Pleco food requirements

[yodazgurl]

Hi there!

How much should a 10 to 12-inch Pleco be eating per day? I am starting to think it was a bad idea to rescue this big Pleco last night, because in my spontaneous display of compassion I forgot how greedy my Clown Loaches are when it comes to -- um -- everything I put in the tank that's edible! bloodworms, brine shrimp, flakes, algae pellets, zucchini, color bits, you name it, and they devour it! My new Pleco is already sick and distressed and has a bit of a sunken tummy, so I'm worried about him. I have a 4" regular Pleco that is a big fatso; he's the designated tank cleaner. I also have a 2" Snowball Pleco that has had a sunken tummy ever since I got him several months ago, but he seems to survive on whatever he manages to salvage from the Clown Loaches, and appears to be very healthy. I'm mostly just worried about my new big guy. Any recommendations on how I can make sure he gets his fair share, and how much is fair?

Thanks!!

 

[wayne]

More than you think. The little snowball sounds to be suffering too, and I'd suggest a good feeding effort before it gets to the point of no return

 

[yodazgurl]

'more than I think' doesn't help me much...

 

[dbacksrat]

do you have a separate tank you can quarantine him in? isolating him will reduce the stress levels and allow you to feed him

 

[radamsk1]

you definitely might have an incompatability there, not behavior-wise but eating wise, since you want to make sure the plecos get their share of food! You might need a separate tank for them to ensure they get enough food from your greedy clown loaches!

 

[wayne]

The reason I say more than you think is bacuae people expect plecos to exist on pretty small volumes of low nutrition algae when in fact as quite large, heavy fish they require a fair amount of feeding. Your snowball requires regular feeding on higher protein foods, try shrimp and so on. It should NOT have a sunken belly, and if he's still 2 inches (fry in all reality) after a couple of months he's pretty much on a 'starving to death slowly' diet. You might well need to separate them from the conparatively greedy loaches.
I dread to think what % of fancy plecs starve to death in well meaning aquarists tanks, but I would bet it's high, 80 or 90 %