# Gold Nugget Pleco Problems



## Yeaulman (Jun 23, 2005)

I noticed that my gold nuggets in my 90g planted tank are slowly losing color. I have had them for about 4 or 5 months now and they are always busy cleaning the glass. 

I also have 4 discus and 5 or 6 black skirt and precilla tetras in the tank. There are also 5 panda corys as bottom feeders.

The tank is a 90g with 4 x 65w power compact lighting. There are 2 really large pieces of driftwood for the plecos to hide under and suck on. Tank temp is about 80 to 82F. 

If anyone can help me out that would be great.


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## apistomaster (May 24, 2008)

Most of the diet of the Gold Nugget plecos should consist of frozen blood worms and live black worms.
If you haven't been feeding them this way your fish is starving to death.


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## JanS (Apr 14, 2004)

Yes, as apistomaster said, they need a meaty diet, unlike many of the other Plecs, so the first thing I would try is adding some meaty food to see if they improve.

Keep us posted.


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## Yeaulman (Jun 23, 2005)

There is quite a bit of beefheart in the tank after the discus' eat... i would have thought that they would get some extras when the tank lights turn off. In the morning, there is no beefheart left on the bottom.


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## apistomaster (May 24, 2008)

While Gold Nugget plecos and other carnivorous plecos will eat some beef heart what seems particularly important for their health is that their diet is rich in insect larvae such as blood worms and live Black worms. Most of these fish live in rocky bottomed rivers and graze the bio-film coating the rocks. It is usually a film of algaes and diatoms which supports a variety of aquatic insect larvae like mayfly nymphs, black fly larvae, stonefly nymphs and an occasional worm. Insect larvae are important sources of protein and chitonous exoskeletons. The majority of the plant matter these plecos consume is that which is found in the guts of these aquatic insects. The algae supplements their diet incidental to their search for the macro-organisms. Their suckermouth anatomy is important to their life style of living in fast water. It helps them hold on to rocks in fast water while minimizing energy expenditures.
Most beef heart blends are badly lacking in equivalents of nutrients derived from aquatic insects. 
All fish must have an energy budget that allows them to obtain food using less energy than they expend
Frozen blood worms, frozen black mosquito larvae and frozen glass worms are the best we can cme to providing Gold Nuggets and similar plecos with a natural diet in captivity. 
I make my own beef heart blend which I can feed to most of the fish I breed. My mix, by volume, is about 65% blended heart with agar dissolved in water as the binder. The balance of my mix is freeze dried blood worms, earth worm flakes, FD CycopEeze, dried seaweed and VitaChem supplement. Still this is not the main food I use for my plecos and Sturisoma I raise.
The best all purpose prepared food I have found for feeding plecos and their fry is earthworm sticks.
I only know of two sources for earthworm sticks in the US. They are:
www.kensfish.com
www.aquaticeco.com


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## JanS (Apr 14, 2004)

I had never heard of any of those sticks before. They look like something worth trying.


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