Am I Feeding My Plec Enough?

[Squirrelbuddies]

As the title indicates, I'm concerned I'm not feeding my plec enough. I think he is a common plec (?) I've read that other members plecs grow one or more inches per month. I've had mine for a year and he's grown from 2 inches to 7 inches.

I give him a large algae wafer every night. I also give him a generous chunk of zucchini once each week. He keeps the tank free of algae. Also, does water temperature affect growth? I keep the tank at 76F.

Here's a picture of him tonight. I think he looks normal -- certainly not skinny. Do some just grow much slower than others?

 

[KathyM]

If he's a common plec (hard to tell from photo) he's one of several species bunched together as "common plecs" which vary in size. The most common "common" plec is liposarcus pardalis, these can reach over 2ft in the long run. Then there is a hypostomus sp. (I *think* hypostomus punctatus) which doesn't grow as big. The list goes on. Gibbies are sometimes labelled as commons too.

But, assuming yours is liposarcus, they often reach a certain size then slow down growth wise, although this is more commonly at around 12-15". They'll keep growing but not at the huge rate you see when they're babies. Of course a lot of plecs go through phases where they don't grow for a while, then shoot off at a high rate again (De Niro our gibby being one of these, as he didn't grow here until this last week or so, having spent the last 2-3 months scaring us like yours is scaring you *lmao*).

If he's in a big enough tank and he's a nice size and not skinny (you can tell from the pic he's an okay weight), then I wouldn't worry too much. However, it'd be interesting to work out which species he is!

 

[andyw823]

Looks nice and healthy in the pic!