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Re: is my pleco sick?
Carmen wrote:
| Both Kelly and Brenda have recently commented on their plecos floating
| upside down. This isn't a desirable position for a shy bottom fish. When
| I was in highschool, my plecos would do this before an unexpected death.
| I've since realized (sadly) that I starved them to death. As they get
| bigger, these grazers/scavengers need more food. Check to see if their
| stomachs are sunken in. Feed them algae wafers and zucchini on occassion.
| Large plecos will learn to feed off the surface with the other fish and
can
| suck in floating pellets if there's enough food--but I'm sure they'd be
| happier scraping off the bottom.
Thanks Carmen, I'll check my pleco for sunken stomach but I've had him for 2
years and he's always floated upside down to eat the flake food when I feed
the fish. He's not a shy fish at all and will even come swimming around my
hands like the goldfish when I'm working on the water plants. He is large
(8-9 inches) and there is lots of fuzzy algae on all the surfaces of my
watergarden for the pleco as well as the snails and algae eaters. You should
see how fat my chinese algae eaters are. Outdoor ponds usually have lots
more algae than indoor aquariums and I don't consider any algae undesirable
in my watergarden except floating green water algae. I have fed algae
pellets before the fuzzy algae became established in the watergarden. The
goldfish also like these and stir up such a frenzy over them that the pleco
has to be very bold to get a chance at them. Next winter he'll be in my
heated watergarden along with the other tropicals so he won't have to
compete with the goldfish. Thanks again for your suggestions. I really love
this pleco and would hate for anything to happen to him.
Brenda
Watergardening in the Desert!