rdnkwf

Hey all this is my first time using this site and I hope to get tons of useful info here with my fish. We have 3 tanks set up. A 29 gallon tank holds an Blue African Cichlid, an Oscar, and a "Sucker Fish" this is our name for what seems to actually be a "Pleco" or "Algae Eater". We have a 10 gallon tank that holds the minnows and goldfish feeders (the worst one to keep clean!) and another 10 gallon with an Albino Oscar. I have read that the "Sucker" will eat zucchini but mine won't touch it. The problem is either he really gets any and ALL algae out of the tank, or I keep it too filtered and clean so I wanted to supplement his intake. Has anyone else had this problem? It also says that my Oscar would eat it too. Maybe it should be yellow squash and not green zucchini? What about the Romaine lettuce theory? I don't want to starve the little guy, but he doesn't seem to be cooperating...or starving. He is pretty big. Maybe I shouldn't worry? We have had the tank for about a month and a half now with these particular fish in them. We have done this before, but we used a 10 gallon tank and there was a lot of algae to be eaten...Any and all info would be greatly appreciated!

CHoffman

Welcome to Fishlore!!..
If you could get a pic of your "sucker fish" we could id it for you and let you know it's dietary needs. Try giving him Algae wafers..I bet he will like those..Squash usually works too.

Amanda

Are the others eating okay?
What are your water readings?

agabr123

hi and welcome

it sounds like your guy may not be eating because of ammonia poisoning, can you get exact readings? unfortunately your tanks are overstocked, the recommendation for just one oscar is a 55 gallon tank at an absolute bare minimum, so the bioload that all of those fish are producing in your tank is definitely more ammonia than it can handle.

Alessa

Alex is right, both of those fish need a 55 gallon for each as a bare minimum. These tanks and filters cannot possibly process all of the ammonia.