Top Feeding Plecs?

[PlecMama]

How many of us have plecs that will swim upside down on the waters surface to eat?

I had heard they do this sometimes, but my big sailfin, Malcolm, does it all the time, he sucks up the glass to the waterline, pokes his head out then lauches himself over backwards and sails the length of the tank on his back, skimming the top for food. We have started putting in floating food just to see him do it, he's amazing for a big boy!

I wish I could post a video of this, he's so beautiful to watch.

 

[mikev]

Are you sure this is about food?

My common (or maybe sailfin) does this too, but I've not seen him searching for food...maybe he just tries to gulp some air...

 

[PlecMama]

Oh no, only food. Malc will go get air before he feeds like anyone else does.

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

Sailfin and common plecs are very inteligent fish and have much bigger brains/learning capacity in comparison to many other fish out there, he has probably learnt that the waterline in the tank can hold a food source somtimes.
What foods are you feeding him though and how much on average? I have known plecs to feed at the water surface when they are hungry or lacking somthing in their diet like enough high protein food, as fish flakes contain alot more protein and other goodys than many catfish foods out there.

 

[PlecMama]

Malc eats cucumber, plec wafers, sinking catfish pellets, blood worms (sometimes), flakes (I put these in just for him) and floating pond pellets (so I can see him top feed!)

He's not really a big eater for such a big fish. We have a minimum eat/crap experience with him, whereas our common will "decorate" the tank with strings that could go round the moon and back, Malc doesn't do much pooping.

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

Sailfin plecs can take a long time until they've eaten their fill, its far easier to underfeed them than to overfeed them unlike other fish- unfortunatly big long poops are one of the things you will have to put up with him throughout his life.
Fish flakes though are not very healthy for plecs though, they are not designed to meet the average plecs nutritional or digestive needs and you will find that if you vary and increase his diet more, he will avoid them completely. How many inchs long is he? This may be the point at which you will have to start feeding more high protein and high vitamin C based foods in his life, unfortunatly this often means more regular water changes- as sailfin and common plecs grow, their diets become more complex and high protein orientated as they go off eating fresh algae.

On a slightly different subject though...
I know you have fallen in love with plecs, for me too i love them to bits and mine are by far my favorite fish, but personally i would lay off buying any more fish for now, particually plecs, until you have grown properly accustomed to keeping yours. Its sort of complicated for me to describe, but as you keep your plecs as time goes by you will know them better and better and they are extremely individual fish in my experience- the person who says they are all the same and all they do is sit in the tank doing nothing, knows very little about plecs IMO. So what i am saying i guess, is that your plecs personality can change alot as it grows and as you get to know it.
Even with the most peaceful of plecs, they can be very grouchy and short tempered with others when it comes to eating and sharing out food or keeping out each others space/terotory. You dont want to invest in too many plecs in the same tank as they may come to strongly dislike each other as time goes by, or the opposite, and get along very well- but its a risky investment either way.
My 2 common plec boys for example are not terotorial with each other at all at the mo, and have no issues sharing food, but my slightly larger sailfinXcommon female plec is can get very short tempered when it comes to feeding and does not tolerate anyone of them coming near her teritory- which is about half the tank. One the other hand she completely tolerates my para plec eating the same food as her even when she's eating, and does not mind him in her cave(she even appears to like his company)- the same cant be said for the similary sized chocolate plec, who appears very nervous of her all the time and does her best to stay out of her way, but spends much time with the smallest of the common plec boys.
Etc etc etc...
All this behavior has come about gradually over the last 3 or so months since i moved into my new home and moved all of my plecs into the 125 uk gal, the sailfin was the last plec to join the group and she has always had issues with the 2 common plecs in one way or another, but the pecking orders have still changed in many small ways. I wouldnt advise you get anymore largish bottom dwelling fish like plecs until yours have been settled in for a couple of months at least, as unlike many other fish out there, who only usually take a couple of days to establish a pecking and friendship/enemy order in the group, plecs can take a very long time .
At the worst, in the future you may need to separate your plecs to avoid stress and agression between them, which could be a very costly proceedure if you have 1 full-grown sailfin and common plecs- i myself am planning on separating my common and sailfin plecs very soon.
I hope all works out well for your plecs as they mature .

