My little babies (albino BN plecos)

[Omega]

I have two one-inch albino bristlenose plecos in a cycled 10-gallon grow-out tank.

At first I was concerned they were not eating enough – I'm trying to grow them before they can be introduced into one of my larger tanks and I didn't see them eat at first – but now I'm wondering if they're eating too much!

They have had semi-boiled carrot, zucchini, and cauliflower, as well as New Life Spectrum wafers. There's no algae in the tank as I just set it up last week.

Is it possible to over-feed?

Here's a photo of one of their bellies:

http://i105.photobucket.com/albums/m201/dingleberry06/AlbinoBN.jpg

[Omega]

Hello?

[Cory Lover]

Hi,

Yeah, I would say cut down on the amount of food you give them.

Cory Lover

[drgold]

I breed these and I've never seen one with a belly that distended. (and I've had thousands go through my tanks) If they're not pooping, I would stop feeding them immediately because they might be impacted and more food will make it worse. If they are pooping, don't feed for a day and let them get back to normal.

I let my fry free-feed and none will eat to the point of obesity like yours. My guess is that it is impacted, which I do not know how to cure. Most plecs will eat until the new food just pushes the old food out, since the digestive tract is just a long tube from mouth to anus. That kind of bloating is very bad. Do a google search on bloat and see what can be done. But, wait to see if the fish will poop out the excess first, before taking drastic action.

[Omega]

After a tank search, I cannot find the bloated pleco, either alive or dead. The other pleco has normal proportions.

If dead, this will be my first fish fatality in more than two years. :sad:

I had bloat medication for cichlids too, some stuff from the vet. Wish I had of used it.

[Mgamer20o0]

not sure about it but looks cool. good luck with it.

[Omega]

I ended up finding the other fish so it didn't die.

It's now not fat like that anymore and is doing fine.

[drgold]

great! now keep him on a fiber-rich diet to prevent more bloating. Even though he didn't die, I bet he wasn't very comfortable during that ordeal! I feed my BN's lots of zuccini and it helps keep them "regular."