Pleco dietary needs...

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Into the ocean

AC Members
Aug 25, 2006
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:dance:


Very good thread...this should be required reading for any new fish keeper when they are sold their first "algae eater" by their LFS.

I have a bristlenose and a spotted raphael housed together. I have been feeding daily algae tablets as well as driftwood and dropping in some freeze dried brine shrimp or blood worms a few times a week.

Tonight I will start with veggies/fruits as the staple of their diet, and add algae tablets and pepper the veggies with some shrimp or worms on occasion.

I'm going to try cucumber and mango first...why? Well, this omnivore likes them too.

:clap:
 

Into the ocean

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Aug 25, 2006
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I forgot to mention that I have fed small pieces of zucchini to my Convict Cichlid before and he loved them. I'm going to try this with the cucumber and mango also.

:dance2:
 

Derringer

... overstock this!
Apr 8, 2007
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Indiana
I found it very hard when housed with other fish to get such delights as worms and small scraps of cut fish/shrimp, shrimp pellets and other sinking food tablets/pellets down to the plecs.
Other fish can be sooo greedy :rolleyes: .
Aint that the truth! I have a plec housed with comets/shubunkin and they ALWAYS hit anything I drop into the tank. The plec is still a juvinile so I'm hoping for now he can get by on any algae in the tank and the occassional left over algae disc. I am thinking of rigging up a stick/pole of some sorts and spot feeding him some treats.
 

larcina

Registered Member
Apr 26, 2007
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thanks for the insight! I have a bristlenose and feed him cucumber and alge wafers. he loves the wood as well. I didn't think of lettuce or sweet potatoes and think that is a fabulous idea! I was worried that I wasn't giving him the variety he needed and turns out that I should be concerned.
THanks again
 

lovesfish

I love Spongebob!
Feb 12, 2007
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Mississippi
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I have cichlids, plecos, and triopicals. they all love the broccoli florets. just clip the stem to the veggie clip and watch the cichlids go at it. The plecos will latch onto them and seem to love them. I buy the frozen and thaw them in a little warm water first. They also like the zuchinni
 

lovesfish

I love Spongebob!
Feb 12, 2007
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hmmm have never tried them. They have a lot of acid, so I would prob just stick with the green veggies
 

Aislinn

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Apr 8, 2007
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Minnesota
Tomatoes are pretty pulpy. I think even if you drained them, they'd still make a big mess in the tank.
 

Carp37

Catfish and Cichlid lover
Jul 11, 2007
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Aughton, UK
Before joining this forum, I was concerned that my Ptergoplichthys juvenile wasn't getting enough greenstuff in his/her diet, therefore I bought a lettuce and put 4-5 small leaves of blanched lettuce in the tank. These were pretty much ignored for 2 days, then on the 3rd day the majority of the greenstuff of the lettuce had been eaten (not necessarily by the Pterygo), therefore I removed the remains of the lettuce, and added another couple of small leaves.

However, I had to remove these because the water clarity dropped markedly in the tank in a very short space of time. As yet I haven't got pH or nitrate/nitrite test kits- will get them this weekend, but does anyone have any suggestions to avoid water quality problems when adding vegetables? I noticed someone suggested raw potato, but I'm worried that this will also adversely affect water quality.
 

KnaveTO

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Jun 7, 2007
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Toronto, ON, Canada
Place the vegetable in before you go to bed and remove in the morning. This shouldn't affect your water quality too much. I also not that a lot of people mention blanching your vegetable... you do not need to do this as the mouth of the pleco is filled with tiny teeth designed for rasping rocks and woods to be able to get food. Blanching is something that will make the item sink a bit easier, but if you attach the vegetable matter toa heavy object then it will sink just fine. Quite a few people will use a stainless steel instrument of some sort to give it weight and thus keep it at the bottom. There are also vegetable clip out there at the LFS for such things.
 
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