carniverous pleco?

[jloos1988]

iv got a common pleco about 10 inches in my 75g with 6 RBP's and today i noticed after the piranahs finished most of the feeder the head of the goldfish sunk and the pleco swam over it and sucked it down! i was so suprised and happy cuz i didnt have to net it out. is this unusual? thought plecos were strict herbivors

 

[jconley]

Most plecos are opportunistic scavengers and will eat anything that they find. Some or primarily carnivores, some are herbivores but most will eat a little of everything. I feed mine shrimp, squid, fish fillets, bloodworms, assorted meaty pellets and a whole array of fruits and veggies.

 

[tRiP]

The one I posted in the hypostomus thread won't even bother with veggies anymore. He used to love zucchini, lettuce and algae wafers, but now he just goes for shrimp, shrimp pellets, squid, octopus, haddock, goldfish and some of it's tankmates. Doesn't even look @ zucchini anymore. Started doing this back in April when I moved him to my 120gallon from a 75gallon.

 

[davo]

Plecos diet changes specifically with different species. A lot of commons are of the Hypostomus genus and they like jc said are non-specified scavengers, that will generally eat anything. They start to want more and more of proteins as possible (lean is better), but still need a bit of roughage and greens, stops them having problems like bloat. Theres a pleco dietry sticky that covers everything a bit more.