Bristlenose Pleco and Cholla Wood

N

Neptunius

AC Members
Dec 16, 2011
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Boston, MA
I've had a bristle-nose pleco or two in my tank off and on for many years now. I always dutifully kept some driftwood in there that they seemed vaguely interested in. My current BN, which I've had for about 6 months now, seemed to nibble at it a bit but not much. He's also thoroughly useless against algae. A few days ago I decided to try some cholla wood. I boiled it and let it sit in water until it sank. This evening I put it into the aquarium and I wish I had taken a video of the reaction. My BN was like a kid at Christmas. He was all over it. It was pretty neat to watch. He was far more active than he's been since I got him.

Has anyone else had a similar reaction to cholla wood vs other types of driftwood?
 
My 2 bristle nose skim the surface of the driftwood I have in with them, but I haven't noticed the driftwood being chewed down at all. It could be the type of wood. I don't recall what type my drift wood is, given I've had it about 4yrs (mail ordered). I was under the impression bristle nose plecos don't necessarily need wood to rasp on like other types of plecos do.

Again, maybe it's differences in algae, but my 2 BNs are so good at keeping the interior glass and hardscape clean in my 55, I haven't had to touch it since I've had them. They even completely cleaned the rear glass that I don't touch. I do feed them cucumber, zucchini and various sinking pellet food. I sink the fresh veggies with stainless steel screws.
 
Most of mine pay little attention to wood, though I've had some that just demolished it. I suspect it depends on the specific animal as anything else.
 
My BNs always rasped on the wood, malaysia and manzanita. Never tried cholla wood (yet) but like others said I bet it just depends on the individual BN.

What kind of algae do you have? They don't eat all kinds.
 
myswtsins said:
My BNs always rasped on the wood, malaysia and manzanita. Never tried cholla wood (yet) but like others said I bet it just depends on the individual BN.

What kind of algae do you have? They don't eat all kinds.
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To be honest I'm not sure what type of algae it is. It's not the black hair algae that I've seen posted in photos here. It's basically thick green algae that grows on the aquarium decor.
 
Is the algae slimy? Do you have a picture?
 
Sounds like cyanobacteria to me.
 
I never kept BN with cholla, but cholla is a soft cactus "wood" & seemed to grow some different "goodies" than harder woods. My shrimp loved it! It does break down faster but lasted for ~ 1 year AFAIR.
 
myswtsins said:
Is the algae slimy? Do you have a picture?
Click to expand...

Hi, sorry for the delayed response. I was away with family for a few days and then got deluged at work so I haven't had the chance to catch up on the forums.

I tried to take a few photos. Here's the best I could do. I'm not sure why the photos came out so grainy. You can see the algae growing on the decor. It's also somewhat on the back pane of the aquarium, but it's more limited there.
IMG_2209.JPG IMG_2210.JPG IMG_2211.JPG
 
Can't be 100% but that looks like the algae I get in one of my tanks which I believe is a short form of black brush algae. Is it kinda fuzzy almost furry? If it is only on the decor (where BBA likes to live) and it's appearance bothers you, then you can take the decor out, spray it with some hydrogen peroxide, let it sit for a min, rinse it off and toss it back into the tank. This will not stop further outbreaks though. For that you need to figure out your imbalance with light, co2 and nutrients.
 
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