Do Bristlenose Plecos eat paint?

My new Bristlenose that got delivered on Christmas Eve, has been nippling at the paint on the aquarium filter I think? I noticed quite a nice growth of algae on it a few days ago but since then, not only has every bit of the algae gone but so has a fair sized bit of the plack paint on the top of the revolving filter head? I have only noticed this since I put the Bristlenose into the aquarium? I can't think of any other way this could have happened, so could it have been the Bristlenose that possibly did it. I would think it's going to get mighty sick if it did? Many thanks for any advice in advance.

I can't really say about it getting sick of not, but the missing paint is most likely your bristly They've got pretty powerful mouth, like a scrubbypad, so it wouldn't surprise me if he just got a little carried away with munching on the algae xD

Also, paint? I didn't think filters were painted, just coloured plastic? Surely painting a filter is a bad idea? Unless the paint is like, mega safe of whatever?

Thanks Spreebok!

I have no idea if it is paint or plastic? More probably now that you have mentioned it, I think it probably is a coat of sealing plastic as you say, as I to, think it would be wrong for them to paint the filter with paint? At least I now know that these type of fish do have very strong mouths for scraping alge? And she is only a baby at 2" long! Christ knows what the hell she will do when she gets to 5" long? Probably scrape the glass off off the heaters and blow the whole damned house up! My first ever Plecostomus you see as for all the years I used to keep tropical fish, years ago, I never once kept one of these or similar.

However, saying that, the filter did come included with the panoram aquarium and it is (I think), quite a cheapy filter? It's only a SuperFish, Aqua-Flow 200. I just presumed that it was the correct rating of filtration for this tank when I purchased it a few months ago, as it came with it? I am getting either a new Eheim BioPowe 160 filter on Thursday or Friday or one of the older model aquaBall 2213 thoughh and that one does well over the actual 60L capacity of this aquarium. I have 3' and a 4' aquarium to set up soon but it's trying to balance the time and feeling OK when going coming off of the machine? I can't decide exactly what filter to get either as Ehaim are all good as far as I am concerned and you can't go wrong with them.

High mickelmass, I'd find it very hard to believe that even the cheapest and nastiest filter producers would be stupid
enough to paint their filters, even with water safe paint products.
First of I'd grab the filter out and find out exactly what is missing eg. a protective coating like you mentioned
( if it is painted - I'd throw it in the bin- especially if you an Ehiem lined up to go in its place) , then you could try to
get some fine grade wet and dry sand paper and remove any more of the loose and flakey "substance".
As for your fish -- just watch her close and make sure she's not sick off of whatever she eaten, and I wouldn't be to concerned about her eating the heater glass as she gets older -- impossible.
J

Many thanks for the info Kurosaki J

Umm, the bit about the water heater was meant as a joke.

I have been keeping tropical fish on and off for 25 odd years and have never known any fish that I have kept, to blow up the heater. Although a pair of large chiclids in the heat of passion could I suppose? I will be removing the filter as and when I get the new one in the week as until then, other than a long airstone, there is nothing for oxygenating or filtering. I have just had another, in depth look at the top of the filter and it does now look defianetly like a plastic coating of some kind? It was obviously sprayed on during the manufacturing process? I can tell it's plastic as it has defianetly been removed a little piece at a time, as opposed to paint, which would probably show some signs of scratching as well and would not have a distictive solid shape to it. Paint on the other hand, would probably have ben scrapped and you would notice that the edges would probably not be so defined as they are here, with what I now think is definately plastic.

It also looks like there are very small dark bits on the bottom of the aquarium, under the filter amongst the miriade of plants? Do these things just eat, eat ,eat and don't even spit bits out that they don't like? Becaus that's what it looks like she has done here? Even though it is just a fish, surely it would have a modicum of sense that tells it "hang on, this isn't food?" and then spit it out?

