How Can I Stop My Other Fish Eating The Plec's Wafer?

[Angel_Queen]

So the question is in the title?
The problem is the other fish (zebra danios, rummy nose tetras, guppies, angels) looooovvvveee the wafers and keep picking at it getting fatter and fatter! This is worrying because I don't want the plec to go without food

Any suggestions as to how I can stop the other fish eating the wafer?! Please help. One of the fish looks like it's going to pop

 

[Esfa]

Put some wafers at the front of the tank, and then place some where the plec usually hides so he can get some later.

Also, feed your plec cucumber, the other fish dont usually eat it.

How fat are the other fish? They could be constipated. try feeding them shelled peas.

 

[Angel_Queen]

We feed the plec cucumber also, he loves it, but funnily enough, the other fatties do too! I'm now starving them for the rest of the week bar a cucumber slice in a couple of days

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

Try putting the algae wafer in a certain area in the tank where the pleco regularly hangs out after the tank lights have been turned off. After a while the pleco will learn to expect its food in that certain area of the tank, and will have a better chance of eating it since plecos in general are primarily nocturnal fish (unlike danio's, guppys, rummynose tetra's etc) and have no problem finding their way around in the dark .

 

[Angel_Queen]

How fat are the other fish? They could be constipated. try feeding them shelled peas.

They are a little pudgy, i was considering doing the peas... but was worried they'd get fatter

Try putting the algae wafer in a certain area in the tank where the pleco regularly hangs out after the tank lights have been turned off. After a while the pleco will learn to expect its food in that certain area of the tank, and will have a better chance of eating it since plecos in general are primarily nocturnal fish (unlike danio's, guppys, rummynose tetra's etc) and have no problem finding their way around in the dark .

Sounds like a great idea. Will have a look tonight where he hangs out. The problem was our LFS told us to put it in in the morning so it will "soften"... obviously the other fish can then find it

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

We feed the plec cucumber also, he loves it, but funnily enough, the other fatties do too! I'm now starving them for the rest of the week bar a cucumber slice in a couple of days

You should feed all of the plecos as much as they want everyday, they can go for very long periods of time without food, but it will slow (and even stunt) their growth if you don't feed them enough food often enough. By "other fatties" i assume you mean other plecos?


Cucumber is a good food for plecos but cucumber is not as nutritious as algae wafers, which contain more than just algae, so you should still feed the pleco's algae wafers when you aren't feeding them cucumber- plecos can also get hooked on cucumber and may not want to eat the more nutritious algae wafers if too much cucumber is feed too often.

The best way to serve up cucumber before weighting it down in the tank for the plecos to eat is to microwave or blanch it a bit in boiling water first, as cucumber contains a lot of silicon which is hard for the plecos to digest, blanching or microwaving the cucumber a bit beforehand and then letting it cool down helps make the cucumber a lot more digestable for the plecos .
If you have very large plecos, it is better to serve a chunk of cucumber which has been sliced lengthways than to serve up small round slices of cucumber, the longer slice makes it easier for larger plecos to manuovre (sp?) into position to eat the cucumber . Par-boiled sliced potato can also make a good treat for plecos as well as an alternative to cucumber .

 

[Angel_Queen]

By "other fatties" i assume you mean other plecos?

Nope, meant my other fish. only have one plec.

Cucumber is a good food for plecos but cucumber is not as nutritious as algae wafers, which contain more than just algae, so you should still feed the pleco's algae wafers when you aren't feeding them cucumber- plecos can also get hooked on cucumber and may not want to eat the more nutritious algae wafers if too much cucumber is feed too often.

I have only fed the cucumber a couple of times as I wanted to introduce a new food, and we haven't had the plec long. and will definitely try to hold off on the cucumber so to not let him get too attached.

What's your thoughts on the peas and my other fat fish? It's only really one in particular, that looks like he is going to pop.

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

By "other fatties" i assume you mean other plecos?

Nope, meant my other fish. only have one plec.

Cucumber is a good food for plecos but cucumber is not as nutritious as algae wafers, which contain more than just algae, so you should still feed the pleco's algae wafers when you aren't feeding them cucumber- plecos can also get hooked on cucumber and may not want to eat the more nutritious algae wafers if too much cucumber is feed too often.

I have only fed the cucumber a couple of times as I wanted to introduce a new food, and we haven't had the plec long. and will definitely try to hold off on the cucumber so to not let him get too attached.

