Small Sailfin And Common Pleco's

[Tokis-Phoenix]

I've had my main sailfin and common pleco for around over 3years now, and i adopted a common pleco from a friend some time which was originally purchased just a month or so before i got mine.
I've read all the storys about common and sailfin pleco's growing massive, and i don't doubt them as i have seen some giant sailfin and common pleco specimens myself in shops (saw a common pleco once in a shop in a koi tank that was well over 15inches long). But for some reason mine never seemed to grow really large .

Currently each one is in its own 125gal tank- before i got these large tanks the sailfin and first common pleco was in a 50gal (it was around 3ft long, 2ft wide and 1 and a half foot high) for a couple of years, while my friend kept his common pleco in a 20gal for a couple of years before i adopted it. Even though the pleco's have been in a 5ft long 2ft wide and 2ft high tank for over a year now, the sailfin is only 7inches+ long, the first common pleco is only around 6inches+ long and the adopted common pleco is only around 10inches+ long.
I've tried to go through all the reasons why they havn't grown much;
a. I don't think they could have had stunted growth from being in the 50gal as because if this was true, then why did my friends common pleco which was in a 20gal tank for years outgrow my two plecos?
b. I feed them everyday- its mostly algae wafers and catfish pelets, but every now and then (once a week usually) they either get prawn, mussel, cucumber slice, squid or cockels.
c. The tanks have never been stocked to their maximum capacity, over-crowding has never been an issue for me.
d. The sailfin and common pleco have never suffered any health problems, the adopted pleco suffered a stomache infection once but that was treated and cured very easily a long time ago.

Soo......
Is it posible that i just have 3 rather small growing common and sailfin plecos?
They all came from the same shop (which doesn't have very good suppliers- their fish tend to be either very inbred, underweight or very sick a lot of the time). All pleco's still appear to be growing, but incredibly slowly- the largest common pleco is growing the fastest, followed by the sailfin, and lastly the small common pleco is growing the slowest.
Anybody else experienced anything like this? Its not that i want them to grow heaps or anything, but i honestly don't know why they haven't for that matter .

 

[LisaLQ]

Hmm that's a tricky one, I'd think they were from bad stock, as if it went on tank size alone your friends should be tiny. Saying that, our 7" common lived in a 2ft tank for two years and now he's moved into ours, he's started growing again. I'd think it was probably just badly bred fish myself, but it might be because they need more veg and less meat in their diet than you're offering - veg probably about 3 times a week (some feed it daily but I feed it every other day) and for the commons just veg and pleco wafers - maybe a prawn thrown in once in a blue moon. Gibbies/sailfins need more protein, so a couple of times a week I guess would be ok - but it should still be predominantly veg, topped up with pleco wafers, then meat in a smaller amount. For your size commons, cut a courgette in half (or maybe a slightly bigger length) - skin about an inch of it lengthways (erm...run a peeler/knife down the length of it - but dont peel it all) - stick a spoon through it and that should be drastically smaller or gone by morning A slice might be enough for a bristlenose, but big fishies need big dinners Mine also like sweet potato, and cucumber - but courgette is their favourite.

Pics of what I mean about cutting the courgette:

I'd put at least as much as in that last pic in for your fish, if you keep all three in together

 

[PlecMama]

I've had Nessie for a year now and she was as long as a dinner knife when I got her (outgrown someone elses tank) and now she's about 13 inches? But they do slow down as they get older, depends on the age a bit.

 

[KathyM]

When I had De Niro (gibby), he'd previously been in a large (5 or 6ft) fishtank in the LFS for "well over a year". He was only about 4" SL maximum. That was in March. I'm not sure what stunted him, as he was in a fairly large tank considering his small size, probably diet I would imagine. Well anyway, he came to us and between March and December he'd grown to nearly a foot, and was still growing when I rehomed him to Lisa.

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

I will try feeding more fresh cucumbers instead of algae wafers then and see if it makes a difference . I have a feeling though that it could just be something to do with poor breeding though, its difficult to say . I will try and get some pics up here soon of the pleco's though .

 

[LisaLQ]

Give algae wafers too - just not on veggie nights as they'll probably ignore them in favour of veggies lol

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

Give algae wafers too - just not on veggie nights as they'll probably ignore them in favour of veggies lol

Yeah they get algae wafers every day, although when i feed them cucumber i tend not to feed so many algae wafers- they seem to enjoy both the algae wafers and cucumber a great deal though .