feeding my pleco

Question
I have a 55 gallon aquarium with 2 oscars each 6 inches long and a 9 inch pleco. I only bought the Oscars probably 3 months ago. Prior to that I had the pleco and 100+ guppies. My husband got bored with the guppies and bought the two oscars. I saved several of the guppies but most of them served as feeder fish. My question is about my pleco. I have never fed him a special food until I got rid of the guppies and their flake food. Now I give him the sinking algae discs. The directions say to feed him everyday and to remove any uneaten food after 12 hours. I can feed him one or six there is never anything left. I only am concerned because he is starting to chase the oscars and they have started fighting. I was afraid the competition for food was maybe causing this and being that I have had my pleco a long time I would hate for the oscars to kill him. I feed my Oscars cichlid pellets 2-3 times daily and when finances allow for it ghost shrimp and crickets. They also seem to never get full. How much should my fish be eating and should I be concerned about the safety of any of them? Oh also, how would a dojo loach do in this tank. Outside of feeding time, I fing the Oscars very boring to watch.

Answer
Hi Holly;

The plecostamus needs some driftwood to rasp on during the day as well as chunks of cucumber and/or squash to eat at night. He isn't going to get enough to eat with the algae discs. He will grow to be 12 inches long and need even larger food. My plecostamus is about 6 inches long right now and loves his driftwood. He hasn't needed cucumber or squash yet because I have plants for him to eat. I also have smaller fish so the plants will survive in my tank. Your oscars would tear them to shreds!

Oscars need to be fed only once a day or every two days. They are natural born gluttons and will eat until food won't go in their mouth anymore. They will beg and make you think they are starving all the time, but you really aren't doing them a favor by feeding them so much. It will only make the tank dirtier than it should be. They only need a good quality balanced pelleted diet and don't really need any live food. I have found live food leaves a lot more waste than pellets anyway. Especially those darn cricket legs! Yikes!

A dojo loach would be devoured by the oscars. Even if they are too small to get him now, they would harrass him all day long and suck him down as soon as they can. The oscars and the plecostamus are the full population for your tank anyway. They all get a foot long and are all very messy fish.

Sounds like you need a community tank of smaller types of fish! Tetras, danios, dwarf gouramis, cory cats, rainbowfish and many others are possibilities if you decide to do that in a tank without oscars or plecos. You don't have to have guppies, platies or other livebearers that over populate.

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Chris Robbins

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