Kind of Disgusting Question

[Renathen]

Hi... um, this may be a gross question but my Pl*co's poop covers my whole aquarium bottom. I don't have a clue what to do. I just did a vaccuuming to my tank a few hours ago and already the gravel is covered with long (we're talking over 4 inches here) strands.

My Pl*co himself is about 2 1/2 - 3 inches long. I have him in my 40 gallon until I get my 80 gallon in a few months. He's living with a strange assortment of fish. I have an marble angel, a swordtail and a betta. Some sort of Tetra (probably glolite or harlequin) are coming within the next few weeks.The substance hasn't affected my water chemistry at all yet. It's all fine. I just got him a few days ago and he just dirties up my whole tank.

What do I do about this? Do I vaccum every day to get rid of it all? Ignore it? Feed him less? I give him 3 algea flakes (they are a little smaller than a dime)every night plus he eats whatever algea he can find in my tank. He also sucks on my driftwood a lot too. Are all pl*co's this messy?

 

[Menagerie]

Plecos are simply poo machines! Try feeding the fish every other day and when you do PWC, vac half the tank every week.

 

[Guest]

I have this problem too....I vaccum pretty often in my pleco tank. After sucking on so much algae...something has to come out right?

 

[grimlock3000]

I give him 3 algea flakes (they are a little smaller than a dime)every night

Who makes these? If they are wafers, three is WAY too many. I give my Plecos half a wafer every few nights, crunched up into little pieces. And that gets split between two Plecos and the Yoyo Loaches.

 

[illuminum]

You're overfeeding him. I'd put in one wafer every other day.

 

[Fishalicious]

Definitely. ESPECIALLY if he still has algae to munch on!

 

[TankGirl]

They have a continuous gut, so they really do eat all of the time (if they can) and poo all of the time, but I don't feed mine but a couple of times a week. Otherwise they have to make do with whatever algae they can find.