Just bought Hikari algae wafers for my pleco... no algae in my tank so im sure he's starving by now. Two questions... can these guys go longer without eating than other fish? and... how much a wafer should i drop in, it seems awfully large for one fish, i dont want it to decay? maybe cut a small piece?
I am babysitting a 2 yr old oscar. He has a pleco about 8 in. and had to buy the wafers due to the move.( owner had to move tanks to the house.) The owner cleaned the tank too well. So the pleco started to attack the oscar (who is about 12 in.) I give him 1 wafer every other day. seems to be much better! I would say depending on size and if the pleco finds it. I give the pleco the most 2 hrs to eat the wafer then fish it out (if the oscar does not eat it first!) It seems that oscars like the wafers too!! : )
I would put in a wafer every other day or every three days. If it starts to get huge fast in a less than 50 gallon tank i would drop it down to twice a week
there are about 20 different pleco's named sailfin and high fin...
i guess you're talking about a leopard sailfin pleco, and a trinidad pleco... since those are common at LFS... the trinidad is a carnivore... it will eat any kind of pellet or flake...
the leopard is a omnivore... wich will probably eat the pellet fine...
i've never had a trinidad or a leopard pleco... since they both get gigantic and are useless IMO... and trinidad's usually attack other fish to eat thier slime coat... well sometimes... if your lucky they wont...
no worries, my bristlenose has started eating the wafers... he got hungry enough to swim to the front of the tank where i drop them. i put in a quarter to half wafer every few days. my other fish leave it alone so its all his. thanks for the info.
Hm, I knew they loved veggies but I didn't know they would eat lettuce. I will have to try that with my Pleco. I usually just feed him 1 wafer every other night before the lights go out. He loves them and always has to fight with the Cichlids because they also enjoy absolutely anything that goes in lol.
My pleco could just be a pig, but I have a veggie clip and about once every few days I give him a handful of lettuce with it. He eats it slowly, but the whole bunch will be gone in about a day and a half. You gotta make sure there's plenty dangling from the clip so the pleco can actually grab it with his mouth. I also usually give him about 15 garlic soaked peas every night after lights out.
He's the SHYEST pleco you will ever see considering his size, but he loves peas, and will come right out to eat them once I move away from the tank.
I tried giving my pleco lyma beans a couple months ago. The Cichlids ate some of it but the pleco didn't really touch them at all so I had to remove them after a couple days. I didn't want it to muck up my tank.
I tried removing the shell of the lyma bean too but no luck, he just wasn't interested.
I have a 6 inch pleco and it eats whatever falls to the bottom, freeze dried krill and Tetra flakes. It also eats Java moss, algae, and cleans my wood and plants nicely. It appears to be a very happy pleco.