Some More Foods For My Gibbiceps

I currently have a 5" (or at least close to) P. gibbiceps growing out in my 75 gallon. As of now he only eats algae wafers and zucchini with a strong preference for the second. He used to eat shrimp pellets but he's stopped eating them now and I have a feeling with the attitude he's showing when I give him algae wafers that he'll soon stop eating them as well. I'd like to get him to eat a more varied diet to keep him healthy and get him to grow as fast as possible due to the fact that he'll soon have a new, predatory, fast growing tankmate that I have in quarantine that I don't want him to get eaten by: a 4" Yellow Bullhead. So what are some other good veggies that I could feed him? I've tried carrots and he hates them with a passion. I'd also like him to start eating some meaty foods as well to support his omnivorous diet so what are some good meaty foods for him? I've tried cocktail shrimp and again he hates it.

Bump.

mrtoofay said:

Don't worry about it too much. Introduce whatever you want him to eat. If he doesn't touch it, fish it out before the water turns bad. Keep doing that for a few days. Fish, especially plecos can go for weeks without food.

Just keep introducing whatever you want him to eat til he starts eating. Nothing else before that. Btw, was your shrimp cooked or raw? They favor raw over cooked.

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Raw.

I'm going to try green beans and squash next, hopefully he likes them. It's not that he won't eat algae wafers, he just got spoiled because I fed him zucchini for a week straight but he stills eats them, I just want him to have a varied diet.

Fed him some squash tonight and he loves it! The disc I gave him about 40 minutes ago is a list gone already. Going to try green beans when he gets to the point where he can just swallow them and going to try pumpkin in the fall when it's in season.

Cueball703 said:

I have a 72 gallon tank with 6 Plecos, 4 Black Ghosts, 3 Angels, 6 GloLite Tetras, 2 Gold Mollies, 2 Silver Mollies, and 8 YoYo Botia Loaches. I feed them every other day, and they all get the same thing. I put a few pinches of TetraMin Flakes, and I alternate between Frozen Brine Shrimp (thawed out before putting it in the water) and Frozen Bloodworms (thawed out before putting it in the water).

I see all of my fish eating this. The Plecos either come out immediately and scrounge about for the food, or they sometimes wait for the food to float down by them to eat. But, I definitely see them getting (what looks like) plenty of food to eat.

Maybe once every other week, I will toss in a bunch of Algae Wafers, and they will go for it.

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That sounds a bit overstocked if you're talking about common plecos. Either way, mine refuses to touch any meaty foods at the time being.