Farlowella Stopped Eating Algae

[HHH]

Ive had this farlowella for a while and he kept my 37 gallon spotless. But ive upgraded to 55 gallon semi planted but the algae is now slowly building up. He used to graze every where on the glass wood etc but now he just stays in one place or just grazes where there is no algae . He does go crazy when i throw in a zucchini but thats about it. I was thinking of withholding feeding for a while til he starts to clear up the algae is this safe to do? Watere conditions are
ammonia 0
nirites 0
nirates 0

 

[ncguppy830]

have you fed him wafers maybe he needs to slowly be introduced to the algae again.

 

[TwoTankAmin]

Farlos can be funny, and very lazy eaters. There are stories of them starving to death an inch or two from food. The fact that is is going nuts over the zuke means it is eating. It probably likes the zuke more.
 
You can try withholding food to try to encourage him to resume his algae eating duties. Most fish will not starve themselves to death over food preference. They may be stubborn, but eventually they eat. So you can give this a try and see how it goes.
 
Also, where we think there is no algae, there often is. The fish know it even if we can not see it.

 

[HHH]

thank you for your responses. How long can i withold the zuchinni from him? its been about 4 days (i feed him every other day) ive seen him poop green poop witch means he must be getring algae from somewhere (just not my glass ) And who he be able to eat algae off a rough surface like cement? Becuase i do have a 3d background in there made of cement covered in algae i think it looks ratherr nice but i wont mind if he grazes there. Ive seen him stuck there a couple of times but is the surface just to rough for him?

 

[TwoTankAmin]

Well its simple food in = poop out. If he isn't eating he will mostly stop pooping, green or any other color And since they are vegeie/algae eaters, they should make lots of poop.