I shall keep an eye on her tomorrow for a couple of hours but if she has been having a go at the plastic, then it would have been well over 24 hrs ago and she would surely have been showing signs of distress by now? I just watched here not 5 minutes ago, happily munching away on some algae pellets and then, a coule of bloodworm (I didn't even think they took bloodworm - greens only), so hopefully she did drop it onto the aquarium bottom after all? When I get back tomorrow, I shall have a closer look at the bottom of the aquarium. Many thanks again, you have all been very helpful.

I didn't think about the heater thing in the way as to what your actually refering to , when I scored my 2ft cube deal the heater actually had black dots painted on it which the pepps had munched most of them away-- so I guess they will have a go painted surfaces.
If your fish eating regular foods now, that should push anything nasty through your fish.
Have you removed the loose black stuff sitting underneath the filter? I'd just syphon it out.
J

I siphoned all the detritis, including the black plastic, out from the whole tank as it was due for a good siphoning and hoovering (I do it every 7 - 10 days). I thought it was her (if indeed it is a her), had done it, as there is nowt else in there that could have? "She" can stop that right away, else "she" gets put up for sale or into a tank on her own, when it arrives, and that's where "she" will bloody well stay! Many thanks for that. it's appreciated! !

They absolutely will take the paint off your ornaments and any other surface coatings they can get to. I used to wonder why mine left blue lines until I realised they were sanding back a boat I had in the tank.

Ah! Now I kinow for sure after reading some of the replies on here. They do indeed, have a go at everything they can get their teeth into! I gave her a slice of cucumber last night, got up this morning and she hadn't touched it! Must be getting all her grub from my filters and Christ knows what else? I really do think that she has to go now then. I can't have and don't want, a fish in my aquarium,s thast's going to do that to everything I put in there, with plastic or anything else for that matter. on it! She has to go I'm afraid. Shame, I was quite getting used to seeing her in the tank, among all the plants and what not? Will keep you posted.

Nah don't go getting rid of her for the reasons she likes to graze on every thing -- that will work to your advantage,
just make her environment a little more suitable buy removing anything artificial, this way she has to her job and
clean up algaes and the like, and then you know she's only grazing on the good stuff.
J

is their any bog wood in the tank????

I have desperately been trying to get hold of some bogwood for ages now but my local aquarist shop won't stock it! Only Mopani. I got two pieces of Mopani, soaked them (even though the guy in the aquarist shop said they don't need it - they certainly do!) and put them in. They look good and the BN had been on them regularly, scrapping the algae off but I have not seen any signs that she might have been eating it? I have seen plenty of bogwood for sale in the aquarist shops on eBay but I am loathe to buy it from those money-grabbing lot!

:O Dont got getting rid of her! She's just doing her biz lol!
See how she gets on with the new filter your getting soon, you'll probably find the problem stops
I have three bristlies in with what as an interpet pf2 and is now a fluval U2, and I've never had any problems with them 'stripping' the filters, as the filters are coloured plastic, not coated or anything, despite the fact they all love to lounge about on it In-fact, on is giving it a go over right now lol!

I probably won't get rid of her, if as you say, she copes OK with the new Eheim filter, as and when the post office decied to deliver the bloody thing that is? Lazy damned lot they are! I went to the local aquarist shop just the now, to get a replacement cartridge for the Aqua-Flow 200 that is in the aquarium for the time being and they were shut! Surprise, surprise! Makes me laugh. two or three inches of snow and this whole pathetic country grinds to a halt even though they know the snow is on it's way! The Aqua-Flow 200 is very sluggish and putting hardly anything out of the spray bar, so it is deffo time for a replacement methinks?

mickelmass wrote:

I probably won't get rid of her, if as you say, she copes OK with the new Eheim filter, as and when the post office decied to deliver the bloody thing that is? Lazy damned lot they are! I went to the local aquarist shop just the now, to get a replacement cartridge for the Aqua-Flow 200 that is in the aquarium for the time being and they were shut! Surprise, surprise! Makes me laugh. two or three inches of snow and this whole pathetic country grinds to a halt even though they know the snow is on it's way! The Aqua-Flow 200 is very sluggish and putting hardly anything out of the spray bar, so it is deffo time for a replacement methinks?

