Pleco feeding ?

[gspille]

My large 10in common pleco will not eat any veggies at all, unlike my 7in common pleco who eats everything. The large one only eats shrimp pellets, frozen brine shrimp and krill that make it to the bottom, or the algae wafers 'sometimes'.

Is this common? Should I worry that it's not getting enough food?

 

[krytan]

Do you feed them when the lights go out?

 

[gspille]

Yes I've tried that. The smaller eats anytime, the larger one doesn't touch the veggies. Just the other stuff.
They're in seperate tanks, by the way. Large pleco is in 55 with my green terror.

 

[kimmisc]

I would make sure to always feed after the lights are out. While my pleco will smell food and come to it with lights on, she really "goes to town" eating after lights out. They are naturally nocturnal and do prefer munching in the dark.

You could try offering nothing but the veggie foods for several days and the pleco may aquire a taste for them once he gets hungry enough. This is what I had to do for a new betta that didn't eat anything I gave him.

If you don't already have wood in the tank, you should look into getting atleast a small piece, especially with the high protein diet he's consuming.

 

[ct-death]

Seriously, he is just lazy. He is use to simply waiting for the sinking food to gobble up. The only real way I know to "train" them is to starve them for 3-5 days (depending on the species) and introduce only the food of choice.

If you have other fish in the tank, they'll be okay without food for a days, but they will attack the sinking veggie for example with vigor. Instead, take the extra time to feed them flakes in small amounts. When I do this, I usually take 20 minutes or so to feed them 4-5 times in just pinches (with filters off) to ensure that they are fed but that no food reaches the bottom.

Works for me

 

[Carp37]

Some of mine got the hang of veggies pretty quickly, the clown plecos took 3 months to identify courgette as food. All my plecs will go for catfish pellets or bloodworm in preference of veggies, but they'll also eat vegetables as a staple, and if they haven't had any for a few days they jump on it before my hand's even out of the tank.

 

[gspille]

I had the driftwood in the 55 with him, but took it out and put it in the 40Long with the smaller pleco and dempsey. I am going to get another for that tank.