Algae eaters

[SaraHall]

Hello,
Do pleco's eat algae? Mine juts kinda hangs at the bottom, sometimes on the side, in his little sheltered space, he eats the wafers. SHould I stop giving him wafers so he eats the algae? Will the algae make him sick? Some of the algae is starting to look red. :(
The tank is a 70 gallon and has 1 red bellied Pacu(9"), 4 Tin foil Barbs (6"),3 plecos (9") and two god knows what fish. Suffice to say a fish with a stripe down the center, slender about 3" long.
Does scraping the algae bug the fish?
Thx
Sara

[jm1212]

Hello,
Do pleco's eat algae? Mine juts kinda hangs at the bottom, sometimes on the side, in his little sheltered space, he eats the wafers. SHould I stop giving him wafers so he eats the algae? Will the algae make him sick? Some of the algae is starting to look red. :(
The tank is a 70 gallon and has 1 red bellied Pacu(9"), 4 Tin foil Barbs (6"),3 plecos (9") and two god knows what fish. Suffice to say a fish with a stripe down the center, slender about 3" long.
Does scraping the algae bug the fish?
Thx
Sarayes plecos eat algea, but your tank has far to amny to support one, and you should be supplementing their diet already.

as for your stocking, you tank is so overstocked it is not even funny. your red bellied pacu is going to get to be 2 feet long and over 20 lbs, and it will break through the glass of its spooked.
the tinfiol barbs get pretty big too, and the plecos are going to get even bigger (around 2 feet).
unless you are planning on getting a tank that is over 500 gallons withing the next month or so (christmas maybe??) then you should return all of your fish and get some that are more suited for your tank size.

[SaraHall]

I can't get rid of them because they were my brother's and he passed away. I am holding onto them because they remind me of how much he loved to watch his fish and how he used to smile when they'd come up to the glass to greet him in the mornings..
Call me nostalgic... I am slowly learning about all the fish he has through the help of the wonderful people in this forum. I have currently inherited 9 aquariums ranging from 100 gallons to 5 gallons all with fish. I had OTC and killed many of them (sadly) when I did a water change. The Pacu has become my friend and if he gets too big I can always put him outside in the pond with the KOI (Thats what my brother did summer and winter. He has a bubbler and heater system out there too. He was an avid Fish guy. Wish he was still around. But I think he's either laughing his tail off or smiling down on me when I do the 101 water changes. Hopefully the latter :)
Thanks for your info
Best
Sara

[jm1212]

oh yes i remeber your first thread about this now.
carry on with whatever you were going to do with them and ignore the second half of my post lol

[SmallFishi]

"I had OTC and killed many of them "

Sara what is OTC??

I'm sorry about your brother :(

[Cory Lover]

Hi,

First off, I'm very sorry to hear about your brother. I know how hard it would be for me to lose my sister. What you said made me tear up :sad:.

Plecos do eat algae. For a week stop giving him the wafers and then after a bit he should start to go for the algae. Scraping the algae off wont stress the fish that much.

Maybe the fish with the stripe on it might be a Giant or Bengal Danio. Type either of those names on google and see if the pics that come up looks like the fish you have.

Happy fish keeping and good luck!!!

Cory Lover

[wataugachicken]

do NOT starve the fish so he will clean your tank! clean it yourself. how cruel.

i understand the problems you've had and the loss of your brother, but none of that changes the fact that you are, in the long run, causing the fish to suffer. that pacu is not going to stay small. those plecos need food. protein, vegetables, not just wafers.

also, do a search on the net for types of algae, there are several kinds that plecos will not eat, some can only be prevented or removed manually. red, or brush, algae is one of those kinds.

[Ulan]

do NOT starve the fish so he will clean your tank! clean it yourself. how cruel.
That statement is somewhat over the top. Not feeding the fish for a week is nothing to talk home about. Perhaps, the pleco is overfed and lazy.

When I put a zucchini slice into the tank every day, one of my otos practically lives on them. He hardly ever moves away. If there's no veggies for two days, he still has a full belly. It's just that he looks around for something else to eat than zucchini.

[Marinemom]

I remember the thread too. So sorry about your brother. As far as the plecos go, you are not going to starve them if you do not feed them algae wafers for a week. I have gone on vacation for a week and I did not feed the fish while I was gone and they were fine. I figured it was better for them to have clean water then food every day. The same holds true about the plecos.

