loki Posted October 17, 2009 Report Share Posted October 17, 2009 so i was given a 8" regular pleco when i setup my tank again. i originally used him to cycle the tank along with some tetra's my landlord gave me. after giving away the tetra's and adding the only other tank mate for the pleco ( a black piranha) :thumbs: , i have noticed that when i feed my piranha, the pleco comes out to feed on the scraps. is this common? he eats everything form goldfish bits, which i dont feed often, to prawns. the prawns seem to be his favorite. when the lights are out he will drag the prawns back to his log which he hides under. do they eat things like this in the wild??? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
timbruun Posted October 17, 2009 Report Share Posted October 17, 2009 Actually contrary to what most people think, the common pleco is a poor algae eater. It will eat any scraps it can find in the tank. So what yours is doing is normal. They are better algae eaters when they are young. One of the better plecos for algae is the Bristlenose Pleco. It does a much better job keeping the glass clean. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RD. Posted October 17, 2009 Report Share Posted October 17, 2009 I've yet to own a pleco, wild caught, or tank raised (including those classified as herbivores) that wouldn't eat higher protein foods (pellets etc) when they are available. I would imagine that most plecos do the same thing in the wild. Very few fish in the wild are strict herbivores, most will pick up a certain amount of crustaceans, snails, mites, insect nymphs and larvae, micro-organisms, and zoo plankton while feeding on bio-film and/or algae. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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