JohnSeito

I just got myself a sucker fish, could someone tell me what do they eat?

Do they eat other fish waste, and algae? And do they also eat regular fish food?

I don't even know if my tank will have algae for it to eat.

Could someone offer some advise?

platy ben

Any idea what type of suckerfish you have? They will eat normal fish food if they find some, the eat alot of algae. No type of fish will eat other fish poop

Shawnie

they will eat algae wafers, some algae, water mellon, cukes, leftover fish food..but I agree..NO on the fish poo...icky!

JohnSeito

my sucker fish look like this
http://www.aquascape.co.uk/albino_plecostomus.jpg

and I read some where that said sucker fish eat waste too.

Lucy

He's really cute, I'm terrible at identifying fish.

I agree with Shawnie and Ben, fish don't eat fish waste.

platy ben

youve got an albino pleco, they will eat algae and fish food such as algae wafers.

nemo addict

they eat wasted foods not wasted poo

JohnSeito

so would they eat regular fish food? And how would my tank have algae if it's not in the sun?

Shawnie

over feeding maybe?

Chief_waterchanger

Algae grows much like any other plant would. If there are the nutrients necessary for growth that are not being used up by other stuff you have the potential for algae growth.

It is a very common misconception that some fish eat other fishes' excriment. We have some plecostomus that will graze on algae and left over flake food that has gotten to the bottom of the tank, and we have others that will go to the top of the tank and claim the flake food before the midlevel and surface dwelling fish can get to them.

Algae wafers, algae pellets, shrimp pellets, dark leafy greens (such as spinach, kale, swiss chard, mustard greens, turnip greens, etc), cucumbers, zucchini, squash, cantaloupe (in small amounts due to potential bacterial blooms from the sugar in the fruit), watermelon rind with a bit of red left on (again, in small amounts due to heightened amounts of naturally occuring sugars).

JohnSeito

I just worry that my sucker fish will not get to eat anything, since I have doubt that there is any algae in my tank and if I don't have algae and he don't eat regular fish food he is going to starve.

angelfish220

Pick up some sinking wafers and he'll enjoy those greatly.

clinton1621

Shawnie

getting the sinking wafters as angelfish said, and turning out the lights right before you put them in, he will find them..as well as weighing down and getting a veggie clip and putting that down towards the bottom, trust me he will eat

clinton1621

Just make sure with the wafers that you remove them after a few hours if theyre not completely eaten or they will start to pollute the water, once you figure out how much of them he eats you can break it up into smaller pieces =)

JohnSeito

if I don't get his food as you say the "sinking walfers", do you think he will survive in there?

clinton1621

Not very long, especially if it doesnt at least get some leftover flakes or some sort of food... they WILL NOT survive on algae from the tank alone... they need to be fed regularly with good quality varieties of food just like ANY fish does.

JohnSeito

I crushed "TetraColor Tropical Granules", regular food into tiny pieces and put it in the fish tank and I was hoping that because it is so tiny pieces that it can hopefully eat it while it's sucking the water.

I don't know if he get any food this way.

clinton1621

They actually prefer large pieces of food to eat off of... they will probably have a hard time finding crushed flakes or granules, not to mention that crushed up it just ends up going down into the gravel or getting sucked up in the filter....

BOTTOM LINE HERE... feed it algae wafers, sinking pellets, shrimp pellets, or anything that the other members above suggested.... or you WILL end up with a pleco that dies of starvation.

JohnSeito

Ok