Pacostamus care

Question
I have a pacostaus who lives with two goldfish in a 5 gallon fresh water tank.  I've had him for a couple of weeks and he's eaten all of the algae and looks as though he's starving now.  Is there anything else I can give him to eat - anything to supplement his natural diet of algae while some grows back?

Answer
Hi Lee,
 It is a common misconception that plecostomus can live on the algae in a tank alone.  They can't. They will eat algae but you need to feed them other food as well.  I feed mine two things: sinking algae wafers and bits of fresh zucchini.  You just take a zuchinni squash but it up into strips or big chunks and put the chunk in the tank (I usually have to elastic band the chunk to a rock so it will sink).  Be sure to remove the uneaten zucchini after a day or it will rot.  Once the plecostomus realizes what it is, they LOVE to eat fresh zucchini.  

-- Ron
  rcoleman@cichlidresearch.com
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