I know how much you loved your brother and you are doing the best you can to take care of the tanks and the fish in them that you inherited. However, many of the fish in them will in time get way to big for the tank. Plecos can grow eighteen inches to two feet and the pacu needa a bigger aquarium such as a minimum of 200 gallons with bigger than that a better option. Keep doing what you are doing to care for them but you will have to consider better accomodations for most of those fish in the very near future.

Marinemom

[Cory Lover]

do NOT starve the fish so he will clean your tank! clean it yourself. how cruel.

Hi,

I don't get it how it's cruel. In my opinion not giving a pleco wafers for a week is not cruel. In the wild they don't just get wafers right outside their home, they have to work for their food.

Cory Lover

[wataugachicken]

in the wild they have the ability to leave the area without food and go somewhere else in search of food. . . they can't exactly get out of the tank and walk around the house searching for the little bag of wafers. it's very possible that the algae in the tank is not a kind that the plecos eat, which is probably why it is there. if it were good to eat, it would be gone, esp. with three of them in there. when you have big plecos and you don't feed them enough, that is what causes them to go after other fish, eating slime coats, etc. .

[Cory Lover]

in the wild they have the ability to leave the area without food and go somewhere else in search of food. . . they can't exactly get out of the tank and walk around the house searching for the little bag of wafers. it's very possible that the algae in the tank is not a kind that the plecos eat, which is probably why it is there. if it were good to eat, it would be gone, esp. with three of them in there. when you have big plecos and you don't feed them enough, that is what causes them to go after other fish, eating slime coats, etc. .

Hi,

They might eat the algae if they didn't get their wafers for a little bit. Plecos (like most fish) will go for the easier food source which in this case would be the wafers and not the algae. My point is that giving them no wafers for one week is not starving them, even if they don't eat the algae.

Cory Lover

[jm1212]

in the wild they have the ability to leave the area without food and go somewhere else in search of food. . . they can't exactly get out of the tank and walk around the house searching for the little bag of wafers. it's very possible that the algae in the tank is not a kind that the plecos eat, which is probably why it is there. if it were good to eat, it would be gone, esp. with three of them in there. when you have big plecos and you don't feed them enough, that is what causes them to go after other fish, eating slime coats, etc. . if you cut own feeding the pleco wafers to once a week-
1) the pleco will start to look for algea to eat on, no matter what type it is. many plecos even eat at the tougher types
2) feeding them onje a week isnt cruel. in fact, underfed fish are the healithiest, strongest specimines
3) he'll poop less and help ease the bioload on the tank.

[Marinemom]

if you cut own feeding the pleco wafers to once a week-
1) the pleco will start to look for algea to eat on, no matter what type it is. many plecos even eat at the tougher types
2) feeding them onje a week isnt cruel. in fact, underfed fish are the healithiest, strongest specimines
3) he'll poop less and help ease the bioload on the tank.

I agree 100%.

Marinemom

[SaraHall]

Thanks for your comments guys and gals. Comment about zuchini, how do you get it to sink? Mine floats. :( The Pacu seems to like the zuchini.
Wata It's hurtful that you say I am cruel to them. I do clean the algae and my brother DIDNT buy the pleco to clean the glass. I dont JUST give him the wafers either. I went to a aquaria biologist who gave me some good tips. He said to give the plecos wheat grass which I did because it has the highest concentration of complex proteins. So I have been studying on what to and not to do.
I know I have to eventually give them away. There are so many people interested in taking them. My brother was an oceanographer and marine biologist and kept some rare specimans. I gave the rare ones to the Camden Aquarium so other's can enjoy them. They are more than happy to take the Pacu as well.
Thanks for the info Cory I will go online and look up the 'stripers'.
Best
Sara

[fballguy]

Tie the veggies to a rock or something that will sink. Or boil them at the highest temp for 15-20 minutes and they will sink on their own.

[Tommy Gun]

I also appologize for you brother and think that you keeping his fish is a good cause and while you may be overstocked, you can compensate in some ways as well as possibly look for a bigger tank in the future. I don't really want to say much either because of your situation and all, but if you really want to keep your brother's fish as long as possible, you will need to make sure there is sufficient room for them. If they get crowded, they can become stressed and there is a lot of problems that can quickly follow that. It is such a touchy subject and I hope you can 'hear' the sincerity in my 'voice' when I say all of this.

