What is my Pleco telling me??

[carpus]

I have had a 7 inch Plecostomus in a small aquarium with guppies. He has been fed Hikari alage wafers (one/day), all the algae he could find in the tank (not much), and most of a small zucchini every week or two. He did not seem thin, nor did he seem particularly in a hurry when food hit the bottom near him.

Yesterday I moved my goldfish to a larger tank, leaving behind a 18 gallon long tank with plenty of algae--I had let it go a bit anticipating the pleco arrival. I did a big water change, cleaned up the place, but left all of the algae. You could not see through any of the glass!

Pleco had eaten most of a zucchini piece the day before, so I did not expect much action on the algae last night, his first in the new tank. This morning I turn on the lights and the tank is essentially algae-free. He ate it all in one night.

So the question. Is it possible I am way underfeeding him, was he just celebrating his first true meal of algae in a while, or what?

 

[Zagz]

If he is 7" I would give him 2 algae wafers per day and zucchini a couple times a week. Do you know if he is a common pleco?

 

[sliderfish]

I do two or three algae wafers before lights out for mine Although if he's not fast to act the cories and loaches steal some...hes around 7-8 inches and VERY healthy

 

[mgamer20o0]

plecos need more to their diet then just algae waffers. there are many of them that are not even algae eaters.

prob says feed me and move me to a bigger tank.

 

[carpus]

This one looks to be a common pleco, but I am not sure. I am sure that he is an algae eater. I will step up the feeding a bit, and make some algae-on-rock to feed him, as he seems to like algae.

The tank he is in now has a much bigger footprint than the tank he was in, and given his tendency to stay on the bottom, mostly hanging out in place--which he has done since he was a rescued 1.5 incher--it seems like it is an adequate space form him. If I had a bigger tank I would use it, but he is where he is.