Feeding and Nutrition :: Pleco Question

[Linus]

I just bought a 2 1/2 inch Pleco. He will be with my 1 1/2 inch Belize Slider.

I'm worried about the Pleco because Agamemnon is always begging for food(and I usually give in).

Do you think the fish will become a meal?

[BullDog]

There's a good chance it will. If you want to keep the pleco safe for sure, you'll have to put it in its own tank.

[Daniel3507]

yep. maybe not right away but it will happen

[Linus]

Darn, Well I don't have another tank so I'm going to have to watch for the first hours of contact, and feed Agamemnon a lot.

[megcornell]

You don't want to overfeed the hatchling, that can put stress on his organs and cause pyramiding.
To help give the pleco a chance, make sure he has hiding places. A pleco out in the open of a bare tank is a very enticing snack whether a turtle is hungry or not.

[Linus]

Would it be worth it for me to go and get a couple feeders as well?

[geekyturtle]

I put a pleco in my 20g tank with a hatchling and he's still going strong after about 8 months. Other fish have came and.. well.. gone, and the pleco is still there. I've noticed his fins sometimes look like they've been bitten, but it usually grows back in a few days.

I've also tried feeding it the algae discs, but the turtle tends to eat them first. Which is funny to watch because they're really hard and not big enough for the turtle to eat in one bite.. or many bites.

[megcornell]

I've never had a pleco in my tank so I don't really know. What I do know is that my turtles go after everything in the tank, so I don't think a distraction would help.
Whether the pleco is the only fish or one of ten fish, eventually I think your turtle will get curious enough or hungry enough to nip at it.

[Linus]

Well I let him out after 1 hour of "bag floating."

He's sucking on the filter. Agamemnon is hiding right now.

[BullDog]

Good luck!

[Linus]

It's been kinda boring. Agamemnon has been sleeping the whole time.

[Linus]

Well the Pleco sleeps in Agamemnons favortie hiding spot which isn't that big, yet neither of them mind each others company.

P.S. I bought 5 Minnows, Agamemnons interested, but their fast.

[Fuzzy Hamster]

We have a pleco and a cichlid in with Spike as well as 6 feeder fish. Currently, the pleco & cichlid are both bigger than Spike, and probably will be for another year or more. They have some rocks to hide in so I suspect that they will be able to evade Spike easily enough when he gets bigger. So far he hasn't even shown any interest in the feeders, but I am in the process of setting up a breeding tank with Spike's old tank, so eventually he will have some fry to chase and hopefully eat.

[Linus]

So in 4 hours, 5 minnows(a 50 cent value) completley cleaned all the Algae out of the thank leaving the Pleco with nothing. Luckily I have some wafers, but I bet the Minnows will eat that too.

[Fuzzy Hamster]

Plecos can eat pellets as well, although you need to put them (or wafers) in your tank at night, so your turlte won't eat them. Plecos tend to be nocturnal, so we feed ours at night, just before we go to bed, while the fish and Spike are asleep.