Please Help With My Rescued Pleco!

[statenfish]

Last week at the pet shop i noticed a 7 inch pleco stuffed into a 5 gallon tank!!!! The owner explained he was dropped off by a customer and thats all he had available on short notice to house the big guy. I promptly rescued him from the tiny tank and added him to my 90 gallon with my brown bullhead cat that i also rescued. my bullhead is now about 11 in long and looking great! (he was emaciated when i found him in similar conditions to the pleco). I have only had smaller plecos in the past and am not sure how to feed my larger pleco. He dosent seem to care about the wafers i drop in and i was wondering if he is a scavenger eating from the leftover catfish food on the bottom. Any info would help cause i wanna see my refugee pleco do well!!! I also would like to know what type of shelter if any to add for him to hide. so far he just hangs out on the back glass.

 

[snowflake311]

Most plecos like to hang out in caves. They like to have plants around to shade the bottom where they live. You can make a cave out of slate just make sure it is secure so you don't crush your fish. Bogwood is great for plecos they love it and need it. They can live with out it but why deprive them of something that makes them happy and helps with their digestive system.

Also veggies like cucumbers work for feeding them. He is still new and might not like the wafers right away I am sure with time he will enjoy them. Also YES they will eat left over bits that fall to the ground they are scavengers.

Good luck I'm glade you saved him. Do you know what kind he is?

 

[susankat]

Also another note, some plecos are omnivores and need protein in there diet.

 

[statenfish]

Thanks for the help. im gonna post a pic later on and get him identified properly. My only problem with the shelter is that the catfish is quite large and loves to destroy anytyhing i put in the tank regarding caves or shelters.