Pleco Feeding

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Blizzard

Aquarium Advice Activist
Joined
Jul 26, 2005
Messages
137
Location
SC
This may seem to be a strange topic, but how does one go about feeding these monsters!?!!
I drop shrimp pellets in and my pleco wont touch them. Do you have to drop them right in front of their face?

-Blizzard.
 
zuccini, your pleco with love you for it! also, you can feed them apples, carrots, cucumber, algea pelets..... theres alot you can give them. It might just be a picky eater that doesnt like shrimp pelets. Try a few tihing on that list of food they like.
 
Plecos can be shy and some will eat only at night or when the lights are out in the tank. Waterpond gave great feeding suggestions, an I would definitly give them a try.
 
I've never seen my gold nugget go for any of the fresh veggies I've put in, although my clown loaches and my gouramis attack with no mercy. But no matter the time of day, if I drop in sinking wafers (either the general formula or the algae wafers), he comes charging out as soon as he smells them.
 
What kind of pleco is it? As people have said...many of them (especially the commons in my experience) love zucchini. Cucumbers and spinach are also a favorite here. (I hook it to the glass with a veggie clip). Mine also like the algae wafers and the tablets that are supposed to be for the corys! So of the less common and more expensive plecos aren't herbivores but I'm assuming your is a common?
 
I am doing a Supervised Agriculural Experiment at school on the growth variables on bristlenose or bushy nose plecos. I tried to give them Wardley shrimp pellets and had the same result but they gladly accepted the omega one spurilina tablets that I gave them. I looked it up and the only plecos that even eat meat other than carcasses are closely related or are zebra plecos. :roll:
Oh well.
 
EXM said:
I looked it up and the only plecos that even eat meat other than carcasses are closely related or are zebra plecos. :roll:
Oh well.

?

Most plecos are Omnivores.
 
My plecos will only touch carcasses and if you look up zebra plecos they are fully carnivorous. Zebra plecos feed on beefheart and such things not touching anything green.
 
EXM said:
My plecos will only touch carcasses and if you look up zebra plecos they are fully carnivorous. Zebra plecos feed on beefheart and such things not touching anything green.

Most plecos are classified as omnivores, meaning they eat meat, vegtables, algea, everything, ect..

my chocolate plecos love beefheart and algea wafers.
 
Than why are they famous for feeding on peoples plants as well as zuchini and any other greens you feed them? Oh, and by the way, plecos are scavengers and seek dead meat. I have yet to see a pleco go crazy and eat another fish.
 
EXM said:
Than why are they famous for feeding on peoples plants as well as zuchini and any other greens you feed them?

Because they are OMNIVORES.

EXM said:
Oh, and by the way, plecos are scavengers and seek dead meat. I have yet to see a pleco go crazy and eat another fish.

I never said they were stricly Carnivores, I said they are Omnivores.

I own a couple differnent Carnivores and have never seen anyone of them "go crazy and eat another fish". (10" bichirs, 6" BGK)
 
I have a albino oscar at 3 inches that swallowed whole a full grown moss green tiger barb. And on top of that, I have 2 black mollies that killed and ate 2 paradise fish. So I have had fish go crazy and eat eachother. Oh, and if you do look it up the common plecos are herbivores. Some may accept carcasses and raw meat but that isn't the case with all plecos or even most plecos. I have done my research. Don't doubt me.
 
EXM said:
Oh, and if you do look it up the common plecos are herbivores.

Hypostomus plecostomus, known as the common pleco:

"Feeding: A true omnivore that will eat anything. The diet should be primarily vegetarian."

from: http://www.planetcatfish.com/catelog/species.php?species_id=580


EXM said:
Some may accept carcasses and raw meat but that isn't the case with all plecos or even most plecos.

and how do you know this?
EXM said:
I have done my research. Don't doubt me.

Why can't I doubt you?

maybe you can go thru all the species on this page and let me know what you find.

http://www.planetcatfish.com/catelog/family.php?family_id=4#1
 
First of all, the common pleco is Hypostomus punctatus, and are fully herbivores. Secondly, I have been keeping fish for 8 years. Do you seriosly think I don't know what I am talking about? And father is one of the world's greatest killifish breeders and has been breeding fish for over 25 years. I am in contact with some of the world's best and brightest. I would hope that this does not have to be a battle between 2 excelent fish keepers and that we can be able to co-exist easily with eachother.
 
EXM said:
First of all, the common pleco is Hypostomus punctatus, and are fully herbivores. Secondly, I have been keeping fish for 8 years. Do you seriosly think I don't know what I am talking about? And father is one of the world's greatest killifish breeders and has been breeding fish for over 25 years. I am in contact with some of the world's best and brightest. I would hope that this does not have to be a battle between 2 excelent fish keepers and that we can be able to co-exist easily with eachother.

see, we both can look up tons of information on the internet and then list the resources to show our arguments, which I have done. I do not understand why you cannot understand that most pleco's ARE OMNIVORES.

"Plecostomus are omnivorous but, in the wild, feed mostly on plant material at night."

"There are a number of species that are sold on the market under the name common pleco, including Hypostomus plecostomus, Hypostomus punctatus, Liposarcus multiradiatus, and Liposarcus pardalis."

from:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_Pleco

PS. congrats to your dad, but I do not understand why you felt you have to mention that. I am sure there is more information on the internet then anyone single individual could know. IE I have all the info at my fingers.

PSS. sorry if i no longer feel that i should have to reply to this tread. It has already wasted enough of my time and the OP question has already been answered.
 
When I noted my dad, I was refering to him as an all around excelently rounded resource that even I have trouble finding on the internet. And I did not mean for my message to come along as though I was saying that I did not wish to speak to you. I find this conversation one of the best I have had in a long time. I would like to become allies and be able to converse with you over varius topics. This is my e-mail: exm12392@mail.com.
 
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