Is my pleco undereating / thin?

I feed flakes and sinking pellets daily in the morning and after lights out will put some more sinking pellets in.

Feed a couple algae wafers every other day / every two days

I'm worried because plecos seem to be the only thing that doesn't survive in my tank for a reason unknown to me.

Here's some pictures

I'm mainly worried because I have very fat Cory's who go nuts when it's feeding time and I'm worried when the algae wafers come or the pellets he is being out muscled. He has been pushed off some before contrary to being told they're the ones usually muscling in.

 

What species of pleco is it?

Rather than feeding algae wafers, I would feed veggies. The cories won't be able to take them from him then!

 

Do you have driftwood in your tank? Plecos need driftwood for their digestion and stuff.
Have you tried veggies? They love zucchinI and cucumber and things like that...

 

Some plecos need driftwood, but not all. If you tell us what kind of pleco it is, we can help with what it needs in its diet. Some plecos are herbivorous, some are carnivorous, and some are omnivorous, and they have different dietary needs.

 

What type of pleco is it?

 

Hey sorry I had a nap haha!

It's a bristlenose pleco. There's a huge piece of driftwood in the tank which he loves to live on

 

He would love veggies then!

 

OK, will try some cucumber tomorrow

 

I'm no pleco expert but it's the only one I've had I've managed to keep alive longer than any other fish.....

• lots of moss in the tank (the pleco eats the algae that grows on the moss, or eats the moss with the algae)
• I've always got algae growing, if it begins to get low, I keep the lights on longer to get it to rebound.
• I'm keeping a few snails/shrimp in there too to help stabilize the algae.
• I feed HikarI sinking Algae wafers every few days to give it another taste/nutrition
• I placed driftwood in tank immediately after I got the Pleco and it uses it as a hiding spot/it sucks on it some times.
• not many other fish in the tank

 

That is not an adequate diet for a BN pleco. They need a protein source as well as lots of veggies, some fruit, Algea wafers, with bottom feeder pellets , shrimp pellets, yours occasional meals of frozen thawed bloodworms or frozen thawed brine shrimp. They really should have a varied diet. I wrote up a post on the current thread Pleco!! share yours on page 3, about halfway down with hints on feeding, veggies and fruits to feed, how to prep them and how to feed them. It is by no means a complete list but should give you some ideas. Sweet red pepper is another favorite. Alison

 

That is not an adequate diet for a BN pleco. They need a protein source as well as lots of veggies, some fruit, Algea wafers, with bottom feeder pellets , shrimp pellets, yours occasional meals of frozen thawed bloodworms or frozen thawed brine shrimp. They really should have a varied diet. I wrote up a post on the current thread Pleco!! share yours on page 3, about halfway down with hints on feeding, veggies and fruits to feed, how to prep them and how to feed them. It is by no means a complete list but should give you some ideas. Sweet red pepper is another favorite. Alison

Yeah! You should go digging for that thread it gave me some great ideas for my BN
because of my fish they would always eat up any wafers in a matter of seconds.. the BN would never get any and he was not interested in cucumer or zuchinI either
However after reading through that post I tried sweet pepper and he LOVES IT... it's bizarre to feel a rush of relief because your fish is pooping regularly

 

Hey sorry I just saw this. Yeah I've got to zucchinI and cucumber and he loves it. He also actively comes out now around feeding time to see if I drop a hikarI wafer in for him which he fights the Cory's off of. He is pooping regularly and rasping regularly. Didn't have much luck with the bell pepper but he is straight on the zucchinis etc. There is also a lot of Christmas / Java moss on the floor which catches a lot of algae strands and such tho never really see him up in the moss. Just the shrimp and Cory's.

Thanks for all the advice and I was previously linked to that thread so will go re read it