It's true, plecos love their cucumbers!

Check this guy out, munching away. Whoever first had the idea of giving cucumber to plecos was a genius and deserves a medal. First time I tried, was not a success. They complete ignored it so I removed it after a couple of hours (don't want rotting veggies in my tank). For some reason since then, they love it! Even my mollies will have a peck, but they soon tire of it. My pleco will just eat it, go away, eat it, go away, eat it.

Can't remember who gave me the idea of weighing the cucumber down with aquatic plant weights, but what a great idea! I was worried the metal bit would rust but I don't really leave it in there for too long so fingers crossed am not actually slowly heavy-metal-poisoning my fish trying to give them a treat!

And let's make sure we clean the underside too. That's right, we only believe in a thorough job.

 

Re: It's true: plecos love their cucumber!

That is so cute! I need to try giving some to Kramer soon.

 

Re: It's true: plecos love their cucumber!

Yep they L-O-V-E that cuc and zuchinnI Top and bottom
Carol

 

Re: It's true: plecos love their cucumber!

I'll be ... I have to try this!!! I wonder if my oto's would like it

 

Re: It's true: plecos love their cucumber!

Yes your Otos will love Cucumber or Zuchinni. It may tke a couple of times to figure out it's food but watch out when then do. I suggest you put it in at night to begin with and take it out the next morning. Then soon you can put it in anytime and they will come out for it
Carol

 

Re: It's true: plecos love their cucumber!

Yep they L-O-V-E that cuc and zuchinnI Top and bottom
Carol

What a GREAT picture!

 

Re: It's true: plecos love their cucumber!

thank you armadillo Those are two of my long-fin albino BN babies .
Carol

 

Re: It's true: plecos love their cucumber!

Carol. I'll have to go to the LFS and get a weight so I can try it this weekend... I have little 10 oto's and I can't wait to see what they do... thanks!!!

 

Re: It's true: plecos love their cucumber!

Let us know how they like it
Carol

 

Re: It's true: plecos love their cucumber!

Ok lead aquatic plant wieghts. Lead is a wonderful substance. You can swallow lead balls and they will go straight through you withoug doing damage. Lead is only poisonous as a compound ie lead oxide, lead sulphide. Lastly lead metal is totally unreactive in water and won't poison the water. This is proved by the fact that they already use them to weight the plants, which to me suggests that they are safe. Oh and I suggest poking the lead through the flesh, this makes it harder for the vegatation to detach itself from the wieght. Sorry about the rant but science is my passion.

 

Re: It's true: plecos love their cucumber!

Actually the plant weights are specified as "aquarium safe lead" don't know what makes it aquarium safe. I do use them in my aquarium but prefer food clips.
On another subject- duck hunters can no longer use lead shot to hunt ducks because if wounded the ducks can get lead poisioning and die. The lead may go in the water, fish swallow them and make them unsuitable for consumption. They have to use steel shot now. SOOOO my point being it must be a different kind of lead- what makes it different ?
Yeah sorry I'm rambling this morning
Carol

 

Re: It's true: plecos love their cucumber!

So, does anybody else have pictures of their plecos eating nice stuff? I love these pictures.

 

Re: It's true: plecos love their cucumber!

How about BroccolI ?

Re: It's true: plecos love their cucumber!

How about canteloupe ?

 

Re: It's true: plecos love their cucumber!

That looks soooo cool. I love those pictures! I hope we get loads more!

I just really love that you get the feeling you've really given your fish a treat with something less artificial than pellets or wafers (which they also gulf down, but hey). It's so rewarding to see that they blatantly love the stuff.

Tried garlic yesterday but it only made my water stink, and only the mollies were (occasionally) pecking at it.

 

Re: It's true: plecos love their cucumber!

sometimes it takes a couple of tries to get them to realize something new is food
Carol

 

Re: It's true: plecos love their cucumber!

Oh absolutely. They weren't crazy about cucumber first time round either. The only thing is garlic really makes my water stink. Today, am trying aubergines! Just went to buy them.

 

Re: It's true: plecos love their cucumber!

aubergines ? Explain please
Carol

 

Re: It's true: plecos love their cucumber!

ha ha. Forgot. You're American, not a Brit. Aubergine = zucchini. At least I think that's what you call them.

Re: It's true: plecos love their cucumber!

Although I have a terrible memory when it comes to veggie names, and I keep confusing aubergines with courgettes. Is there such a thing as a courgette in American English? And is it different to Zucchini?

 

Re: It's true: plecos love their cucumber!

I love those orange long finned plecos theyre beautiful

 

Re: It's true: plecos love their cucumber!

Courgettes is what I hear for zuchinnI from my UK friends.
Lolagurl - thanks those are albino long fin bristlenose. Those are some of my fry grown up
Carol

 

Re: It's true: plecos love their cucumber!

Courgettes is what I hear for zuchinnI from my UK friends.
Lolagurl - thanks those are albino long fin bristlenose. Those are some of my fry grown up
Carol

how big do they get.. I don't even like the look of plecos that much..but I love those

 

Re: It's true: plecos love their cucumber!

Courgettes is what I hear for zuchinnI from my UK friends.
Lolagurl - thanks those are albino long fin bristlenose. Those are some of my fry grown up
Carol

Oh. I wonder what you call aubergines, then. They're the same texture as zucchinI inside, but have a rounder, shorter shape, and their skin is dark purple. Actually, we also call that colour aubergine, but I guess that won't help!

 

Re: It's true: plecos love their cucumber!