 

[PlecMama]

Cool, I totally understand what you're saying. The spotsters are going in their own tank when the 6ft is delivered next Saturday though, so the two new babies are safely away from the big plecs.

Nessie and Malc are moving in to the big tank, if they can't share, then Nessie will come back out and Malc will stay, but as I said, he doesn't have big issues, we just didn't like the fact that he kept barging Nessie out of the way, we feel this was more to do with his size though then any aggression, and our inexperience with mixing big fish, Nessie was our first baby and I think we seperated them because we were scared something might happen, not because it actually did. Malcolm is 8 years old now, so he's pretty much shown his colours when mixing in tanks.

Nessie, otoh is only a youngster and she has gotten a lot braver these past few weeks even, she will square up to me when I am doing a gravel vac and refuse to move to be hoovered under, whereas before she would go careering round the tank as soon as the lid was opened. Now, she puts all her fins out and just acts like stone, yet she is gentle and personable when handled.

Regarding the little ones....I have 3 other commons, Scott, Bonnie & Clyde. Now I think Scott will grow up to be our problem child, he already hates to share anything, even if he is the last one into the cave he will chase everyone else out. They have many caves but all like one in particular. We have already considered what we will do if they can't play nicely in the same tank, and we've decided we'll have to get another 6ft to house a couple, sooner, rather then later (since we weren't intending to keep 5 potentially monster fish in one tank forever).

I think Malc is as big as he's going to get, at 10 inches. He may be the little fish in the big tank one day.

We are done buying big plecs though, we have a small colony of commons and although we hope they will all get on great, we know that's not always the case.

 

[mikev]

Weird...

Inspired by this thread, I tried giving my plec a cucumber slice again; previously he ignored it.

This time he decisevely rejected cucumber. In fact, he used his tail to push it away from his driftwood hole (if he actually meant to do it--it looked like he did--he is more intelligent than I thought) and he did not eat until I removed the slice.

This is the fellow in question... Obviously a common, right? I'm having a little doubt since he stopped or slowed growing at about 5.5".

 

[PlecMama]

I bought a squash because I saw someones snap of about 6 of their baby plecs sucking it up and mine all totally freaked out when I put it in the tank, like as if I'd but something horrendous in there with them. Guess they all have their own tastes.

Malcolm moves his cucumber around though, he hits it with the side of his fin like he was moving it with his hand, until he gets it just where he wants it, then he ignores it for several hours before eating it. I think he's like me and just likes things organised the way he wants them before he can relax

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

Cool , i am really happy to hear Suzie you have all your stocking plans sorted out with your plecs and can attend to their needs well, its a big relief for me(silly i know) as most of the plec keepers i come across have little future plans on their plecs as they grow big or agressive- i think plecs are a great family of fish, and can have so much to offer as a fish when cared for well.
Mikev, i also believe your plec is a common as well, although if it can get a pic of its sailfin up that would be very helpful as well, but you should expect it to grow to more like 7-8inches+ within the next 6 or so months hopefully .

Here is some links on ID'ing common plecs and sailfin plecs;

http/www.planetcatfish.com/catelog/loric...posarc/88_F.PHP

http/www.planetcatfish.com/catelog/loric...ptope/148_F.PHP

 

[mikev]

Tokis-Phoenix,

Thanks. Here is the best I could do (unfortunately he raises his sailfin only when swimming, and then pictures come out blurry...)





I will welcome 7" or even 10", but hopefully not much more..... (I got IT at about 1.5" year and a half ago...)

There is no way to sex IT, right?


PS. OMG, I measured IT...6.5" already. Somehow I did not notice. I guess it is growing...

 

[Tolak]

I have a couple of commons that feed at the top. I can squirt brine shrimp directly into their mouths.