I very rarely ever replace filters, I just rinse them in a bucket of tank water, that way you can get rid of a lot of crud, without losing any beneficial bacteria.

I will try that with this filter cartridge then. I wasn't aware that you could do that, as I thought it would destroy he good bacteria? Now you have put me right. Thanks, it will save me a forune in new cartridges. One thing though, how do I go with starting to use the new Eheim filter, in place of this crap Aqua-Flow 200 then? The new filter won't have any bacteria in it at all will it, but the old one will?

Run them both together for a while until the 2nd one has got the good stuff too, then just remove the initial one.

Also, I never use the charcoal sponges as they do a good enough job, just that when they are full, they just leach out the toxins back into the water.

Thanks for that advice Angi-N-Wayne!

I have also heard that the activated charcoal bit also takes up any medications that are put into the aquariums as well? That's why I wanted to get a newer filter as this Aqua-Flow I am using at the moment, doesn't have seperate pods on it for using different filter mediums with. It's all sealed into one filter cartridge, as far as I am aware?

So when I ordered and paid for this new Eheim filter, I made sure that it has enough pods on it for changing the media. I think this new one has two pods on it but I couldn't see any packs of filter media for the Eheim filters, it was all loose stuff in boxes, so I just purchased anything that was filter medium and had Eheim on it? There was everything there, about four different lots, including the activated charcoal one and a peat one as well, which will be good for when I set-up my Scalare aquariums, I hope? Once I have seen just what this loose stuff looks like, I am sure there is cheaper stuff out there, that works just as well but doesn't have Eheim plastered all over it, thus upping the price considerably?

We have both named and un named filters etc, and to be honest have seen no difference in general in their performance, just make sure it's more powerful than you think you need as they rarely work to the stated lph.

Angi

Hi again

Yer, the new filter I have coming is a lot more powerful than the tank requires but can be switched down if needed. I think that the new filter is for 80-160L and this first aquarium that it will be in, is only 60L anyway? I just took the dirty filter out of the Aqua-Flow and gave it a good squeeze and a good run through with the tap and there was loads of crap there, which was obviously marring it's performance? The filter is running nice and fast now and has cleared the tank in no time at all, as it did whan I firt got it! Cheers again and many thanks!

You should only have cleaned it with tank water, and not from the tap as chlorine kills of the beneficial bacteria. However, if you water was dirty enough to already see a difference, then fingers crossed it will not do to much harm.

Always only use tank water in a bucket, you can always get another bucketful if you need to

Angi

I wouldn't say the tank water itself was dirty, just all the detriris that got moved about when I took the filter cannister out and also did a 10% water change as well. Loads of crap flying everywhere but gone in an isntant. I can't see how cleaning the filter medium out in tank water can actually get rid of the rubbish in there as it's all in the same dirty water in the bucket, so it's still going to be dirty? But I will remember that in future though?

Angi-N-Wayne wrote:

You should only have cleaned it with tank water, and not from the tap as chlorine kills of the beneficial bacteria. However, if you water was dirty enough to already see a difference, then fingers crossed it will not do to much harm.

Always only use tank water in a bucket, you can always get another bucketful if you need to

Angi

thats right angi my mate washed is fillter out under the tap and neally lost all is fish. when he phoned me to go round and have a look at them they were all at the top gasping for air then he told me had washed all the fillter out under the tap so i went home got a dirty sponge and gave it a good wash in his tank did me a favoure really and they all lived thankfully

High mickelmass, when your new filter arrives just take the old sponge ( or most of it to fit, if the new filter is an odd size) and place that in the new filter--waala no time needed to mature your new sponge.
J

you learn something new every day even after 25 years of keeping fish.