why wont they eat it?

[justrelax]

of all my algea loving crew, none of them will eat the stuff off the rock. the rest of the tank is shiny and clean, as it should be with 2 pleco's, 3 snails and 7 oto's. but no one will eat off the rock. it's a big rock with holes in it right in the middle of the tank. the back side of it is almost entirely a darkish green color, the top is starting to green, and the front you can see the colors of the rock real well. the wierd thing, aside from no one eating off it, is that it's the back of the rock that's getting colored. if any part of it gets natural light it's the front, isn't that where you would think the algae would be growing?
anyway, is it a texture thing? i don't know... anyone have any ideas?

[SCFatz]

I have slate stacked in the bottom of my 29g.One large piece was covered in algea.I mean covered.It looked like a putting green lol.The ottos wouldn't touch it.The rock got to the point that it was such a deep lush green that I was starting to hope the wouldn't ever bother it to be truthful.....sounds strange I know,but ya had to see it...very nice color.

Anyhow...one morning a patch was gone.After that it it was gone in three days never to return.I can't explain the waiting...but thats what happened in my tank if it helps.

[Jchillin]

I happen to have an invert happy tank (ramshorns and malaysian trumpets) along with several plecos and corydoras. For whatever reason, they seem to pick out snippets of food off the rock but have never, ever touched any algae growing there. My rock is pagoda and fedder stone.

[hc8719]

when i put my pleco in my clawed frog tank so he could binge on some algae, he didnt even bother going for the big spots of algae, in fact he was barely touched on the major algae parts, eatting more of the less infected areas.

when i was 7 and got 2 plecos for my goldie tank, (which was covered in algae) my plecos couldnt stop eatting

depends on the fish?

[justrelax]

wierd. well, if it's pretty much contained to that one spot it can't really hurt anything, can it? like make algae more likely to grow elsewhere or something?

[Jarred Darque]

It seems that certain fish/inverts take a dislike to a certain piece in the tank.

In my gfs tank, they wont touch the resin decor, in my 75, they wont touch the fake plants, in my 10 gallon, my bristlenose moves the gravel around to get tot he algae growing in between the galss and the gravel on the edges of the tank, he has mad ethe glass spotless. Cleaned a thick algae covered rock to perfection, but will not touch the terracotta pot...eventhough he lives in it.