Snowball Plec

[joeyh51]

So I got a beautiful snowball plec last week, but all it's doing at the moment is hiding away and not coming out. Not sure if it's eating anything, it doesn't come out when I'm feeding the rest of the tank, but I always try and drop a few algae wafers around its little cave.

I'm wondering a couple of things, 1. Will it start to come out after its settled in a bit? And 2. If I haven't seen it eating yet, it's not going to starve itself is it? I've read that sometimes they can do if they're very stressed out.

There are plenty of places to hide away in my setup, but it's in with a couple of pictus cats that are very active and always swimming around at a million miles an hour.

 

[mattlee]

most plecs are very well known to hide im affraid, they are mainly a nocturnal fish.... people spend lots of cash on a beautifull plec and never see it

i dont think the pictus will allow the plec a good chance to feed even if it did come out tbh. the pictus i had were very extremely fast and aggressive eaters and anything else that was a bottom dweller didnt get a look in!

if you have an L102 Hypancistrus inspector then i believe that they are a more carnivorous plec rather than an algae eater so maybe try some meaty foods for it. it may be worth using a turkey baster to get the food directed at him to give him a bit of a chance of getting it...

 

[tribalbrit]

Give it time. I have had a snowball plec for about 5 months now and its just started to come out a bit, I see it most days now, so I assume they need to feel safe and happy before venturing out.

 

[xingumike]

Which snowball, Hypancistrus or Baryancistrus?

 

[joeyh51]

I have no idea which one, was just advertised as a snowball plec at the LFS. How can you tell the difference?

I'll try getting some frozen bloodworm to see if I can entice it out!!

 

[xingumike]

Hypan - http/www.planetcatfish.com/catelog/species.php?species_id=204
Bary - http/www.planetcatfish.com/catelog/species.php?species_id=204


A newly imported Bary and Pictus are not a great mix

 

[joeyh51]

Hmmm, ok yeah so it's the Baryancistrus. Any suggestions as to what I should do?

 

[gazb5590]

I've got a similar problem! I've got the hypancistrus snowball and I never see him eat same as the mega clown (L340). Only had them a couple of months but from what I can tell the snowball prefers the meatier foods. One of my main problems is that I've got 6 yoyo loaches that eat pretty much anything.