but an equivalent. This mopani teeth wearing problem is more associated with Panaque, who's main diet is wood.
You can see the 'teeth' on the link below from an L191 Dull-eyed Royal Panaque.

<a href="http/www.planetcatfish.com/catelog/image.php?image_id=8314" target="_blank">http/www.planetcatfish.com/catelog/image.php?image_id=8314</a>

Although bn's don't have exactly the same kind of teeth, the fact that it is assumed that they graze on wood to some degree like Panaque would imply they have teeth of some kind, albeit much smaller ones.

As I said, I've never seen any evidence of it on Panaque...and I've certainly never seen any evidence of it on bn's either. I've read about it a few times, including in catfish study group papers so i don't doubt the problem exsists, although again, I have no evidence either way as to whether it could affect bn's in the long term.

 

[Davo86]

I currently have 1 piece of mopani wood and 3 pieces of a darker and much softer bankwood,
I now have 3 bristlenose and all of them seem to rasp at the bankwood much more than the mopani.
However in an old tank, (were i kept the oldest bristlenose previously), all i had was mopani wood and he seems to have done fine.

I would say that mopani is suitable but softer banwood is much more ideal

 

[smmetz]

ah, thx for the tips then! I just spent a bunch of $$$ on another large peice of wood too, it wasn't labeled mopani, but it sure looks like it. Oh well. I like it because there are no problems getting it to sink. The softer woods need to be screwed to slate or something, or soaked for weeks to stay submerged?

 

[Davo86]

The softer woods need to be screwed to slate or something, or soaked for weeks to stay submerged?

Yeah, i usually buy pieces that are in the display tanks, that way there are no tanins and you know the bogwood will sink.