finding the best diet for your suckermouth fish, can be challenging… there large differences between the otto’s, hillstream loach’s, and the pleco families… algae is a good place to begin, but plain common “sterile” aquarium algae alone will sustain very few fish… aufwucks ( the word used for wild algae found in nature ) contains all the micro life found in the wild living in the algae… which consists of various bug larvae, micro crustations, and other little critters too numerous to mention… these get eaten along with the algae, intentionally, or accidentally, when the wild algae is consumed…
one problem, is figuring out what the nutritional needs of each particular suckermouth is… the wild algae is different by location, because the the variety and numbers of critters living in it… some fish, like the common pleco have been known to survive on sterile aquarium algae, and what ever fish food they can scavenge, but most will not thrive on aquarium algae and just common generic fish foods, so we need to supplement something, to get them to survive a normal long life…
the next problem, is a man can not survive on ice cream alone… and likewise we need to find a way for the fish to get what’s missing in it’s diet, that it will actually like to eat, and that the other residents of the tank won’t eat before the suckermouth gets to it… unfortunately , it seems like the fancier the fish is, the harder that species is to keep…
this is easily seen in this example… I keep hillstream’s in a tank set up for them… I’ve litterally tried 30-40 different varieties, which I break into 2 group types… stingray shape, and lizard shape… I apparently have the conditions and diet needed for the stingray type, as most all are thriving, but the lizard types ( and I’ve had 12-15 different varieties ) some live about a year, but none thrive in my tank, the way the stingray types do, so I’m not doing something right… as far as we know, the conditions are similar, so I’m guessing something in the diet is missing… they aggressively go after the food I supplement, and I intentionally grow algae in that tank, so there is plenty of that available…
Otto’s… I’ve tried every variety that’s been available to me, and had a couple zebra otto’s, last a year or a little better, but not what I would call thrive…
plecos of the non common variety… I’ve got a worm line that appears to be thriving, though it’s only been here about a year, and I’m not doing anything significantly different than I did for the others, that did not live that long… I have several super red bushy noses that seem to be thriving ( Ancistrus ) which seem to be one of the easier of the less common plecos to keep…
if anyone has been able to keep any of the less common suckermouths thriving for a while, I’d love to hear the species, conditions and diets…
one problem, is figuring out what the nutritional needs of each particular suckermouth is… the wild algae is different by location, because the the variety and numbers of critters living in it… some fish, like the common pleco have been known to survive on sterile aquarium algae, and what ever fish food they can scavenge, but most will not thrive on aquarium algae and just common generic fish foods, so we need to supplement something, to get them to survive a normal long life…
the next problem, is a man can not survive on ice cream alone… and likewise we need to find a way for the fish to get what’s missing in it’s diet, that it will actually like to eat, and that the other residents of the tank won’t eat before the suckermouth gets to it… unfortunately , it seems like the fancier the fish is, the harder that species is to keep…
this is easily seen in this example… I keep hillstream’s in a tank set up for them… I’ve litterally tried 30-40 different varieties, which I break into 2 group types… stingray shape, and lizard shape… I apparently have the conditions and diet needed for the stingray type, as most all are thriving, but the lizard types ( and I’ve had 12-15 different varieties ) some live about a year, but none thrive in my tank, the way the stingray types do, so I’m not doing something right… as far as we know, the conditions are similar, so I’m guessing something in the diet is missing… they aggressively go after the food I supplement, and I intentionally grow algae in that tank, so there is plenty of that available…
Otto’s… I’ve tried every variety that’s been available to me, and had a couple zebra otto’s, last a year or a little better, but not what I would call thrive…
plecos of the non common variety… I’ve got a worm line that appears to be thriving, though it’s only been here about a year, and I’m not doing anything significantly different than I did for the others, that did not live that long… I have several super red bushy noses that seem to be thriving ( Ancistrus ) which seem to be one of the easier of the less common plecos to keep…
if anyone has been able to keep any of the less common suckermouths thriving for a while, I’d love to hear the species, conditions and diets…
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