Brazil Nut shells in substitute for the driftwood?

[Proetus]

My question is will this be good for the plecos if I dropped in leftover nut shells in the tank especially brazil nuts which I eat all of the time and crack them myself. Or can I just drop in a whole nut without worrying about it spoiling the water and let the plecos work at it for the protein source?

Do plecos rasp at the shells like the driftwood?

 

[Lornek8]

They might. However only Panaques have dentition suitable to do anything to the shell. Also, though I am not really familiar with Brazil nuts but many nuts have shells that are really too hard for most plecs to deal with. There have been reports of Panaques suffering from teeth wear when housed in tanks containing Mopani wood which is as hard or even softer than many nut shells.

 

[Proetus]

That's interesting,

as pacus in the tank crunches the brazil nut whole like nothing from what I've read on brazil nuts in the tanks but not one word on plecos and brazil nuts though

wow about mopani wood and plecos, good thing I have malaysian wood in all of my tanks in addition to mopani wood.

 

[bigbird]

mopani wood is very very hard even for panaques. Normally I find all Ls nibble on micro organisms on each driftwood peace or left over food etc. I an not sure if brasil nuts might be toxic, the shell that is or maybe another nut. cheers jk :thumbup:

 

[Lornek8]

That's interesting,

as pacus in the tank crunches the brazil nut whole like nothing from what I've read on brazil nuts in the tanks but not one word on plecos and brazil nuts though

wow about mopani wood and plecos, good thing I have malaysian wood in all of my tanks in addition to mopani wood.

Yes, but Pacus are designed to eat nuts. There's a National Geographic documentary on the Amazon showing Pacus eating nuts. They crush the nuts with teeth/bones akin to molars. Plecs aren't equiped with mouth structures like this, the herbivores have mouths designed to rasp at algae & similar. Only Panaques have teeth designed to eat wood. Mouth structure would be the limiting factor in eating nuts, same reason plecs don't eat live fish.

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,
I'd agree with Lornek, I don't think even the biggest Panaque would have the dentition to deal with Brazil nuts. We can't buy then now "shell on" in the EU, due to H&S worries about the dangers of cracking them.

You could certainly superglue bits of moss and fern to the shells, they are totally inert, last eternally and sink naturally, just like Coconut shell.

cheers Darrel

 

[bigbird]

ok learnt something today. thks jk :thumbup:

 

[Jackson]

I throw in the husk/shell from coconuts all the time. My Panaque big and small all have a go at it. It is also a huge source of tannins makes the water look good