Common Plecos and Excessive Waste Production

[lmw80]

Common Plecos. I love 'em. I have one that is roughly a foot long. The only problem I have with him is, well, his incredibly long waste strings. The are SO long....a lot of them longer than his body! I know that food goes right through them, I believe they have no stomach, only intestines?? Either way, it gets wrapped around my plants and my decorations, it's terrible. It's always there...all day...no matter how many times it's removed...it's like it's alive!

Please, if any of you own common plecos and have a trick to dealing with their waste, let me know - or even if you don't have a common plec and have a suggestion.

 

[Allivymar]

Heh, buy a turkey baster. There is no way to get the poop meisters of the aquaria world to poo less, but a turkey baster makes for easy clean up without having to gravel vac the whole tank for a coupla strings (can you tell I also have a biggish plec? *grin*).

Oh, and DON'T keep it in the kitchen LOL

 

[Terry]

This is one of the joys of owning a plecostamus, when it comes to there toilet habits they don't really care, Allivymar turkey baster is a good idea, or as i do in the store is i have a lengh of airline tubing. This removes there poops but doesn't remove much water. The good thing about this is at christmas you will have someware to hang the fishes decoration hahahahahaha. sorry couldn't resist that one.

 

[Madame_X]

Yeah, the turkey baster is a great idea, Alli!

I don't have a common pleco but a little female bristlenose (she's the cutest little thing). I don't know what her poop production levels will be yet since I've only had her a couple of days but I can think of other junk the turkey baster would be handy for removing.

I'm starting to learn that some of the best tools of the trade can't be found at the LFS!

 

[e-cat]

i just use a powerhead in all my tanks that had a pleco and that would break up the mess enuff for it too get untangled and get sucked up the filters.

 

[madasafish]

How about that stuff they use for turtle tanks to chemically break up waste? I wonder if that is compatible with fish?!

Anybody know?

 

[e-cat]

theres is some thing like that made by hagen but it will raise your ammonia for the fast break down.

 

[lmw80]

Wow, a turkey baster! It's genious! I can't say, "Why didn't I think of that?!" cause I never would have thought of that!

Terry - I am not sure I understand how the airline tubing gets rid of their waste? I am a little confused. Do you think you can explain it for me? Sorry for being so naive!

As far as chemicals go, I would rather not put anything other than what's needed in my tank, but it is a great idea!

Thanks guys for all your input!

 

[e-cat]

they might mean useing a piece of air line tubeing for a syphon too take the waste out with out removing too much water.

 

[e-cat]

if thats what you try watch out as iv found that little rocks get stucked up some times and get stuck and there hard too get out, the turkey baster sound the best.

 

[Allivymar]

LOL wish I could take credit for the Turkey baster idea; got it from the folks over at fishprofiles.com a while back.

I grabbed one at a flea market for a buck; I think the dollar stores usually carry them too. I've used them for other stuff in the tanks as well; when I bought cherry shrimp, used it to suck the shrimp out of the delivery bag and squirted em into the tank with a minimum of stress for them.

And I never leave it in the kitchen LOL

 

[Terry]

e-cat you got it, the flow through an airline is just enough to get rid of the plec poop and it does'nt take much water with it. if you put a bit of weight around one end you can move it around the tank quite easy.