My Pleco Or Plecostomus Wont Eat

[alien-planet]

I walked into a pet shop last night for a look around and i noticed this large plecostomus or pleco as some people like to call it and i clicked and said i want that lol its a cool pet to look at and its my first time owning one. So last night i cleaned out my tank which is LARGE and had it prepared for him after remembering talking to the fish shop worker he said feed him algae tablets which i got with him. So cut a long story short i left him to his own device at night with approx 5x algae wafers / tablets in tank and went to sleep, woke up just now and notice he never touched them any ideas why ?

all helpful tips on how to keep these would be great and advice cheers troops.

i want to know everything from what to feed him, how to feed him, when to feed him.

his water is at 7.0 ph, water tempture is 76 degrees Fahrenheit.

my feet/trainer size is UK size 8 and hes about that length.

 

[star4]

Most likely he/she needs to settle in first, sometimes fish wont eat for a couple of days. Is there any poo in the tank? does it look normal? if he was feeding in the shop ok, there should be poo in the tank. What is his belly like, is it rounded or is it sunken in, if it is sunken in he has not fed for a while and may have a problem.
 
Try some cucumber or blanched carrot see if he/she goes for that.

 

[Ninjouzata]

Can you possibly get a picture? What size is your tank? It sort of sounds like he's a common plec to me so you'll need a very large one to accomodate him long-term.
I know you said your tank is "LARGE" but that doesn't mean much. I see people advertise their tanks on places like craigslist with words like large & huge and it'll be maybe 40g. 
 
Along with what sta4 suggested maybe try some zucchini/courgette?

 

[cambojnr]

Could it not be the fact that the tank has only been set up one day as you say you cleaned out your tank and prepared it for him, what are your ammonia and nitrite levels?

 

[sawickib]

Yes on top of everything said your tank doesn't sound cycled so you may want to look at this article >>>> http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?/topic/421488-cycling-your-new-fresh-water-tank-read-this-first/

 

[alien-planet]

Tank is perfect its a 550ltr tank its been prepped before he went in, perfect conditions only thing he does not have is algae to feed on so i feed him algae wafer tablets. I tried giving him cucumber and a bit of lettuce at night and left it until morning but now the tanks cloudy grrr... I will re fill and clean again but as its a very large tank it takes hrs to do and that annoys me. My sump is burst hence manual cleaning.

and before anyone says it yes i did remove left overs apart from the algae wafers.

 

[cambojnr]

Perfect is not readings, if you want help from the lovely people on here you have to give them what they ask for as even if you tank is 550L, and is not cycled, just water in one night then fish, the ammonia is gonna build up, especially from a Pleco, Just do the tests and post your results as you may have ammonia in your tap water.

 

[star4]

Have you tried catfish pellets? my larger plecs no longer bother with algae wafers they prefer large catfish pellets.
 
If your sump is broken how are you filtering the tank? although plecs (I am assuming common plec here) are pretty tough they still need filtration. The cloudy water could be a bacterial bloom, which would suggest a problem with water quality or filtration.

 

[alien-planet]

The cloudy water only happened when lettuce and cucumber went in , catfish pellets ? I heard they work that's for that info i will try it as the wafers hes not interested in.

btw how can you tell the sex of it don't know weather its a boy or girl. Cheers

 

[sawickib]

Can you post a photo?

 

[alien-planet]

My pleco is finally eaten lol so happy for him right now he made my day, i tried everything but hes very active now and feeding on his wafers. How many wafers would you recommend on a daily basis ?

to give you an idea what i feed him goes as follows , every night i giving him 7-10 cat fish pellets with 2 algae wafers.

but because i never seen him eat i decided today i give him blood worms frozen and 2 wafers and he seems to enjoy now lol i am honestly ecstatic about it all haha.... Happy as one can be perfectly honest it just goes to show with help from you guys and girls its good stuff and advice. Keep trying everything until u fond something he likes to eat.

 

[sawickib]

If you feed that much on a daily basis then your going to have a serious ammonia/nitrate issue. I'd have like 1-3 catfish pellets and 1 wafer daily if you like, how big is he again?

 

[Ninjouzata]

So glad he's eating now. I would cut back a bit though like Saw says.

 

[alien-planet]

Np like i said its what in started to do inwill defo cut back starting tomorrow guys hes i say about 6inches i will put video of him later on. Cant upload pic using phone and site don't support upload photos from windows phone.

i gravel clean my tank every 2 days but ofcourse if there's big pieces next morning i remove it straight way. I cycle a spall water change every 2days aswel to help keep tank clean partial change of approx 15 litres. That's 45litres a wk.

 

[sawickib]

I think you may want to do about at least 30-50% weekly of your 550L, esp with a Pleco.