Sailfin Plecos, Eating Rations

[aquafrogstuff]

I recently (2months ago) added two 28cm sailfin plecos to my 6ft discus tank. I noticed this evening that one of them has greenish faeces. Both seem reasonably happy (I guess) but don’t mess as much as they did when I first got them. I don’t know what’s happening with the green poo, but I wanted to check that they’re health was in check as far as their feed is concerned. They get fed 6 algae tabs every two days and have fresh zucchini (sliced lengthways) twice a week. I tried pumpkin over the weekend which they ignored. Apart from that, there’s algae on the driftwood and tank glass. One thing I note with the plecos, when I place the algae tabs or zucchini in the tank, they don’t swim over to get into them. Is it normal for them to feed when they’re good and ready? Am I feeding them enough tabs?

[Merrilyn]

Plecos are nocturnal, so it's normal for them to ignore food when the lights are on. Green droppings are very normal too. It's simply the colour of the food they are eating i.e. vegetables.

Fish that size really need to be fed every night. Well fed plecs are poop machines, with a huge amount of droppings. I would offer them two medium size pieces of zucchini, one at each end of the tank so there's no fighting, and 4 to 6 spirulina tablets or algae wafers each night. They will also eat regular fish food, bloodworms, beefheart or sinking pellets, but their main diet should be vegetable matter.

Mine like squashed peas, sweet potato, pumpkin and broccoli stems.

They need to eat quite a lot of food, because there's not a huge amount of nourishment in vegetable matter, compared to the high protein diet enjoyed by discus for instance.

Any hollowing of the belly area is a real danger signal. You can't overfeed plecos so offer them plenty of food.

[ILLUSN]

ditto what merrilyn said its imposible to over feed vegitarian plecs like gibbies, the green poo is from the zeuchini skinn, it comes out practicly un digested, but the fibre from the cellulose is important for their digestion.

[aquafrogstuff]

Thanks for the replies guys. Great to hear from you again Merrilyn. Love to see some photos of your tanks again.