Posted by Zakath on February 04, 2003 at 09:30:54:
In Reply to: I never see my Pleco eat! posted by thingsarefishy on February 03, 2003 at 15:39:40:
:I have a 55 gal with malawi cichlids and one pleco. I got the pleco because my LFS swore that it would eat the brown algae (diatoms) that were growing in my tank. Well needless to say, they were wrong about that, but the diatoms problem has corrected itself. I dont have any regular algae growing in my tank, so I of course feed a couple of algae wafers each night before I turn out the light. Everytime I put them in, the cichlids (which love algae), attack the wafers and eat them all. I can keep putting more and more in there, but they dont give the pleco a chance to get any (unless he's getting some source of food that I dont see). He seems healthy, not skinny, but I am still concerned that he is or isnt getting enough to eat. Any suggestions?
Plecos will eat at night. If your cichlids are not night eaters try putting the algae tablets in before retiring in the evening. You might also try a piece of zucchini cut longwise (use a rubber band to hold it to a rock at the bottom of the tank). I don't know if cichlids eat zucchini, but many plecos like it.
Z
