Platy Oh Platy He's Eating Nasty

[AmtotheBurr]

So I have a few male platies that I added to a planted tank yesterday. One of the them started eating the plants right away. There are three kinds of plants and he sampeled two of the three. Then today I saw that same platy eating the waste off of another fish in the tank. Is this normal??

 

[NickAu]

 
Then today I saw that same platy eating the waste off of another fish in the tank. Is this normal??

Yes they see fish poop think its food and gobble it up..... only to spit it out when they realise what it is.

 

[AmtotheBurr]

And eating plants? There's only one who is doing it. Maybe he's just not bright and had to lick everything in the tank?

 

[NickAu]

It might taste good.
 
Is it eating the plant or the algae and stuff on it, My platies love zucchini,

I read some place it is important to provide a veggie component to their diet or they can suffer gut irritations.
My Platies and Mollies eat about this much in about 4 hours.. With some help from a BN or 2.

 

[AmtotheBurr]

He was biting off of the plant. There isn't algae built up in there. Oh well. Guess he's vegan. thanks and I will look into veggies for them too.

 

[NickAu]

What do you feed them?
 
I feed mine a variety of foods they get.
Attisons Betta Pro Pellets.
New Life Spectrum Thera plus with garlic.
They get a tropical community mix that my LFS makes.
Tropical flakes.
Hikari Algae wafers.
Fresh Veg. Zucchini is a favourite.
And sometimes.
Blood worm. Frozen
Brine shrimp, Frozen
Earth worms. Live.
I mix it up and they never get the same thing 2 days in a row.

 

[AmtotheBurr]

What do you feed them?

Tropical flakes right now and they may get the occasional baby sized cichlid pellets if they snatch it before the killifish gets it. That's very unlikely because she eats like a whale. I also have freeze dried blood worms that I can soak and give them on occasion.

 

[AquaPit]

Platy oh platy, he's eating vegie!



Just monitor them, its just unlucky that platy is acting that way

As long as they are healthy, I guess

Hope for the best!

 

[Baccus]

Is your platy eating any of the particularly soft leafed/ stemmed plants? Many fish will get a taste for the easy to bite and don't taste too bad plants. If you have tougher leafed plants like Anubis then it probably wont be able to do any real damage to the plant. Other plants like java fern generally don't taste to good apparently to fish so even if it does nibble the plant it shouldn't become a habit. Of course there is exceptions to every rule we once had a dog that adored hot chilli

.
 
You could try adding either green foods like zucchini to the tank for the fish to pick at or even nori sheets which I have found most fish/ shrimp and snails all like to eat.

 

[Far_King]

Cucumber is worth a try, just don't leave it more than 24 hours.  I use frozen peas as well (boil them briefly first), then squish them and drop them in for fish snacks