Ensuring plecos are adequately fed?

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I

illumnae

Plecostomus
MFK Member
Feb 13, 2011
116
42
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Singapore
Hi, I'm currently keeping 3x L200 in a 240 gal (excluding sump volume) cichlid tank. Current tankmates are Uaru fernandezyepezi, Satanoperca mapiritensis, Mesonauta sp. and a juv Crenicichla johanna.

As you can imagine, feeding time is usually a frenzy with the cichlids going crazy over the food. This is the case even when I feed after lights-out (to try and get food to my plecos). Now, I've never actually seen the plecos actually eating, so I'm just wondering - how do I ensure that my plecos are adequately fed in my tank?

Food for all the fish is NLS Thera+A 1mm pellets.
 
Maybe try using wafers, which are too big for the cichlids to eat.
Or place the food into a log/pipe where the cichlids can't swim into it to eat it.
Or feed pellets stuck in to zuchinni.
 
ha, that doesn't stop the uraus. They are going to demolish the zuchinnis before the plecs get to em. ANY cichlid in my opinion can work restlessly on wafers if they don't swallow it whole and keep them away... those cichlids are of a bigger size.
 
I would go thru the pipette route myself if you notice one of them getting too thin, its belly being sunken in, then can try to do a pipette directly to its mouth

thats what I did with mixed pleco tanks to make sure everyone got what they were supposed to be getting. Everyone learned that the pipette meant food and was a good thing to be near.
 
:iagree: Watch for the sunken stomachs but also keep in mind a healthy pleco can go quite a while without food so it can be hard to tell. I also have a similar problem with too many bottom feeders. My shoal of loaches are always picking at my plecos food so what I've been doing is feeding them somewhat of different of places in the tank and as Proteus' guys learned where the food came, thats where they went for it. Distract the cichlids and drop your wafers in a different area.
 
I do the wafers 2 times a week plus bloodworms 2 times a week, everyone eats the bloodworms. I have never lost a pleco to starvation. Plecos are really clever in that if they are hungry they will find a way to get food before it is to late.
 
I use butter knife to hold down my zucchinis, my severums try to eat it but plecos get most if it.
 
Those L200s will not fare well in that tank. Move them out to a different tank. L200s, both species, are not aggressive eaters like some of the larger loricariidae members. They can easily starve in a tank with those fish.
 
Ok WyldFya, will do. What genus of loricariidae would you recommend? I'm trying to keep only fish from the Orinoco River Basin.

Thanks everyone for your suggestions!
 
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