Pleco Dietary Thread
- Thread starter ChileRelleno
- Start date
i have a tank where I am keeping my bichir and I feed it chicken gizzard, liver, etc. and I notice that my 11 inch pleco is now eating meat too, is this ok?
I read through this entire thing for inspiration to add to my plecos' diet of squash/zucchini/cucumber and was surprised that no one mentioned weighing them down with pvc piping. You just rubber band them to the 6-8in pvc, drill a hole in the pvc and tie a fishing line to it with a washer at the end so you don't need to get your entire arm wet to remove it. works great. i also have larger pieces where i was too lazy to cut so that it stands vertically (more diagonally) in the tank with he end sticking out.
for those of you (especially the mods like davo and wyldfya) experimenting with a wide variety of veggies and fruit, what veggies do you like that do not cloud water? and what ones do you refrain from because they cloud water easily?
I have noticed that there was one squash in particular that clouded water overnight, (I'm not sure what kind it was but it was like a pale yellow, flattened grapefruit in size.)
And every once and a while i will have a cucumber that will cloud it overnight at random. Does anyone know why that might happen that though cucumber does not regularly cloud my water every once and a while it does cloud it? I often leave them in for 2-3days at a time with no problems and do water changed about every other day or so, but sometimes i will but a slice of cucumber in and overnight this fresh cucumber will cloud the water... any ideas?
for those of you (especially the mods like davo and wyldfya) experimenting with a wide variety of veggies and fruit, what veggies do you like that do not cloud water? and what ones do you refrain from because they cloud water easily?
I have noticed that there was one squash in particular that clouded water overnight, (I'm not sure what kind it was but it was like a pale yellow, flattened grapefruit in size.)
And every once and a while i will have a cucumber that will cloud it overnight at random. Does anyone know why that might happen that though cucumber does not regularly cloud my water every once and a while it does cloud it? I often leave them in for 2-3days at a time with no problems and do water changed about every other day or so, but sometimes i will but a slice of cucumber in and overnight this fresh cucumber will cloud the water... any ideas?
I have a 2" Zebra Pleco L-46. I have him in a 29gallon tank by himself? ( sex unknown ). I have been feeding him at night with the tank light off. When he was in a community tank I never saw him. He is fairly active since he is in a tank by himself. I feed him bloodworms live & frozen, & live & frozen brine shrimp. Do Zebra Plecos ever eat anything on vegatarian side of their diet?
I have learned more about a plecos diet then I ever thought I could know. I'm sure I have forgotten a few dozen memories to make room for all the info, but I have to say thanks everyone, I'm pretty sure my rubberlipped pleco is going to benefit from my new knowledge.
first of all nice article I feel sad eveytime I see someone buy a common pleco to clean a ten gal or somthing.
my plecos eat
nectarine
spinach
lettuce
tomatoes
blood worms
earth worms
algea wafers
and you can see the difference I recently bought an L-83 less than an inch long with a super inverted stomach he looked kinda dead just by looking at him he could barely raise his fin after two days of garging himself his little tummy is full always keeps his fins spread and eagerly awaits his food. just like my ancestrus tem.
well enough dotting is it safe to feed plecos soy beans I feel like that could be a good source of protein. do any of you do it?
I think it would be cool to add that to their nightly salad bar
my plecos eat
nectarine
spinach
lettuce
tomatoes
blood worms
earth worms
algea wafers
and you can see the difference I recently bought an L-83 less than an inch long with a super inverted stomach he looked kinda dead just by looking at him he could barely raise his fin after two days of garging himself his little tummy is full always keeps his fins spread and eagerly awaits his food. just like my ancestrus tem.
well enough dotting is it safe to feed plecos soy beans I feel like that could be a good source of protein. do any of you do it?
I think it would be cool to add that to their nightly salad bar
Awesome thread. I currently only have one pleco (a common?) about 10 inches long but plan on doing a pleco pond when I move. My pleco eats squash, cuccumber, zuccini, shrimp, scallops. He also loves the gromax pellets. I almost always boil veggies before I give them to him. Ive tried raw and he doesnt seem to respond to them. Also they tend to sink better after a boiling.
Im not sure but I heard that some of the water cloudiness that comes from feeding veggies is because the vegetable at market are coated with waxes to make them shiny or chemicals to make them brighter. I have noticed less cloudiness with garden vegetables or frozen veggies so Im inclined to believe this.
I dont have to worry about the food sinking so much though because my pleco has adapted and doesnt just eat off the bottom. He will go to the top and eat pellets or other veggies before they sink and sometimes just floats around the middle of the tank with a piece of zuccini or other vegetable stuck to his mouth. Its pretty amusing. Does anyone elses do this?
Im not sure but I heard that some of the water cloudiness that comes from feeding veggies is because the vegetable at market are coated with waxes to make them shiny or chemicals to make them brighter. I have noticed less cloudiness with garden vegetables or frozen veggies so Im inclined to believe this.
I dont have to worry about the food sinking so much though because my pleco has adapted and doesnt just eat off the bottom. He will go to the top and eat pellets or other veggies before they sink and sometimes just floats around the middle of the tank with a piece of zuccini or other vegetable stuck to his mouth. Its pretty amusing. Does anyone elses do this?
