plecs

[phoenixfire]

hey i know a lot of people are going to think im retarded for posting this...but has anyone else ever noticed how picky plecs are? i dont know about other species of it but the common one is extremely picky...i have had about 5 over the 6 years of my fish keeping...and i have noticed by studying them that they will only take algae off of certain plants, places on the glass, rocks, etc. i think it has something to do with like the composition of that rock, plant or anything...like maybe it upsets them or something...or they just dont like it....but has anyone else noticed this...its truely annoying as they will leave some spots completely clean and others lush with algae...and you want to yell at them and say hey! u missed some...lol yes i know im a loser and i do talk to my fish...but lol just tell me if u noticed this and comment and stuff so i dont feel dumb...thanks!!

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

No its normal behavior, there are thousands of types of plecs in the world and many types of algae and food, if they all ate the same sorts of algae it would run out pretty quick so it makes sense for them specialise in different types of algae a bit.
Although most plecs will eat algae they are many ones that eat meat and most of them eat both algae/plant matter and meat type foods. Many plecs start to go off algae as they get bigger though as it comes harder and harder to get all the protein they need to support themselves as they grow. This is also the case for many other types of algae eating fish.