I feed my Leopard plec an algae pellet everyday, which has satisfied him untill now. Now he waits for me feeding the other fish their bloodworms and eats them first then his algae pellet. He's huge now. Should i be giving him more pellets? and are bloodworms meant to be in his diet?
2007-09-16 02:22:44 · 8 answers · asked by Crazy Diamond 6 in Pets ➔ Fish
Brilliant and very helpful answers everyone! thankyou! :)
2007-09-16 05:24:30 · update #1
I have never met a fish yet that would pass up a bloodworm! That includes plecos, snails and cory catfish (all of which are supposed to be primarily plant eaters). They seem to be like chocolate for fish! Just be careful you are not feeding him (or the other fish) too many bloodworms and make sure he has some driftwood in the tank to chew on. Plecos are scavengers, so they can handle a little protein in their diet, but they are meant to be primarily vegetarians, so having driftwood to gnaw on gives them additional roughage which will help them digest the extra protein.
2007-09-16 03:48:13 · answer #1 · answered by Ghost Shrimp Fan 6 · 4⤊ 0⤋
I'd imagine your confusion is related to the reason you have a pleco. I'm speculating here a sales person sold you one telling you that you need one of these to keep algae out of your tank. A pleco is actually just an armored catfish is all, so it eats regular food just like any other fish. They are quite capable of growing to over 2 feet in length as well. They are pretty heavy waste producers too. Algae is basically consumed as an emergency food source.
2007-09-16 11:11:27 · answer #2 · answered by I am Legend 7 · 3⤊ 0⤋
I have found that a plecostomus will eat meat( bloodworms) and even other fish when they get past a certain size. I had thought that they were only algae eaters until other fish in my tank started disappearing and he grew very big. I now think they are omnivorous, and will eat whatever will fit in their mouth. Yours is obviously doing very well on what he's eating.
2007-09-16 09:33:39 · answer #3 · answered by Judy E, RN 2 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Fantastic...you learned the secret of fish diets. Are the bloodworms live or frozen. Keep giving it algae tablets. I am not sure if bloodworms are part of its diet,but it could grow to full size.
2007-09-16 11:57:11 · answer #4 · answered by ? 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Go for the algae pellet and then just a small amount of blood worm. They more u feed him, the more they'll crap out and the more algae you will get build in your tank because of the nitrites in the food. Just feed what you think they need. In the wild they wouldnt get fed daily would they? try feeding every other day 1.5X as much as you feed them daily at the moment.
2007-09-16 09:36:21 · answer #5 · answered by Cambridge Aquatics 4 · 1⤊ 1⤋
More algae,fewer blood worms,and be sure to have a large piece of driftwood in the tank. Almost all of this family of catfishes need driftwood in their diet. Over the last 20 years my Blue-eyed Panaque has consumed almost all of a two foot long piece of wood.
2007-09-16 10:11:57 · answer #6 · answered by PeeTee 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
They will eat anything and grow phenominaly fast, mine has tripled in size over the past 2 months. He is getting his own batchelor pad soon because he is outgrowing my community tank and eyeing up my cory cats and angels with a hungry intent.
Like the other guy says, be sure to give him lots of bogwood or similar to munch on and hide under.
2007-09-16 10:48:11 · answer #7 · answered by neogriff 5 · 1⤊ 0⤋
you should give him 3 pellets and1/2 of the bloodworms that you give him now.
2007-09-16 09:33:09 · answer #8 · answered by Abby 1 · 1⤊ 0⤋