What I haven't heard anyone say so far though is that while pleco's enjoy the popularity they get from being 'algea eaters' and many people buy them for almost every tank they have or still own, the truth is that they are NOT really all that great at eating algea. In fact, even in a small tank with a very small pleco, every owner should suppliment their diet with things like algea wafers or veggies like cucumber. In fact, plecos are also very well adept at eating any left over food that passes by your other fish and sometimes will actually gravitate towards that type of nutrition. Bottom line for ANY fish is that it will often eat foods that are out of 'character' for it and is the reason behind not putting any fish in a tank that can fit into another fishes' mouth.

Honestly, I am sure people are about to disagree with me here, but if you were just looking to control algea in your tank, a chineese algea eater or a siamese algea eater are much better as far as fish go and snails are also a great addition for algea only purposes. If you are having an algea problem right now, it is most likely (here we go again...) because your tank is overstocked and there are too many nutrients in the water that the algea can live upon. It might help you to just increase your filtration for now to help remove some of these nutrients as well as up the amounts of water you change weekly (with so many big fish, weekly is almost a must in my opinion).

The other bottom line is that plecos are plecos no matter what you feed them or how much you feed them. They are going to make large amounts of wastes and that is unavoidable without completely starving it. I swear to you that if you stop feeding them all of a sudden, you are going to catch one or more of them sucking on the side of another fish because the slime coat is highly nutritous and so long as the fish doesn't die, a renewable natural resource. This is especially probrable if you have large, slow moving fish, which may be somewhat more true about your larger fish who cant really run too far in any direction.

Like I said, I am trying to pass my opinions, ideas, and information in the nicest possible way here and I hope that you do not take any offense to what I said. I feel that the biggest problem with only having written communication to speak through is that you cannot hear 'how' I am saying what I have typed out. I just dont want to see these very precious fish be hurt of otherwise destroyed by what is much more of a myth than a fact about these plecos. If anything, only feed them slightly less or in smaller and smaller increments until they are acclimated to the amount of food that they are given.

To keep the cucumber or zuchini from floating (which I found my pleco is most fond of), get yourself some lead weights that are used to secure live plants to the bottom of a tank. Sorry to disagree here fballguy, but boiling them for 15 to 20 minutes would only result in a bunch of 'goop' right away or in very short order once it is in the tank. I think he may have meant to 'blanche' them or put them in boiling water for 15 to 20 seconds since this will help sanitize the veggies and remove any poisons or preservative agents that were applied at the farm/grocery store. It is a good idea to do that and then throw them quickly into cold ice water to stop them from cooking more. I use the little plant weight idea and it works really well. Some LFS give them to me for free even.

Keep smiling and never give up.

[Cory Lover]

Honestly, I am sure people are about to disagree with me here, but if you were just looking to control algea in your tank, a chineese algea eater or a siamese algea eater are much better as far as fish go and snails are also a great addition for algea only purposes.

Hi,

I totally agree with ya that Chinese Algae Eaters are good algae eaters. Mines four years old and still loves to eat a lot of algae.

Cory Lover

[CaitxSith]

Hi,

I totally agree with ya that Chinese Algae Eaters are good algae eaters. Mines four years old and still loves to eat a lot of algae.

Cory Lover
But I also heard that they can kill... :huh:

[Marinemom]

Chinese algae eaters can and do kill a lot of fish because they chase, harrass, nip, and suck slime off of fish. I think it is best to just do what you are doing right now for the moment and later can think about a tank upgrade if you intend to keep these fish. Again, I think that what you are doing is very noble and your brother is looking down upon you with love and admiration. Keep up the good work. We are all pulling for you.

Marinemom

[Star_Rider]

a couple things to think about.
'common' pleco's eat algae when they are small..but as they get larger..they tend to forage for food that has sunk to the bottom and tendto move away from algae(they will still eat it but not as readily.).
some smaller species (ie bristle nose) tend to eat algae. but algae in itself may not provide the nutrients it needs. you should vary the diet to include wafers, and veggies.( I use blanched letuce. zuccini, peas.etc.) your catfish will appreciate it.

keep in mind that Loricariidae(commonly referred to as pleco) in thewildcan choose from severalsources for their nutrients.

as far as siamese algae eaters..avoid them..as they get older they tend to change their dietary needs and go for protein(aka smaller fish)
the siamese algae eater is a good choice.

[Cory Lover]

But I also heard that they can kill... :huh:

Hi,

They can kill. But mine and I think kveeti's (sorry if I spelt that wrong!) were peaceful and never killed any fish. I think CAEs are one of the best fish out there (I know many people disagree).

