How to inspire my Snowball Pleco

[treedae]

I recently purchased a Snowball Pleco with the hopes that he would clean all the algae from my glass. The lfs owner was ranting and raving about how the plecs are voracious when it comes to algae. (Reminded me of the commercial with the group of scrub brushes that run all over the bathroom cleaning it up till it gave a sparkly shine.....anyone?)

Anyways, he just sits on the bottom and likes to hide in my colliseum ornament. So I try to inspire him by picking up the ornament, which he will then swim out of, but then he finds a nice comfy spot to lay and do nothing but push water over his gills. I still have the same amount of algae I had when I bought him. In fact, I'd say it's actually increasing. Any suggestions?

 

[smallfry]

Most plecos eat at night.....and sleep/hide during the day. He still may be getting used to your tank as well.

 

[grimlock3000]

First up, do not move ornaments around trying to encourage the fish to move. All the does is cause stress, which can lead to illness. The fish is in the ornament because there is where it wants to be. Some Plecos hide more than others.

Also, not all Plecos eat algae. In fact, most eat less and less algae as they grow larger.

I have a Bushynose Pleco that always hides unless the room is almost totally dark. To see the fish, I need to sneak up on the tank with a flashlight and find it. On top of this, it never eats algae

 

[TankGirl]

It might take the fish quite a while to get comfortable, as mentioned. I too have 3 ancistrus that I almost never see, except now that I have rearranged the furniture they forget I am there when I am sitting on the sofa and they will come out and rummage all around, on the glass and everything - I just never saw them before! Same goes for my cory cats. My friends did not even know I had 4 of these 2" fish in there until now, lol.

 

[Menagerie]

That's too bad--my Rubber Lips love algae! I don't know about the Bristle Nose or Clowns since I never see them in my tanks However, the tanks with young plecos have no algae!

 

[docrak]

You may be suprised to find that the snowball pleco is a carnivore. It will take other types of foods but it will not graze on your algea. Might want to get some shrimp pellets or some sinking tablets.

Sorry, most plecos will graze on algea, but a select few are carnivores.

http://www.planetcatfish.com/catelog/loricari/hypancis/204_f.php

 

[treedae]

A carnivore hmmm? This explains a lot.

Thanks everyone.

 

[pkremer]

I know people who tout plecos as algae eaters, but personally, I would never buy a pleco for the purpose of being an algae eater. They may eat it, but they aren't very efficient at it, and will only eat it if there's nothing left! My clown pleco will occasionally eat algae, but for the most part, he's munching on my driftwood. I have 3 otocinclus to keep the algae in check.

Plecos are just great fish and get along with just about everything, that's why I love them. But get another algae eater if you want the tank clean.

Paul