Maintenance of gold nuggets and fancy plecs in general

[wayne]

The below is something I posted before, and I've posted similar advice on fancy plecs before. This is based on information I got scouring the internet, raising fancy plecs and some breeding of plecs. The information relates to Baryancistrus 'gold nuggets' , but would apply equally well to other omnivorous and carnivorous plecs like Hypancistrus, Ancistrus (!) and others. You know you can look at your plecs mouth and see what sort of food it needs? There are pictures on planetcatfish.com, and also in the Aqualog book(s). I guess bits of it are also relevant to the herbivorous plecs such as Farlowella, Panaque and Peckoltia.
I guess the biggest problem buying these guys is 1. almost all are wild caught, so they may well have stomach bugs. 2. They usually turn up small, so there reserves of strengh are low, 3. they're usually not fed, or even if they are, won't feed. So never buy if they have a collapsed stomach, as they'll soon be out, and be very, very careful buying them mail order. If I was an etailer I would have a live arrival guarantee and no more.
However .....

There are five main types of fish sold as gold nuggets, which implies black fish , white dots and white seams to dorsal and caudal fins. There's a normal, small spot, large spot, and yellow and cream spot 'flavours' but all are similar. I have a nice 'normal' one in a tank with a 5 inch L-33, black base with white spots.
The first source you should try is planetcatfish.com, which has the gold nugget as a catfish of the month, and will tell you max sizes and so on. If you look in the forums you'll also see a lot of people reckon this fish is not the easiest to keep, but there are basic rules you must stick too. Even then small, recently imported Baryancistrus are not the strongest.
Gold nuggets need good , clean , well oxygenated water. Get some water flow moving in your tank - I have approx 1000 litres an hour in a 200 litre tank where mine live and that seems ok. Note that every time these fish are bred though, and it's not super impossible, people are really pushing the water around - they need that oxygen, especially as they prefer temperatures around 78 - 80. Don't worry about pH within reasonable limits, but get used to water changes, the more the merrier. 10% once a week is the absolute base limit, 10% three times a week and your nuggets will thank you. This is partially because of their feeding habits.
I've seen reports of Baryancistrus chewing plants, but I've never seen this, though honestly I don't really look. I also don't expect nuggets to clean algae - they spend most of their time browsing the substrate in the wild, eating any organics they find, small shrimps. I feed mins shrimp, catfish pellets and the like and they tuck into those pretty hungrily as well as just trundling around chewing the gravel and any surfaces. To give them ample food, you effectively need to overfeed to keep food lying around for them. I feel, that like marine tangs or angels, they need lots of small meals, not one or two big ones though mine pounce on bigger meals at astonishing speed. Thus you need to do the water changes described above, to keep the water aadequately clean. Like other peple, I suspect the vast majority of these fish don't grow because they're slowly starving to death. If they're eating algae it probably means there's nothing better for them.
Yes they are bred. And yes, I think they're absolutely beautiful. Stick to some simple rules, and they really are great to keep, and soon start to come and feed and be out during the day.

[cinlnk]

Originally Posted by wayne

The below is something I posted before, and I've posted similar advice on fancy plecs before. This is based on information I got scouring the internet, raising fancy plecs and some breeding of plecs. The information relates to Baryancistrus 'gold nuggets' , but would apply equally well to other omnivorous and carnivorous plecs like Hypancistrus, Ancistrus (!) and others. You know you can look at your plecs mouth and see what sort of food it needs? There are pictures on planetcatfish.com, and also in the Aqualog book(s). I guess bits of it are also relevant to the herbivorous plecs such as Farlowella, Panaque and Peckoltia.
I guess the biggest problem buying these guys is 1. almost all are wild caught, so they may well have stomach bugs. 2. They usually turn up small, so there reserves of strengh are low, 3. they're usually not fed, or even if they are, won't feed. So never buy if they have a collapsed stomach, as they'll soon be out, and be very, very careful buying them mail order. If I was an etailer I would have a live arrival guarantee and no more.
However .....

There are five main types of fish sold as gold nuggets, which implies black fish , white dots and white seams to dorsal and caudal fins. There's a normal, small spot, large spot, and yellow and cream spot 'flavours' but all are similar. I have a nice 'normal' one in a tank with a 5 inch L-33, black base with white spots.
The first source you should try is planetcatfish.com, which has the gold nugget as a catfish of the month, and will tell you max sizes and so on. If you look in the forums you'll also see a lot of people reckon this fish is not the easiest to keep, but there are basic rules you must stick too. Even then small, recently imported Baryancistrus are not the strongest.
Gold nuggets need good , clean , well oxygenated water. Get some water flow moving in your tank - I have approx 1000 litres an hour in a 200 litre tank where mine live and that seems ok. Note that every time these fish are bred though, and it's not super impossible, people are really pushing the water around - they need that oxygen, especially as they prefer temperatures around 78 - 80. Don't worry about pH within reasonable limits, but get used to water changes, the more the merrier. 10% once a week is the absolute base limit, 10% three times a week and your nuggets will thank you. This is partially because of their feeding habits.
I've seen reports of Baryancistrus chewing plants, but I've never seen this, though honestly I don't really look. I also don't expect nuggets to clean algae - they spend most of their time browsing the substrate in the wild, eating any organics they find, small shrimps. I feed mins shrimp, catfish pellets and the like and they tuck into those pretty hungrily as well as just trundling around chewing the gravel and any surfaces. To give them ample food, you effectively need to overfeed to keep food lying around for them. I feel, that like marine tangs or angels, they need lots of small meals, not one or two big ones though mine pounce on bigger meals at astonishing speed. Thus you need to do the water changes described above, to keep the water aadequately clean. Like other peple, I suspect the vast majority of these fish don't grow because they're slowly starving to death. If they're eating algae it probably means there's nothing better for them.
Yes they are bred. And yes, I think they're absolutely beautiful. Stick to some simple rules, and they really are great to keep, and soon start to come and feed and be out during the day.

Thank you Wayne for this Sticky...
I know I will have alot more questions in the days to come.