common pleco eating fish question

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mariah

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I have a common pleco 6" i was given a month ago. He is in a tank with goldfish now so he can have drift wood. Would it be okay when i rehome the goldfish to put guppies in with the pleco? They don't eat fish do they? What if he sucks up a baby, would he spit it out? Sorry, weird question but Tia
 
Your guppies will be safer than your goldfish to be honest
 
Why do you say that? He has been with the goldfish for a while now

Because eventually it will discover how tasty your goldfish slime coat is and then you'll have a dead or at least badly wounded goldfish.
 
Because eventually it will discover how tasty your goldfish slime coat is and then you'll have a dead or at least badly wounded goldfish.

Oh... i did not know that :/ so he won't eat guppies. I do have other tanks to place him in. The goldfish are all 4-6 inches. Would the pleco be okay with an aggressive and a mean opaline gourami?
 
I never had any pleco eat a fish. I had 3 12" common plecos (in 2 different tanks) with barbs, tetras, platys, cory cats, betta, kuhlis and clams. But then again my fish were always well feed a variety of foods, so no one was ever hungry.
 
Keep him well fed and I don't think you'd have issues in either. Perhaps some fry losses, but even the parents eat them. as far as eating slime coat is concerned, that's a much larger problem with Chinese algae eaters than with Plecos. I'd be concerned with ANY fish that is small enough to fit into another's mouth in the same tank, but because of the different regions I think you'd be fine so long as you gave the pleco plenty of veggies and algae wafers.

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An after thought, plecos are omnivores....mine always had a cube of bloodworms or brine shrimp to his own everyday beside the algae wafer.

And like the previous post stated...any fish that can fit into another's mouth is fair game.
 
Keep him well fed and I don't think you'd have issues in either. Perhaps some fry losses, but even the parents eat them. as far as eating slime coat is concerned, that's a much larger problem with Chinese algae eaters than with Plecos. I'd be concerned with ANY fish that is small enough to fit into another's mouth in the same tank, but because of the different regions I think you'd be fine so long as you gave the pleco plenty of veggies and algae wafers.

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I try to feed him but he never eats it or gets it. I have tried everything. I blanched a lot of Spanish and cucumber for him the day i got him and he still to this day doesn't eat it. The cucumber stayed in the tank for two days then the goldfish ate it. For the algae wafers.. i put one in evertnight once it has been very dark in my room for at least an hour. I always instantly hear the goldfish go after it. I don't think he ever gets food... he ate the algea in the whole tank in one day. I am going to move him to my other 29g for a few days to get all that massive amount of algae but i don't know what else to do other then that
 
Never heard of a pleco not eating, they eat just about ANYTHING.

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He has never touched the cucumber or Spanish. Maybe since he is a year old or so and he never had that in his diet with his old owners.. he doesn't have the taste of it or doesn't know he can eat it? Idk. All i know is he never gets the wafer at night and there is no algae left in the tank. He has drift wood that's it :/
 
He has never touched the cucumber or Spanish. Maybe since he is a year old or so and he never had that in his diet with his old owners.. he doesn't have the taste of it or doesn't know he can eat it? Idk. All i know is he never gets the wafer at night and there is no algae left in the tank. He has drift wood that's it :/

He's eating something, otherwise he'd starve. Try blanched zucchini or blanched romaine(the green leafy part). I use I seaweed clip for romaine.

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He's eating something, otherwise he'd starve. Try blanched zucchini or blanched romaine(the green leafy part). I use I seaweed clip for romaine.

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We never buy this kinds of food. I can try romaine soon though. Now when i feed my goldfish flakes, hes going on the bottom and eats all the flakes he can. I think he is hungry... i have only had him for about a month.
 
Zucchini is a green squash. It has some different names depending on where you are. Google it.

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