What's your thoughts on the peas and my other fat fish? It's only really one in particular, that looks like he is going to pop.

Cucumber is a fine food to feed plecos every now and then, i've feed my largest common pleco cucumber as often as a couple of times a week, what i mean with feeding cucmber too much is to feed it something like every other day or something like that. If you are just doing it a couple of times a week, once a fortnight or once a month etc you probably won't experience any problems with the pleco becomming dependant on the cucumber .
Cucumber can make a good every now and then food for large plecos which have difficulty eating small algae wafers or in tanks where the owner suffers problems with other fish gobbling up the algae wafers before the pleco has a chance to eat them etc.

For young juvenile and mature large plecos though, particularly with common and sailfin/gibby plecos, a diet which focuses on algae wafers with occasional high protein food additions (like prawns, mussels, slices of raw fish meat, cockles etc) is the best diet for young plecos to help get the vitamins, minerals and protein they need in their diets to help them grow well .
Plecos like sailfins and commons have a much more algae based diet when young, however as they grow larger they may find difficulty in getting all the protein they need from just algae and veg to continue growing well- many sailfin and common plecos naturally move onto a slightly more high protein (although still very veg-orientated) diet as they grow into large plecos.



With the fat fish problem, it could be fat for two main reasons- the first is simply constipation, pea's will help a great deal with this if you cut down on dried/high protein foods and feed the fish in question only cooked de-shelled chopped up pea's for a while until its digestive problems get better. (edit) If you have a fish/s suffering from constipation, you should review what exactly you are feeding your fish and how often and change their diet to help prevent the problem from occuring again in the future, because constipation for fish is a serious problem and if left untreated may prove lethal for the fish, since the food in the gut which is not being passed out will begin to rot in the fishes gut and this can cause a whole number of other lethal problems, like swimbladder disorder, dropsy, internal bacterial infection etc.

The second main cause of bloating is dropsy, which can be caused by numerous things. "Dropsy, is actually a "symptom" and not a disease in itself. The standing scales (although these may not present themselves as a symptom until the dropsy is a lot more progressed) and blown up appearance are the result of swelling within the tissues and organs of the fish due to a build up of fluids in the kidneys and an inability to excrete this fluid in a normal manner. In other words, advanced kidney dysfunction.

The problem with treating this disease is that there are a number of "potential" causes: bacterial infection, parasites, cancerous tumors, virus', internal fungal infections or sudden temperature drop of more than 3 degrees", more info read this link;

<a href="http/badmanstropicalfish.com/articles/article24.html" target="_blank">http/badmanstropicalfish.com/articles/article24.html</a>



.

 

[madgap]

My catfish and plecos get most of their food when the lights go out! They like the dark, and do best in the dark. Seems fair to feed in the dark.

 

[Angel_Queen]

Cucumber is a fine food to feed plecos every now and then, i've feed my largest common pleco cucumber as often as a couple of times a week, what i mean with feeding cucmber too much is to feed it something like every other day or something like that. If you are just doing it a couple of times a week, once a fortnight or once a month etc you probably won't experience any problems with the pleco becomming dependant on the cucumber .
Cucumber can make a good every now and then food for large plecos which have difficulty eating small algae wafers or in tanks where the owner suffers problems with other fish gobbling up the algae wafers before the pleco has a chance to eat them etc.

For young juvenile and mature large plecos though, particularly with common and sailfin/gibby plecos, a diet which focuses on algae wafers with occasional high protein food additions (like prawns, mussels, slices of raw fish meat, cockles etc) is the best diet for young plecos to help get the vitamins, minerals and protein they need in their diets to help them grow well .
Plecos like sailfins and commons have a much more algae based diet when young, however as they grow larger they may find difficulty in getting all the protein they need from just algae and veg to continue growing well- many sailfin and common plecos naturally move onto a slightly more high protein (although still very veg-orientated) diet as they grow into large plecos.



With the fat fish problem, it could be fat for two main reasons- the first is simply constipation, pea's will help a great deal with this if you cut down on dried/high protein foods and feed the fish in question only cooked de-shelled chopped up pea's for a while until its digestive problems get better. (edit) If you have a fish/s suffering from constipation, you should review what exactly you are feeding your fish and how often and change their diet to help prevent the problem from occuring again in the future, because constipation for fish is a serious problem and if left untreated may prove lethal for the fish, since the food in the gut which is not being passed out will begin to rot in the fishes gut and this can cause a whole number of other lethal problems, like swimbladder disorder, dropsy, internal bacterial infection etc.

