Pleco dietary needs...

Thanks Knave- I'll try that after I've tested the water
 
Carp37 said:
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.
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Hi Carp37.....
I feed my cichlid frozen broccoli tops. Just thaw them out in some warm water and drop them in the tank. They love them and so do the plecos. No cloudy water. My plecos just love them, they'll get on one and just keep eating until all the florets are gone and only the stem is left. You can also clip them on the side of the tank with a veggie clip. They also like fresh zucinni, just freeze it, then thaw it and peel it. Freezing and thawing makes it soft. Hope this helps.
 
My L008 or leopard pleco hasn't showed much interested but I shall see tomorrow! He is pretty shy, so we shall see! He likes to hide in the shell that I have in there, right now he is actually being social and is out on the side of the tank! The other fish are loving it, although I always try and add vegies into the tank.
 
My clown plecos enjoyed a spinach leaf last night. :)
 
I just gave mine a broccoli stalk. I didn't blanch it. We'll see if they go for it. The barbs are pecking at it.
 
They didn't touch it. :mad2:
 
In a planted tank would a Pleco munch down all the plants?
 
NewbieFish said:
In a planted tank would a Pleco munch down all the plants?
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If you don't feed them veggies, they will. It depends on the species of plecos you have. Some are purely carnivorous such as the L46, some eat wood, some will eat both veggies and meat.
 
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