Fat Pl*co

[daveheard]

Is it possible to overfeed your pl*co, I have a Yellow Prince Tiger Pl*co ( thats what the lfs called it although i can't any info on it anywhere ), that is getting quite fat, when it's on the bottom it's belly stops it lying flat so that the sucker part of its mouth is off the bottom, i have an L200 in the same tank which is fine.
Because of the L200 and the 4 cories I have i don't want to cut back on the food to much and starve the others.
Is it a case of overfeeding, a greedy fish or something worse??

The food is a mixture of flake and granular for the top and midwater fish, a pinch twice daily and at night i put in 1 or 2 algae wafers. 1 day a week ( sat ) i don't usually feed anything.

Any Suggestions

 

[FroggyFox]

I'm no bottomfeeder expert...but someone told me that if your pleco is bloated that its possible that they have an internal parasite or bacterial infection. If he's just getting chubby...I think that could be normal because plecos tend to get stocky, most aren't real skinny. It doesn't sound like you're overfeeding to me...

Lets see what others have to say...

 

[derajer]

Check the contents of your algae wafers, most algae wafers contain fish meal as the main ingedient. This is a really good way to kill your pleco, because all of the protein is bad for them. The are vegetarians. If you want to "feed" your pleco then the best way is to either find true algae wafers, which is pretty hard, or throw a few rocks and tank water in a bucket and leave them out in the sun for a few days. When they turn green with algae, you put them in the tank. But there is still the possibility of infection like Froggy said

 

[daveheard]

Have checked the algae wafers content and they do contain fish meal, but it doesn't say how much...
I use Hikari Tropical algae wafers and also Tetra Plecomin tablets.
I'm hoping he's just getting stocky like Froggy suggested..