rescued skinny pleco, feeding advice

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I

ITHURTZ

Piranha
MFK Member
Apr 11, 2007
1,846
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81
Antioch IL
Found this common pleco at a foreclosed job today in a 75 gallon with no filter no heat and between 8-10" of water left. He is about 6-8" long and skinny. Is this just a wait game to see if he eats or are they any kinds of food they CANNOT resist? I dropped a few mini wafers in but nothing yet.

He is in a 5 gallon with about 4" of water, each hour I pour a few cups of new water in to help him adjust to not such crappy water he came from.

Ill post a pic when I get back home later.
 
jeremoose said:
Don't forget that common plecos are NOT tropical fish and he will do better without heat.
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Where on Earth did you hear this from??? Yes they are tropical fish. Plecos on average prefer 75 degrees. Commons can survive temps down in the 60's but still prefer it in the 70's. Meanwhile other plecos like it in the low 80's
 
jeremoose said:
Don't forget that common plecos are NOT tropical fish and he will do better without heat.
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That is a ridiculous statement, given that the OP is in Chicago which gets rather cold over winter I think any pleco would do rather poorly without some sort of heat source.

I think you should try a variety of foods, veges like courgette, pumpkin and sweet potato, along with waters and quality sinking pellets like NLS. If it starts eating and gaining weight then you're ok, if not you may need to consider treating for some sort of internal parasites.
 
He looks bad but give it a try. I'd try any kind of food you can think of, maybe there will be something he likes
 
Common plecos do just fine in water as cool as 67F, my question is: where did the REST of you get your information?
 
jeremoose said:
Common plecos do just fine in water as cool as 67F, my question is: where did the REST of you get your information?
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Surviving and thriving are 2 completely different things. You said they "aren't tropical fish"...where do they originally come from? Would their native waters be considered tropical?
 
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