14" Pleco???

[duretteg]

I have 14" Cmn Pleco. Not sure how much food is enough. Any ideas?

 

[davo]

what are you feeding it currently. In the pleco section there is a detailed thread explaining plecos dietry needs and examples. Your pleco (guessing by common name, but you'll have to check species) is probably an omnivore where veg takes the main proportion of its diet. However at that size, start feeding it meaty food too. An example would be a couple of slices of potatoe and zucchini, couple of shelled peas, and a couple of pieces of prawn/ beefheart.

 

[WyldFya]

WELCOME TO MFK! Veggies will be the main bulk for the first 14-16" of life, however after 12" start adding more and more meat to the diet. When 18" they will be on about a 50-50 diet.

 

[davo]

I'd feed meat to them before 12", literally through out life, just a case of slowly balancing the ratio until its 50:50 mazimum, as it comes up to adult size. But either way, i'd be feeding roughly 1 part meats to three part veggies.

 

[Killerhap]

WELCOME TO MFK! Veggies will be the main bulk for the first 14-16" of life, however after 12" start adding more and more meat to the diet. When 18" they will be on about a 50-50 diet.

Boy, isn't that true!

When I was a little kid and had one of these, it was a peace loving suckermouth, that is until it got big and became a real monster, one by one it killed and ate all of the other fish in the tank until it was the only fish left. So be very careful folks when you read at websites about how peaceful these fish are, since that's only true while they are small.

 

[davo]

Plecs are carnivorous, and any "sleeping" or still fish at night makes an easy target at night. To the confines of the tank, they won't be able to get away either. When plecos start "hunting" a lot of the time they are looking for the protien they can gain from another fish's slime coat. However, that is not to say it is the only reason. I have had a few different pleco species hunt, and eventually kill fish, even when well fed on an appropriate diet.

 

[Newt]

I had an eight inch common pleco years ago that went on a rampage one night and ate all it's tank mates (or parts of them.) The tank was mostly a mixed community of large barbs, so I was surprized the pleco could catch them. I traded it in to the LFS the next day for more barbs. It took me a long time to put another pleco of any kind in my tanks (like 10 years!)

Anyways, my plecos get blood worms, beef heart, spinach, peas, mysis shrimp, those Goldfish-Koi frozen cubes, algae wafers, and Tetra sinking tabs. Oh, and each tank has driftwood for them to chew on.