Pleco Biology: Understanding a Specialist Carnivore, Leporacanthicus in the Aquarium.

[@Fishtory]

Excellent thank you😊

[@heaven7360]

I've been recommending your videos here on youtube. I'm appreciative of all your information. A lot of youtube videos on fish keeping are more entertainment based (which is fine) but not quite as much of a deep dive that I'd like at times. Thanks!!

[@FreshwaterIchthyology]

Thank you, very kind of you to say so. I do prefer to be more educational even if it can be more dry at times.

[@danielchadwick-hh3cn]

I love learning about what's going on in my aquariums at this level. I wondered why one tank constantly has hundreds of empty snail shells while another doesn't. Thank you for the video.

[@FreshwaterIchthyology]

It’s always worth taking note of, there are a lot of fishes that feed on things like snails but they can be limited by the size of the snail or shell hardness.

[@danieliebenberg3348]

Thanks Rebecca your videos help a lot since the last time you made a video on the snail eating plecos I did add some Malaysian trumpet snails to my Sultan tank I do find loads of empty shells and they are growing a little better

[@FreshwaterIchthyology]

Ohhh brilliant and fascinating to know. Mayasian trumpets were one I wasn't sure they could deal with. I have seen potentially the same with Spectracanthicus murinus which actually is not related to S. zuanoni but off the top of my head i can't remember where they place.

[@plecocicho]

if you take convergent evolution as your guide, i would consider those teeth used lika pincher for exstracting insect larve and other macroinvertebrates from crevices. Similar shaped teeth wih convenient double head crone can be found by some pike cichlids, labiatud midas cichlid, etc. Extracting snails with them could be just another use.

[@FreshwaterIchthyology]

That could be it, it's really difficult to say but there is some records I have found of them going for molluscs. They certainly have very flexible mouth's allowing them to extract food items from crevices though, and further to manipulate it. I have seen Scobinancistrus as well take down earthworms, and a video somewhere of S. sp. 'L253' manipulating a snail.

[@sebastien1174]

Hey! I have a L240 (vampire pleco) since december and that guy never touches my snails (nerites, mystery). He really likes eating zucchinis too. He goes crazy for shrimps or other carnivorous food. I'd say he has an omnivorous diet in my tank.

[@FreshwaterIchthyology]

There are certainly snails they probably can’t eat, those who have really strong opercular, I have seen even the larger Scobinancistrus struggle with mystery snails. Nerites I never tried. Generally even if a fish will eat it doesn’t mean it is their wild diet, discus make great examples as their wild diet is mostly algaes, detritus and very few invertebrates.

[@sebastien1174]

@@FreshwaterIchthyology Sure! I was sharing my observations :) This hobby lacks documentations :(

[@FreshwaterIchthyology]

@@sebastien1174 Very useful observations because I can imagine people would buy a hell of a lot of either to feed them as they are easy to obtain snails. Definitely, or reliable documentation sometimes.

[@sebastien1174]

@@FreshwaterIchthyology sure! That’s why I like your channel. It’s really helpful for the community, thanks for that

[@dn7096_]

Have you seen them eat snails?

[@FreshwaterIchthyology]

Yes but not as frequently as Scobinancistrus.

[@carlbutchers4095]

My vampire pleco has eaten nearly every living thing in my tank smaller than him a very greedy boy😁

[@FreshwaterIchthyology]

I’ve heard of them being like that but never experienced it myself. They are amazing. Even my Baryancistrus will swipe anything too slow to get away, she tried to get a discus recently

[@dn7096_]

What has he eaten?