Hi All..feeding Advice Please!

[JasonandJill]

Morning everyone, Jason and I are new to this forum. We already belong to a Great Dane forum (we own 2) and this is identical so lovely to have two up and running! Seems to take up all our time though

Bit of advice with our new pet. We aquired a Leopard Pleco from our local pet shop. He was being re-homed. Not sure of the reasons but he looked so lonesome in his bare tank staring at me that I just had to have him! Anyway, a week later and he is doing great. Never moves when we are watching, we look away and he is over the other side of the tank! My question is...how much food would he require? We were given pellets which he has ignored. He has chewed on a prawn and some cucumber and probably hoovers up the flakes from the leftover fish food (Tetras) but how will we know? If we put a whole prawn in, should we expect him to eat the lot overnight? How big a slice of cucumber? As per the guidelines, we remove uneaten food everytime. We are not feeding everyday as requested by the pet shop but I am anxious to know if he is getting enough. His body shape has not changed at all but do Plecs show if they lose weight? Jas wonderes if he is hoovering up all the flakes and is not hungry for the food we give him.

Just to add...he is about 9-10 inches long and no idea how old. Maybe someone can tell us from his length?

Looking forward to your replies,

Thanks, Jill and Jason

 

[Inchworm]

Hi JasonandJill

Welcome to the forum!

I'll move your thread to the Plecos, Otos and other Loricariids part of the Catfish section. You should find some members who can help you there.

 

[OldMan47]

Welcome JasonandJill.
A pleco will eat whatever flake it can find but it would be better if there is no leftover flake and he eats the wafers instead. Depending on the size of your pleco, it may not eat a whole wafer. I feed a wafer for each of my plecos, at around 4 inches, for each fish every few days but they get help from the endlers in their tank eating anything they leave behind. Between times they also eat any left over flake, so they get a little more in their diet than the flake or the wafer alone could provide. At 9 or 10 inches, I would expect him to be able to easily eat 2 wafers a day without help. The slices of cucumber will tell you how much he will eat. If you only have the hard green rind left after a few hours, try a larger slice. Mine also get lots of other vegetables and really go crazy for the outer leaves from my evening meal Brussels sprouts. Any green vegetable that is tender enough for them to eat will be consumed with relish until they are just not hungry any more. The darker the green, the better they seem to like it.