Cory Lover

[echoofformless]

as far as siamese algae eaters..avoid them..as they get older they tend to change their dietary needs and go for protein(aka smaller fish)
the siamese algae eater is a good choice.


Huh?

[garbon2535]

do NOT starve the fish so he will clean your tank! clean it yourself. how cruel.



Not feeding your pleco is not starving it! The fish has free will. If you had an endless supply of salad and someone feed you steak or pie or potatos or whever your favorite food may be, would you eat the endless supply of salad or just nibble at it every now and then?

I only feed my pleco's 2 or 3 times a week, at night when the lights off. If alge starts to build up I cut back to once a week with the packaged food.

Just to note, most fish can go a week or more without food so don't worry about your pleco. He'll come to his sences sooner or later.

[Star_Rider]

Huh?
my bad..chinese algae eaters..are not a good choice ...see what happens when you post from work and are phone tech support...LOL :rolleyes:

.

[wataugachicken]

i feed my plecos daily with wafers and pellets, twice a week with zucchini, and in the two years since i've started buying them there has never been algae in my tanks.

i'm sure you'll chew a corncob or potato peels if you get hungry enough, even though it's not something you would normally eat, but that's not cruel - you can still eat it.

your algae=salad example doesn't work - eating salad will make a person less hungry, if not mentally satisfied. algae, while it may have nutrients, does nothing to add bulk or roughage to the pleco's gut. he may be eating, but he is still feeling starved physically. they have a grossly long digestive system, only when they are very small is this filled by algae. more like taking two multivitamins and a protein pill in the morning. you may be able to live on it for a while, but you will not be happy or healthy for long, and you will be hungry all the time.

when the issue is water quality vs. short-term discomfort in the case of going on vacation, i think that is a fair and understandable trade. standing by while you force your plecos to do the job you should be doing as aquarist is not right.

it's like having a mouse in your house and starving your cat so she will catch it - just clean up after yourself and there won't be a mouse problem in the first place.

[Tommy Gun]

[QUOTE=garbon2535]Not feeding your pleco is not starving it! The fish has free will. If you had an endless supply of salad and someone feed you steak or pie or potatos or whever your favorite food may be, would you eat the endless supply of salad or just nibble at it every now and then?QUOTE]


Just wanted to point out here that algea is no where near something that comes in an endless supply. Especially in a properly maintained tank. Cynobacteria on the other hand can probrably be closer to becoming an endless supply and even though some people mistake it for true algea, plecos are not going to eat it.

I am willing to bet in a tank with three large plecos, algea is scarce and even if it was abundant, larger adult plecos are going to chose to suck on another fish before they get too much into eating the algea, in my opinion, since the nutrients are better from a slime coat than from algea I believe.

[SaraHall]

Hi everyone,
Thank you for all your wonderful comments. I have taken account and will use your ideas. The algae eaters are probably a good idea but at this point I really dont need more fish. Maybe one day when I get the hang of this alittle better. I am pretty sure the reason I have so much algae is the water temp (catfish love the warmth hang out on the heater) and the amount of time I keep the lights on. In the three large aquariums its on 24/7. I am going to go amd buy some timers today and limit the light to maybe 10 hours a day? Any suggestions? I dont want the plants to die either. The plants are doing really well.I had a few in the pacu tank but he had lunch and dinner. Which is okay, I am just glad he's eating (or is it a she?, can you tell?). He seems okay. ALthough he looks like he is developing a 'snot' in his nose. :( parasite maybe? My friend said he'd stop over later and check it out. When I open the door to my house and light rushes the aquarium, the pacu swims to it and stays there a good hour anticipating more. So I really dont want to limit his light to control the algae. I can always scrape out the algae, no big deal. He's funny, brushes up against my knuckles when I'm doing it. :)
I'll try the weight method for the zukes. Thanks for the recommendation. My brother had some lead sinkers in his fish box I'll use them.
Well take care everyone and thanks again for all your 'friendly' thoughts and ideas.
Best
Sara

[Cory Lover]

Hi,

I would say eight to ten hours a day for the light to be on would be good.

Cory Lover

[echoofformless]

I just keep SAEs in my tanks because I like them actually :) The fact that they keep most algaes at bay is an added bonus.

Between the choices of otos, plecos and the SAE, the SAE is the better choice for tanks where the amount of algae will not be steady and where you don't plan to feeding special foods or veggies. SAEs will gladly eat flakes just as much as they constantly graze for algae.

Plus they're cute and peaceful.

And inexpensive. A good addition to any tank.