fish feeding.

Question
I have a 20 gallon freshwater tank containing 2 mollies, 2 platies, and an albino longfin ancistrus plecostomus. I have 2 live plants in my tank, an amazon sword and a crypt. (I also have a piece of driftwood for my pleco)
I just got my pleco and am a little confused about feeding. I always fed my mollies and platies flake food, but I also would occasionally feed them algae wafers. I need to feed my pleco too, but he can't eat the flake food, and if I put in flakes and an algae wafer everyday I would be over-feeding. How would I provide proper nutrition for my fish without overfeeding? Should I feed them vegitables too/instead?

Answer
Don't worry too much about the pleco.  I have a pleco that started out tiny (about 2 1/2" long) who is now about 21" long.  YES, 21", lol.  He looks like a dinosaur.

Feed your fish as you normally would.  Your pleco will have plenty of scraps on the bottom.  However, he does really need some of the algae wafers too.  They "wake up" at night, so what you should do is at night after you turn out the tank light, drop an algae wafer in the tank.  This way, most of the fish won't see it, but the pleco will be able to see it on the bottom because he is more active at night then during the day.  They naturally feed at night.

Unless he starts looking thin to you, don't worry too much.  Just throw in the 1 algae wafer AFTER you turn the lights out (preferably when dark so the other sneaky fish don't see, lol), and I'm sure he'll be just fine.

Sorry it took so long to get back to you, I haven't been feeling well.  If you have any other questions, please feel free to write me back!

BEST OF LUCK!!