My pleco looks like hes starving

[fishaddict]

Heres the problem with el pleco. ( i just call him that) hes great almost looks like hes flying through the water sometimes with those spread out fins. But im worried about him or her.I put down shrimp pellets on the bottom of my tank he seems to eat those, i also put down two algae wafers every night one on each end of the 4 foot tank. He goes for them but seems to get bored and swims off after like 5 minutes. Sometimes he also fights with my gouramis or barbs for it. He always wins . I leave my lights on for about 7 hours a day and seem to have got algae more manageable so im gonna be adding more hours of light slowly but surely maybe 8 or 9 tomorrow.

Anyway over the last few days his stomach area im assuming but on the left side of his body has taken on a whitish hue. He also seems to be not as fat as he was before. After i came back from vavation that is. I wanna fatten him up. Hes one of the longest lived plecos ive ever had 3 months i think. Ive also seen him grow from a little 3.99 midget to a 4or5 inch thing. I dont wanna lose him so please help.

 

[catfishmike]

well as long as he is eating you will be ok.it does sound like there are some issues you have to take care of first.are you sure he's eating or is he just browsing on it and leaving the rest?does he have stringy white feces?with out some defining symptoms it just sounds like a bored pleco.thr giving him some zucchini.that should jumpstart his appatite.if he dose have whith striny feces that means that your pleco has intenal parasites and you will need to treat this.i use garlic extract to help kill parasites.this isn't a proven method but it worked for me,also the garlic with make him enjoy those boring algae wafers a little more.you should check and see if the algae wafers you are feeding him are 100 percent vegeatable matter.some have fish meal and what not.not that it's a bad thing but the all vegeatable wafers seem better for plecos

 

[fishaddict]

Thanks im using the hikari algae wafers that apparently contain white fish meal, flour and a variety of other things. Could you reccomend one? I just got this because it said it was made especially for plecos. Bullcrap i guess? It does seem he browses. I cant ever watch him for two hours though. He only eats at night, i drop them in, he chases them down somehow, drags it around for 5 or 10 minutes i guess trying to eat it and then leaves. His fecees don't seem to be white but i could always double check that. I never thought of that option. Can internal parasites spread somehow, thats the last thing my tank needs.

Also on the pack of hikari wafers it says these tablets won't dissolve so i guess when i wake up in the morning and i don't see them it means they were eaten or is this bull to. Zuccini, ill try it. Ive seen it advertised here but never have done it. Just tie it down and watch him eat. Sounds good.
I dont have any driftwood in there or anything because it just doesn't go with anything but i could probably hide it behind some hygro if its necessary for a thriving pleco.
Thanks

 

[lightning]

i feed mine 1/4 of a zuccini every 3 days, he loves it, a rubber band around a flat rock sunk on the bottom, he can tell as soon as i put it in there and atacks it, he eats for about 10 minutes on it the swims off to let his belly settle, then 30 minutes he back at it again

 

[catfishmike]

no hikari wafers are ok it's just that they are formulated to cover a wide range of bottom feeders.the idea behind feding them an all vegeatable wafer is that there is less animal product for the pleco to break down.if you want an all vegeatable wafer try wardlys they have two kinds premium and delux premium(or something like that)standard comes in an orange bag and delux comes in a green bag.you should really try the garlic extract.my pleco never leaves a meal when i use garlic.i havent had a problem with wafers dissolving too much.after 12-24 hours they usualy stay the same unless the fish play in them.yes your fish can get internal parasites if there are other infected fish but ususaly only if you have bad water quality.all kinds of pathogens live in your tank as we speak but clean water will keep the fish happy and healthy and these pathogens can't take hold.if your water quality deteriorates then the fish become stressed and thats when the fish get sick.

 

[fishaddict]

Cool i think im good then. My waters ok i think nothings changing as far as parameters go. Im still a little confused what you mean by using garlic extract. Do you like put that on a food or something? Thanks

 

[catfishmike]

yea you can find garlic extract an any finer fish shop.don't expcet petchains to have this item.you can get garlic in extract or paste.i use kent garlic extreme.just one drop on a wafer and watch your pleco go nuts.you'll think he never ate before.thats how excited he will act.and garlic is good for all your fish not just your pleco.many of the high end fish foods are offering formulas rich in garlic now days.

 

[stik6shift98]

i also use cucumbers....my plecos and my fish love it

 

[wayne at home]

The woods important

 

[fishaddict]

If the woods that important then ill have to put it in. All it did before was seem to sit there. It has like a slate base on it but i think it might work.

Thanks catfishmike never seen that garlic extract before but maybe i havent been looking. Ill call a few places tomorrow see what they have.


Gotta try those cucumbers to. Maybe ill steal a few from my moms salad one day.

Thanks again, hopefully my pleco will grow nice and strong. Also my plecos feces seem to be a usual brownish black, no white involved. Gee who ever thought that the highlight of a Friday would be checking out pleco crap lol.

 

[catfishmike]

oops double posted huh. try to get a wood that isn't too dense my pleco can't eat the rootwood and i have had a hard time finding plain driftwood.i meant to tell you about driftwood as well sorry about that.the wood on a slate peice i don't like,i bought a peice once and when i boiled it it smelled like pine so i didn't use it.try sandblasted grapevine,you can find it in the reptile section of petchains,them come in some real cool shapes.i want to buy a bunch and make a tank that looks like an eroding jungle forest river with roots everywhere.

 

[fishaddict]

Thatll look pretty cool with that look. Can you post a pic of it once its done. Ill try that wood that you suggested i dont really trust what i have because i have no clue where it came from. It was certainly used before. Do you still have to boil this wood because its made for reptiles? Yes, right. I wanna make sure. I wont be able to deal with tannins id forget about the wood and start thinking my tank had a disease. Not what i want. Thanks for the tips this one aint gonna die.

 

[catfishmike]

you can boil the grapevine but you don't need to.as far as tannins don't sweat it odds are all it will do is turn your water brown and that don't bother me too much,i kinda like it.and don't worry about softing your water because odds are your waters too hard to matter anyways. but if you want to remove tannins just use carbon and that will get rid of the brown color to the water.oh another thing it could take a while before the grapevine has soaked up enought water to sink.

 

[fishaddict]

k got it. Im gonna hold the wood in the water for a while in like a sling. If it sinks while im asleep my sharkll freak and probably break some things lol cant let that happen.