Growth rate of snowball pleco

by **DanDman18** » Thu Oct 20, 2011 9:48 pm

I bought a snowball pleco about a year ago, and it still has not grown at all! it is obviosly eating or else it would be dead, so i know its not lack of food. Its about 1.5" long and i am pretty confused as to why it is not growing, I feed them vegetables and algae disks, as well as all the algae it could want on the glass. Any ideas are apreciated.

by **natalie265** » Fri Oct 21, 2011 4:50 pm

Is it getting any protein in its diet?

by **DanDman18** » Fri Oct 21, 2011 8:30 pm

Well, i don't truely know. I do feed my fish newlife spectrum which has protein, as well as bloodworms, however i do not know if it eats them, usually he is hiding.

by **natalie265** » Mon Oct 24, 2011 1:02 am

Well, it sounds like you are offering him a nice, balanced diet. Any problems with your water quality? Do you test for ammonia, nitrates and nitrites? What size tank is he in?

by **DanDman18** » Mon Oct 24, 2011 9:57 pm

Ammonia is always 0 sometimes maybe .125, nitrite always 0 and nitrate between 20-40 and in a 125gal

by **natalie265** » Tue Oct 25, 2011 2:40 pm

Are there other fish in the tank who are aggressive eaters who might not be leaving much food behind? The only thing i can think of is that he isn't getting proper nutrition. Putting sinking pellets in the tank after lights out, or using a turkey baster to funnel food directly to the pleco might help.

by **DanDman18** » Wed Oct 26, 2011 11:11 pm

Well, the other fish are african cichlids, so yeah, its with very aggresive eaters, but there is always plenty of food if it wanted any, there are also about 10 other plecos, but as i said there is plenty of food, and i do drop in vegies or algae wafers at night. Problem with directly feeding him, is since he is so small i can never find him unless he if briefly not hiding.

by **natalie265** » Thu Oct 27, 2011 1:05 am

Well Dan, i'm stumped. But you have some beautiful fish! I really like the two peacocks that you have featured on your page. I'm actually really impressed with how knowledgeable you seem, especially considering you are only 17. You're going to have it all figured out by the time you're my age!

by **DanDman18** » Thu Oct 27, 2011 7:17 pm

Well, thank you for the compliment, i finally found him and was able to scoop him out and i could tell he has been eating a lot becuase it looked like his stomach was going to burst, so i don't know either. oh and sorry about your betta

by **natalie265** » Fri Oct 28, 2011 2:27 pm

Thanks for the condolences.

Growth rate of snowball pleco

10 posts