Eggplant? removed
Carol

 

Re: It's true: plecos love their cucumber!

Thaaat's the one. Am guessing it won't hurt them if zucchinI doesn't?

 

Re: It's true: plecos love their cucumber!

I don't know of any veggie or fruit that will hurt your fish. Some are little more messy than others , like the melons because of the water content. But it's well worth the clean - up to see them eat.
Carol

 

Re: It's true: plecos love their cucumber!

I read somewhere on this site to avoid acid fruit/veg. No idea what fruit/veg would be acid, but am sure cucumber is a pretty safe bet. Doesn't look very acid to me.

 

Re: It's true: plecos love their cucumber!

armadillo, Oranges and other citrus are very acidic

 

Re: It's true: plecos love their cucumber!

Yeah, OK, I guess that was a dumb question. I am kind of staying away from fruit altogether, but citrus is the obvious one, you're right. There's a great pix of watermelon scoffing action up there, but as I hate the stuff, they don't get it either!

I was more wondering what veg are not safe. I can't think of an acidic veg.

Re: It's true: plecos love their cucumber!

Oh, and I guess it's not only plecos. My mollies adore the stuff. Again, whoever posted that advice on the forum, thank you soooo much. You've made my fish very happy.

Re: It's true: plecos love their cucumber!

I don't know of any veggie or fruit that will hurt your fish. Some are little more messy than others , like the melons because of the water content. But it's well worth the clean - up to see them eat.
Carol

HI Carol

What do you mean with messy? What happens then? Does it turn your water a little sweet? Does it just dissolve all over the tank? How do you clean it up?

Re: It's true: plecos love their cucumber!

How about BroccolI ?

Love the little clown fish clip on that picture of the plecos and the broccoli.

 

Re: It's true: plecos love their cucumber!

Do your plecos just eat the seeds or the whole thing? Mine eat only the seeds and some of the stuff surrounding the seeds. Is this normal?
Tom

 

Re: It's true: plecos love their cucumber!

HI Tom. I've definitely noticed that in the morning after I've put the cucumber in the water, it's only the seed that's gone. But then when I leave it long enough (2 days), only the skin is left. And I've seen my small pleco join in with the rest of them long after the seeds have gone, so I guess he likes the flesh too.

 

Re: It's true: plecos love their cucumber!

By the next morning everything but the the tiny bit in the clip is gone My Rhino shreds some fruits then when he's done I just do a small vacuum to get the left overs out.
Carol

 

Re: It's true: plecos love their cucumber!

I've just looked, and even the skin is gone this morning! (cucumber)

Re: It's true: plecos love their cucumber!

Oooops. Nevermind. My boyfriend's just found the skin. It was floating under our plant leaves.

 

Re: It's true: plecos love their cucumber!

Here's the best picture I can get so far, but he's pretty much eaten it all, he likes the clip.

 

Re: It's true: plecos love their cucumber!

So cute ATM, must still be goodies hiding in the clip
Carol

 

Re: It's true: plecos love their cucumber!

Here's the best picture I can get so far, but he's pretty much eaten it all, he likes the clip.

What's he eating?

 

Re: It's true: plecos love their cucumber!

Whatever is left on that clip LOL :...which I don't know what is I didn't take it out yet today and put another piece on it yet. It's really strange how my male comes out during the day and the female comes out during the night, so I never get pics of the female except I have her juvie one's. I'm still hoping they breed but it doesn't look like they like each other. I see if I can get a picture of him eating a piece of cucmber soon.

 

Re: It's true: plecos love their cucumber!

At least you know which is male and which is female. You've got one over me.

We have a tiny pleco, and he comes out ALL the time. The other two plecos are a lot shyer, and only come out at night.

Re: It's true: plecos love their cucumber!

I tried peas, I tried peas!!! It's the funniest thing . I figured I wouldn't peel them as I couldn't really think of how. So I just plomped some in. They were behaving like seals! They propped the peas on their noses. Reallly funny. In the end, they managed to break the skin and had a right fest.

If I had a video camera I would definitely u-tube it. Sooo funny.

 

Re: It's true: plecos love their cucumber!

Cute!

As a sidenote, I either just pierce a pea with my fingernail or with a paring knife...the skin comes right off then.

 

Re: It's true: plecos love their cucumber!

This is all SO lovely and cute!!

I have a question and its going to sound really dumb, but its true anyway...
I've tried giving my pleco vegies, but the problem is, he doesn't seem to know its for him. And if I bring it to him, he swims or moves away from me! how do I get his attention to the veg or or make him understand its for him?
Actually i've never seen him eat anything apart from algea!

 

Re: It's true: plecos love their cucumber!

This is all SO lovely and cute!!

I have a question and its going to sound really dumb, but its true anyway...
I've tried giving my pleco vegies, but the problem is, he doesn't seem to know its for him. And if I bring it to him, he swims or moves away from me! how do I get his attention to the veg or or make him understand its for him?
Actually i've never seen him eat anything apart from algea!

Mine were not so quick on the uptake either, actually. First time round, I left the cucumber overnight and they ignored it. Then I tried again and for some reason they got it then.

Re: It's true: plecos love their cucumber!

Cute!

As a sidenote, I either just pierce a pea with my fingernail or with a paring knife...the skin comes right off then.

Am really the least practically-minded person in the northern hemisphere, so you'll have to bear with me here: so what happens once you're done pierced an opening in the pea? Do you just pull? Because if I was to attempt that, I'd just end up with all the flesh in a mess on my fingers. P.S. Am using tinned peas, not frozen. Maybe that's the difference?