dolphingrl101

I have a convict cichlid tank, I have a small pleco. I've noticed the last couple of days everytime I go to feed the cichlids the pleco will swim upside down at the top to eat the cichlid food. Is this normal or does that mean theres not enough algea for the little guy to eat?

Aldric

do you put any alge wafers in for him? or some veggies?
they love cucumber
you can also add some bloodworm pellets aswell for protean

dolphingrl101

I had no idea that pleco's could eat veggies, lol guess you learn something new everyday.
I heard somewhere that the algea wafers were bad for tanks?! If not I can pick some up

Amnagrla

I wouldn't be worried about it.. but you definitely should be feeding him, not just having him having to scavange.

angelfish220

Algae wafers are fine as long as he eats them... and by the sounds of it he will! The reason you have to be careful with the wafers is because sometimes they just sit at the bottom of the tank and foul the water.

Aldric

yes as angelfish said just make sure you dont leave them in there for days ( the alge wafers and also veggies)
you can get verious things to stop ur veggies floating i use a thing called a screwcumber its a stainless steal spiral that u screw into a deseeded cucumber ( u need to scoop the seeds out or they get stuck in ur filter and block it up) you can also use it with french beans or anything else really oh and frozen peas would work for ur fish just drop a few in and they will quickly defrost and stay at the bottom of the tank

aquarist48

Good morning. I have moved your thread to the freshwater/catfish/Pleco section of the forum. It may help you to get more responses and to help others with the same questions.
Thanks!
Ken

dolphingrl101

Thanks guys, I'll make sure to buy some wafers. Now I feel bad

aquarist48

Don't feel badly Dolphin. It's rare that any food I put into my tank makes it to the bottom for my Pleco to eat. It's learned to swim around foraging for food from top to bottom and he's doing very well.
Ken

dolphingrl101

Well my cons are still fairly small/young. So they only pick out the small bits of food and the big stuff falls to the bottom. So I guess the pleco does get quite a bit of food to eat.

Now that the cons are getting bigger the pleco seems to be getting more territorrial? Is it okay that the pleco is chasing the other fish around?

Shawnie

that will change in time...the cons are fast enough where mr plec can have his fun now..it wont last...and if you get a breeding pair of cons out of your babies, you will have to move him or they will tear him up