Plecs Refusing Zucchini?

[MoonstruckMuse]

I ran out of cucumbers last week, and so, decided that zucchini (courgette, I think you guys called it?) was a safe route to go. I sliced a few thin pieces, stuck them down as I usually do, and checked back a few hours later.

...None of the fish touched it. It's raw zucchini, and I put 1 in each of my 3 tanks (1 sailfin, 1 common/unidentified, 1 whiptail). What baffled me even more is that NONE of my fish in most of the tanks touched it... the bala sharks, the tetras & barbs, etc. A cucumber slice of the same size is usually gone within 2 hours or so in my tetra/barb/common plec tank.
However, 2 african cichlids are having fun picking at it, haha. They normally really don't eat any, haha.

Is there something wrong with the veggie? Should I cook it and try again? The fish are all acting normal asides from ignoring the food.

Ahh, and also, what do sailfins usually eat? Mine's about 4" long, doesn't touch the plants/algae, or wafers for that matter. I'm honestly confused as to what he's living off of. Is he perhaps eating the flakes/shrimp pellets I feed my cichlids?

 

[LisaLQ]

Mine took a couple of tries to get used to it, now they wolf it down in seconds lol.

Sailfins are omniverous, so they eat veggies, plec wafers, shrimp pellets (less often), prawns as a treat now and again - lots of variety. With omniverous plecs, the majority of their food should still be veg, with a good wafer to supplement (many folks think the wafer should be the main part of the diet but really it should be veg). Anything else is to supplement that.

With balas, a common plec and a sailfin, you must have a huuuuuge tank - any pics?

 

[MoonstruckMuse]

Haha, that's good to know. I was beginning to wonder if I've been eating half-rotten/diseased zucchini all along.
I'll definitely try and add more veggies to his diet, then. And I didn't know they eat prawn! I regularly buy ghost shrimp for my other fish, do you think he'd hunt & eat the live shrimp? I'll definitely put a few in his tank next time.

Heh, they're not all in the same tank, sorry to disappoint, Lisa. ^^" The common pleco's nearing 8", the sailfin's at 4", and the balas are at... I haven't measured them recently. 6"+
Could you estimate what the growth rate on Sailfins are? I'd really like to move him into his final home (a 125g) but he'd be absolutely terrorized in there at his current size, haha.

I'll snap a few photos soon. He's pointedly hiding from the zucchini at the moment in a little cave thingy, I'll just have to get him tomorrow.

 

[paul_219]

Its probably somethign ew for him. He needs time to get used to it.

 

[LisaLQ]

I hear sailfins grow slower than commons, initially quite quickly up until 10" or so, but taking a couple of years to reach max size (18-24" so a 2ft wide tank is needed for them, if that's any help). I've only ever had a 10" and a 15" (as in I've not had one from a baby), so cant really say from experience. But my 15" one had real trouble turning in an 18" wide (135g) tank, and he was still growing, so we had to rehome him to someone with a 7 x 2 x 2ft. They're real monsters, not only bigger than commons but chunkier too, min tank size (IMO) is a 4 x 2 x 2ft, but many would say 5-6ft being preferable.

I'd still love to see pics of the plecs, I'm a huge common fan

 

[28erl]

id try blanching it, which means boiling it for a few minutes, it softens it, then let it cool, my fish prefer it that way, plus its sterilized!

 

[MoonstruckMuse]

Thanks for the tip, 28erl! I'll be sure to try that if they start getting fussy about the food again.

After looking up all sorts of plecos out of curiosity, I'm sincerely doubting that my sailfin is... a sailfin. He grows farrr too slowly (I've had him for a few months now), and the dorsal fin just isn't prominent enough. Is he just a common? And if so, what does that make this other fellow?

Thanks!

 

[darknirvana217]

Plecos and othe rfish liek zucchini after its been cooked. i usually cook it in a pot in the microwave. you should enough water to partially submerge teh zucchini. you also need to cook it till its soft, usually about one minute.

 

[KathyM]

The top plec is a Hypostomus species (Hypostomus plecostomoides?), not a "sailfin" (which is Glyptoperichthys gibbiceps). You can tell because it only has 8 dorsal rays. Hypostomus species have 5-8 dorsal rays, sailfins and commons have more.

http/www.planetcatfish.com/catelog/genus...genus_id=17#643

That's all Hypostomus species.

Edited to add: Hard to tell from the pics, but the bottom one looks to be a common plec (Liposarcus pardalis).

 

[prankster705]

the plec in the 1st pic will not grow as big as a common or saiflin either... I think it's something like the more dorsal rays it has the more it grows... commons and sailfins have something like 12-13 I think...

 

[nmonks]

I'd concur with KathyM. You have Hypostomus sp. (could be anything, really). Actually quite nice to see one; despite being called "common plecs" in aquarium books, they're rather scarce in the hobby and have been for decades. The second fish is certainly Liposarcus pardalis or something very similar. It'll get about 50% bigger than the Hypostomus.

Cheers, Neale

The top plec is a Hypostomus species (Hypostomus plecostomoides?), not a "sailfin" (which is Glyptoperichthys gibbiceps). You can tell because it only has 8 dorsal rays. Hypostomus species have 5-8 dorsal rays, sailfins and commons have more.

Hard to tell from the pics, but the bottom one looks to be a common plec (Liposarcus pardalis).

 

[KathyM]

I love the Hypostomus species. Seems they were one of the common imports years ago, and the name common plec stuck to them, when they're not common at all nowdays, far from it. Of course "common plec" covers a handful of species, but nowadays the true common plec is the farmed Liposarcus pardalis. I'd LOVE one of the Hypostomus ones one day (no room for one yet *lol*).

 

[MoonstruckMuse]

Thanks for the ID guys! It's nice to know, and I was rather confused as to why he doesn't seem like he wanted to grow any more. And wheee, it just makes him all the cooler (not that I don't love my commons, though).

Haha, off to get some more zucchini for the lovelies.

 

[Jozlyn]

I wouldn't bother cooking the zucchini, I've only ever fed raw, my gang love it, just takes them a while to recognise it as "food". My BN protects it until it's had it's fill, no one else gets a look in till then! The molly fry don't seem to interest tho, but today is their first time

Edit for typo's, I hate typo's!

 

[lilmisshertz]

Hi,
I think hes already been indentified but looked to me as though the top one was a para pleco, because of his colouration mainly.
Take a look at this para pleco picture:

Maybe I'm wrong but just a thought