The second main cause of bloating is dropsy, which can be caused by numerous things. "Dropsy, is actually a "symptom" and not a disease in itself. The standing scales (although these may not present themselves as a symptom until the dropsy is a lot more progressed) and blown up appearance are the result of swelling within the tissues and organs of the fish due to a build up of fluids in the kidneys and an inability to excrete this fluid in a normal manner. In other words, advanced kidney dysfunction.

The problem with treating this disease is that there are a number of "potential" causes: bacterial infection, parasites, cancerous tumors, virus', internal fungal infections or sudden temperature drop of more than 3 degrees", more info read this link;

<a href="http/badmanstropicalfish.com/articles/article24.html" target="_blank">http/badmanstropicalfish.com/articles/article24.html</a>



.

Thanks so much for all your points above. Very very helpful. At the moment I have only fed them cucumber twice in one week, and will keep it at once a week. I will definitely give the algae wafers a go after dark.

I think in the case of my "fatties" (as I like to call them) they return to normal size once they have processed the food, but they are total scavengers when it comes to feeding time and the one particularly small danio just gets so bloated when he eats. I'm going to give the peas a go tomorrow morn, to prevent constipation. I'm worried about giving them any more food tonight.

In terms of diet, they are only being fed flake food, but will go with the peas for a while to see if that helps.

Thanks again sooooo much

 

[philfista]

What about using a auto feeder that drops plec food into the tank a couple of hours after the lights go out. I get up in the night sometimes and the fish seem asleep except for the plec and the raphael catfish who cruise around the tank. So i drop a bit of food in the tank , the other fish dont seem to noticed .

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

Thanks so much for all your points above. Very very helpful. At the moment I have only fed them cucumber twice in one week, and will keep it at once a week. I will definitely give the algae wafers a go after dark.

I think in the case of my "fatties" (as I like to call them) they return to normal size once they have processed the food, but they are total scavengers when it comes to feeding time and the one particularly small danio just gets so bloated when he eats. I'm going to give the peas a go tomorrow morn, to prevent constipation. I'm worried about giving them any more food tonight.

In terms of diet, they are only being fed flake food, but will go with the peas for a while to see if that helps.

Thanks again sooooo much

I'm glad to help .
If you are just feeding the fish flakes, then apart from feeding them some pea's, it would also probably be good just to add a bit more variety in the fishes day-to-day diet in general, a lot of petshops sell frozen fish foods, stuff like frozen daphinia is very good for fishes digestion, while other critters like frozen krill, mysis shrimp, bloodworms, artemecia etc can be added to the fishes diet every now and then just to help add a bit of variety and help ensure that the fish are getting all the nutrition they need in their diet- frozen fish foods are generally easier to digest for fish too .
If there is any left over food in the tank 5-10mins after you have feed the non-pleco fish in the tank it is a sign you are over-feeding the fish though, so cut back on the amount of their food you are feeding them if you notice this- if you do accidentally over-feed the fish, just net out the excess food asap

 

[Angel_Queen]

Definitely will keep an eye on the over-feeding and will go to my lfs at the weekend and look into getting the frozen food. I was thinking about it last week, but was a little unsure of how many times in a week to feed them the frozen food. At the moment I feed the fish every 1-2 days on the flake food and substituted the flake food (as all of the fish like it) 1-2 times a week. Any suggestions?

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

Definitely will keep an eye on the over-feeding and will go to my lfs at the weekend and look into getting the frozen food. I was thinking about it last week, but was a little unsure of how many times in a week to feed them the frozen food. At the moment I feed the fish every 1-2 days on the flake food and substituted the flake food (as all of the fish like it) 1-2 times a week. Any suggestions?

Frozen fish foods can be fed as often as you like in place of fish flakes as long as you make sure to keep the diet of frozen foods (i.e. not feed the same type of frozen food every day for days on end), i often feed my fish frozen foods once a week although sometimes i do this a lot more depending on how much frozen fish food i have and how much time i have to feed my fish .

Frozen fish food often comes in little cubes in a tray, the best way to feed it is to slice off a bit of frozen fish food from a cube and hold the slice under the water in the tank, the warm tropical tank water will thaw the frozen fish food out very quickly, while holding it in the water will help ensure that the whole lot doesn't just sink to the bottom instantly or float aimlessly around the tank while the fish are trying to eat it (having the fish feed from your hand is also a good way to bond with the fish ) .