What to feed a large Pleco?

[Luna]

I have a 15" pleco which came with my tank when I brought it.By the looks of it he was previously fed some kind of floating Koi pellet (by the hand fulls!). I have been feeding him Pleco algae wafers and cucumber.But I am concerned wether he gets enough food or not - the algae wafers look so small!

I put quite a few algae tablets in everyday and some cucumber - and he seems too slow to get bloodworms before they are eaten by someone else!

Today I noticed he is looking a little thinner than usual - not by much but enough for me to notice.

What does everyone else feed their large plecs ?

Any advice would be very welcome

 

[BobK]

I have an 11" common plec. I give him one or two algae wafers after lights are out at night. Otherwise, the other fish eat the wafers. Since plecs are nocturnal night is the best time to feed them. Plecs are very messy fish so be careful not to feed it too much. Can you give more information on your tank and it's inhabitants?

 

[BobK]

One more thing, check out the pinned article in this forum for feeding plecs.

 

[Luna]

He is in a 65 uk gallon 5ft aquarium with two kissing gourami 5 very small silver dollars 2 angel fish and an asian knife fish.He eats everything i give him.I think previous owners well and truely overfed him with koi pellets - it was a mess!

Maybe he was overweight? LOL I must admit he looked very fat!

I also think he is about 15 years old - so maybe age?

 

[BobK]

Don't know. Mine is only 4-5 years old. I just got him from my niece. She had the poor thing in a 5 gallon tank with 2 albino cory's. I saw him in there and had to rescue him. Does his stomach look sunk in? If not maybe he was a little to plump.

 

[Luna]

No his stomach is not sunken in - I noticed it on his sides.

Can fish get overweight? If so maybe thats what it is - he's losing weight!

Other than that he seems very healthy and eating well.

I also think the poor plec spent a lot of time before I got him with no lights and not much attention

 

[Clare]

We ahve a lot of Plecos of all different types, believe me, the best food you can give them is meaty foods. Cockles, prawns and mussels are great for them to rasp on and they can eat a good amount.
Make sure you feed algae wafers with woodchip in as this is essential for their diet, mine love Sera Catfish Chips.
Any meaty foods are really good for them, oh, whitebait are a big favourite too, we have common plecs, orange spots, sailfins, rusty plecs, bristlenose, to mention just a few. All of them are fed meaty food.
Let me know how you get on.
Clare

 

[Luna]

Wow ... What alot of pleco's

I'll definatly try some of the foods suggested - hope he likes them

I didnt realise I could feed prawns and cockles - I have large tiger prawns in the freezer,will these be ok to feed or should they be fresh or a special sort?

 

[GuppyDude]

large alge tabs of course i uppose u'd feed him the same stuff u feed a smaller pleco

 

[Paul_MTS]

well thats was useful not all plecs eat algae tabs anyways. only my L71 and LDA25 eat them the rest eat JMC catfish pellets and High protein pellets, bloodworm, and cucumber.

How do you make the meat sink Clare?. I feed prawns to my butterfly fish and they float all the time- these are the type of prawns that you would buy from a super market. I'ved seen blister pack prawns at work so I guess i can try those ones.

 

[Luna]

Thankyou Clare - My Pleco loved the prawns and so did all my other fish too

Now I need to find some cockles for him to try

btw. I soaked the prawns in water and then they sank straight to the bottom!

 

[Clare]

I am soooo glad that your pleco liked the food, as stated by Paul v Biker?, a lot of plecos don`t eat algae or the tabs. We live in Grimsby near the docks so we buy prawns from there, generally unglazed ones and get a big bag of them. Whitebait are really good too if you can get them.

I think you will find your plecos grow very quickly on this food too, some of ours are huge and we have a lovely collection. Make sure the cockles you get aren`t in vinegar.
Good luck, lots of happy plecos around.Sadly, when a fish dies in the tank usually a pleco has rasped on it, that is totally natural though and plecos are natural scavengers.
Glad i could help a little.
Clare

 

[Paul_MTS]

Heh funny that i'ved never thought of putting prawns in that tank, I'ved put them in my other tanks for crabs, lobster and butterfly fish.

I'll give it a go over the weekend. Maybe take some white bait home aswell.

 

[evilbunny]

when u feed ur plecs prawn are they fresh prawns? or are they precooked ??

 

[Clare]

They are pre cooked but not glazed or with anything added. Cooked prawns will be fine but leave them nice and big, don`t bother cutting them because the plecs will rasp on them. If you do them smaller then other fish tend to steal them. Our bigger plecos drag them away to their favourite spot and eat them there!!

Also raw whitebait bought in bags or cockles, just ordinary ones but not soaked in salt or vinegar are a favourite.
Clare