Small plec diet

[noidea]

I have a 2" royal pleco. All I've been fedding for the first two days are small algae waffers. I heard they need protien in thier diet. What should I feed them for a good source of protien? I was also wondering how often I should feed it and how much? Any other good food suggestions would be greatly appreciated

 

[davo]

Hi there, if you missed it, theres a dietry sticky at the top of the pleco forum. While it's true they aren't strictly vegetarian, they should be fed more veg than meaty foods, they don't do to well with crude proteins... I'd maybe try some bloodworms at that age, but I wouldn't feed too much. They need lots of roughage in their diet, things like potatoes are good for that, and a variety of different vegetables, and of course driftwood.

 

[COL]

Bloodworms are a bad idea for young fish this small. While their exoskeletons aren't fully chitinated just yet, they are still nonetheless hard to pass through the gut at that size. Throw in the fatiness and you're begging for digestive issues. Try maybe adding crush carnivore or shrimp pellets or things like cyclops.