feeding rhino pleco

[wwildcats04]

I do not have an excess of algae in my tank (hardly any at all) so I have purchased the algae wafers but whenever I put them down, he never goes to eat them. Does anybody have any ideas as to how to get him to eat? I also put cucumber in and he doesnt seem to eat that either, but he could when im not there, I dont know

 

[Mike Rathnow]

People have the misconceptions...

About Pleco's. "They aren't solely algae eaters", and will not survive feeding on plant type foods alone. Most all pleco's are omnivores, which means the feed on a variety of foods. Mostly being small worms and soft body crustacea. Your rhino may not be interested in the algae wafers you're trying to feed him. Get some live or frozen brine shrimp, black worms, even small leaf worms will work. You'll end up starving the pleco if you continue trying to feed him what you are.

Mike

 

[mooman]

My pleco loves to eat the "Formula One" brand frozen food that I feed my apistos. It is a marine food, but works great for FW. It must be good because he puts up with some serious abuse from the apistos when he comes over to eat it.

 

[wwildcats04]

I got frozen bloodworms but he did not eat them when I put them in, will it just take him some time to get used to them or something?

 

[Blinky]

Some plecs don't adjust well - I recently lost a gold nugget (the store also lost most of the shipment) who looked perfectly healthy, but starved to death. Sometimes there's nothing you can do, they lose the gut bacteria they need to digest food as a result of shipping stress and can't recover. Some plecs also come in with internal parasites or worms - if your plec has a hollow belly, I'd remove him to a QT and start treating with metronidazole. Try feeding frozen brine shrimp or bloodworms thawed with some crushed garlic, it can help stimulate sick fish to eat. This worked on my new gold nugget, he's from the same shipment as the first one, but has settled in and is now eating well.

 

[wwildcats04]

well I hardly ever see him eat but I sure do see him when hes pooping so he must eating something. I have been giving cucumber, frozen blood worms(soaked in garlic), algae wafers, shrimp pelets, snails... clown loaches are in heaven with all of this stuff they're getting fat lol

 

[wwildcats04]

today I caught him! He was eating cucumber, that makes me feel better thanks everyone

 

[Blinky]

Wonderful! It's such a relief when they settle down and start eating well. The LFS where I work has some nice rhinos, they're gorgeous fish. It's been hard not to bring one home, but my 65g just isn't big enough for all the plecs I'd love to keep

 

[chewbacca]

i have read that rhinos like to eat at night, i never really see mine eating during the day but when i put in the algae wafers, right before i go to bed and turn out the light, the wafers disappear when i look in the morning.

 

[YuccaPatrol]

My rhino eats the algae wafers, but his poop is the exact dark chocolate brown that my driftwood is. Many plecos do eat wood and my wood looks scoured clean, so I'd suggest getting some nice driftwood in the tank if you don't already have it.