Pleco food?

[Smudgeboss]

My tank is finally cycled (thanks for all your advice and patience that gave me patience). I have 5 goldskirt tetras in it. All in that area seems to be working quite alright.

Now my problem. On my phony plants there is a little light brown fuzz that is growing (not a lot but some). There is also a light brown scum on the tank walls, especially right in front of the HOB filter where the current hits the front of the glass. We assumed this to be algae and bought a pleco to deal with it day before yesterday. It doesn't appear that he is working on the major scum area on the front of the glass. So, is this algae that the pleco will eat?
Does he need additional food pellets to keep him alive, or will the normal algae growth in a 10 gal tank suffice for him?

Thanks

 

[Toirtis]

Sounds like brown diatoms...Otocinclus will often eat it, but your best bet is to keep up with regular (I suggest every 4-5 days) water changes and cut back on the feeding a bit....it is an excess of nutrients that is feeding this growth, so less food and the water changes should help remove that.

 

[Menagerie]

What kind of pleco is it?

 

[RoK]

I don't think the pleco will live off of only the algae that grows in the tank, some plecos are carnivorous and won't even touch algae. I feed mine algae wafers, frozen bloodworms and brine shrimp, shelled peas, shrimp pellets, carnivore pellets, and they get some of the flakes sometimes IF they get to the bottom.

 

[malkore]

Rok's got good advice here. Even though pleco's are usually considerated algae eaters, most aren't full herbivores.
Also, put a piece of driftwood in the tank....pleco's need to munch a little plant cellulose to stay healthy.

 

[Apocalypse_Gold]

Plus most of the plecos you see in the store grow much to big for a 10 gal. Mine is to big for my 20. Plecos also love vegetables. Mine loves to munch on cucumber slices. Oto's will wipe out your brown fuzz.

 

[RoK]

Rok's got good advice here.

Oh, and I usually don't, huh? Heh, jk.
Anyway, I edited my post slightly Apocalypse_Gold's post reminded me of something.

 

[Guest]

What kind of pleco is it?

This is the key question that needs answering. Its like asking what kind of oil should I put in my machine, there are so many different machines that do so many different things any answers are moot until you narrow it down to which one you are talking about.