Lipoly

Hello, first post here. I am somewhat concerned that my pleco may not be getting enough food. When I purchased him, I was told that leftover fish flakes and algae in the tank would be enough to nourish him. I have had him for over six months feeding like this, so I know he is getting enough to at least stay alive. His activity appears normal as well and his fins appear in good condition. My concerns are:

* There is never any visible algae anywhere in the tank even though he appears to be feeding from the glass, gravel, and other objects in the aquarium. This concerns me because I have no way of knowing if algae is growing, but he is just so awesome at keeping it clean that I never see any, or algae isn't growing, and he is living of fish flake scraps alone.
* Lately he has developed some patchiness (patches of lighter color) to his skin.
* Another seemingly odd behavior he exhibits is swimming upside down at the top of the water and gulping as if he doesn't have enough oxygen. I have a gigantic air stone that spans almost the entire length of the aquarium, so I'd be surprised if that were an issue. He seems to only do this when I have the air stone turned off (which I do when feeding to keep air bubbles from pushing all flakes to bottom). Maybe he is trying to eat the fish flakes? If so, he isn't very good at finding them b/c I've never actually seen him eat them, even when they are right next to him.

Any comments would be appreciated, thanks

Red1313

Hmmm... I'm not a Plec expert but I know the first things we need to know are these:
1) What size of tank is he in?
2) What type of Plec is he?
3) What are you're water readings?
4) What are the tank-mates?

Most Plec's only eat algae when they're young, as they get older they become more omnivorus. What you could try is dropping algae wafers and shrimp pellets to the bottom of the tank just for him. If you're concerned about him not having enough to eat. It's his behaviour at the top of the tank that I'd be looking at most.
If you have ammonia levels in your tank it's possible that this is what's sending him to the top. Are any of your other fish doing this? The other possibility is that it could be a normal behavior for him however I'm not sure. Someone more familiar with Plec's will be here soon.
I'd love to see some pics of him.
Good Luck!

Shawnie

welcome to fishlore!!!

feeding plecs without algae is a must..the leftovers arent always enough to sustain them...at night time, when the lights are out, you can drop in 2 algae wafers a few times a week..you can also try different veggie weighed down at night in the tank bottom..cucumbers, zucchini etc ..what kind of pleco is he?

as far as his color and swimming habits, what size tank is he in and what is in with him? and do you know your ammonia, nitrites, and nitrate readings? turning off the airstone and him swimming up there means he isnt getting enough oxygen ..but again , if the tank parimeters are ok, and not overstocked, there should be plenty of oxygen in there...if you fill in your aquarium info under my settings, it helps us help you more and not have to ask so many questions....good luck!

coffeebean

ive seen my plecos feeding off the surface of the water before. looks bizarre, but the snails do it too. there is sometimes a skin of protein of the surface. i supplement my plecos with sinking wafers and algae wafers

whisper

Get the veggie clips at the store and put thin slices of veggies or fruit in it . I stick mine to the side glass and they come up to it to feed. Also all the other fish feed on it too.

Lipoly

Thanks for all the info. The aquarium is only a 10 gallon. I realize I will need to go bigger once the pleco outgrows. I have strip tests ("Jungle" brand), but do not have the reference sheet to compare to, so it has not been tested in the past couple months. It has 7 total fish :

2 Guppies
2 Mollies
2 Small catfish. These were not what I was expecting; wife brought them home (in picture w/Pleco).
1 Pleco (not sure exact type)

I had never heard of feeding fish veggies, that will be really interesting to try out. Just leafy veggies, or could they eat something more hearty like carrot?

You can see in the picture the patches I'm talking about.

Thanks all.

btate617

Looks like a common pleco to me..... they could get up to about 18" I believe and poo lots fouling your water rather quickly especially in a 10 gallon tank.
I am not big into plecos, but if others agree it is a common pleco i would consider getting rid of it as it just doesn't go with your tank size.

The catfish is a Corydoras species. Google Corydoras species, there are many commonly avaliable species to pick from, a cool little fish.

Also welcome.


Brian

Lipoly

I got the pleco at WalMart, so it wouldn't surprise me if it is a common one. I will keep the pleco until it outgrows the tank, then I will likely just upgrade to a larger tank since by then we will probably be in a new house that could accommodate a larger aquarium better. Thanks for the suggestions about veggies...he seems to really like zucchini.

whisper

Beautiful pleco. They are one of my favorite fish. They can grow to 2' long. They love all kind of veggies and fruit. I have some plecos in my outdorr pond last year that liked peaches. I put the peach slice in the veggie clip then tied that to a jute rope and dangled it in the pond. The pleco,Koi, and goldfish loved it. By morning it was all gone.

Shawnie

im glad hes eating the veggies.and yes he is a common..the colors are normal for them as they change with stress/moods/and water parimeters...and some just always have those light streaks to them.....but I am going to tell you even tho he is small, his waste and biload is double his size and will eventually kill everyone from ammonia poisioning not to mention in a 10 gal, its going to almost be impossible to keep the parimeters in check....if you can find, you really need an API liquid master test kit..it has everything you need and will do 100's of test for you...with that plec in there, theres bound to be a ton of ammonia/nitrites unless you are doing daily partial water changes....if you removed him , the rest of the fish should be fine in that size tank

Lipoly

Thats really unfortunate to hear. I guess I need to get a proper test kit to find out what the current situation is before I do anything drastic. Are plecos in general high bio-loaders, or common ones in particular?

Red1313

Most plec's are high and this is mostly due to their size. Bristle Nose Plec's only get to be about 6" and I think there may be smaller. If all you're looking for is an algae eater then Otto's may be something to consider.

whisper

The Oto's are so cute and very active. They scurry all over the place. Fun to watch.

x0dyssey

I ahve two plecos that come to the surface, but only during feeding time. They have started to do this over the last month or so. They are in a large pond, they seem to be ok, heck they even let you touch them with out an issue now.

Attached Images

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aquarist48

Welcome to Fish Lore Lipoly. Enjoy the site.
Your Pleco is beautiful!
Ken

Lipoly

FYI: I finally got a decent testing kit. To my surprise, ammonia and nitrite were nonexistant. The two issues I had were:

* pH was pretty alkaline (8.5ppm). I had some tablets (looked like Alka Seltzer when dropped in) that brought it down to 7.8 or so, but they don't seem to be bringing it down any further.
* Nitrate was high: somewhere between 40 and 80 (kinda hard to tell the difference in color). I added some tetra "Nitraban", but it didn't seem to help at all. It says I can repeat dosage weekly, but I'm skeptical it will work that well at this point.

P.S.
One of the Mollie had babies (three swimming around)...my girls are very excited.

Butterfly

Most fish will adapt to just about any Ph we provide them. So it's really not necessary or really desirable to adjust it. Ph adjustors can cause the ph to fluctuate(as it gets time to add more your ph will climb then the adjustor will drop it back down) and that stresses the fish and can cause them to get sick.
Chemicals to control Nitrates aren't necessary either fish poo, excessive feeding and dead or dieing plant matter will raise the Nitrates. The easiest (on your wallet as well as on your fish) way to control Nirtates is through water changes and substrate vacuums. The fewer chemicals you can use the happier your fish will be. Most of the time Dechlorinator is the only chemical you will need.
Here is a thread about different thing plecos eat along with some really cool pics
It's true, plecos love their cucumbers... & it's not just plecos... or cucumbers
Welcome to Fishlore!
Carol