Michigan Cichlid Association
General Category => Non Cichlids => Topic started by: eitakppurk on February 20, 2015, 09:23:11 AM
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Oh WOW. I finally decided to get a pleco for my tank, and I woke up this morning to find that it covered the sand with more poop than all thirteen cichlids combined over a weeklong span. IS THIS NORMAL? I don't even know how the little guy managed this. I'm so confounded right now.
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yes, they're very good at concentrating all the algae in your tank into nice little poop strands that can then be vacuumed out.
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Yes... pleco is South American for poop monster. :p
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I'd never recommend a pleco for people wanting a fish to help clean the tank.
I only recommend people keep plecos because they really like plecos. ;D
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They will contribute a lot of waste when you first put them in the tank because there is usually so much algae for them to eat right off the bat since there was not a pleco in there to start with. Once they clean it all up then they aren't quite as bad as people make them out to be far as being waste machine.
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So true Steve...they are no messier then other fish. You don't say what kind of pleco you have. If the common one that's sold as the so called (algae eater) every where and any where they can get to 13 inches to way bigger. At that size they are messy. Eat everything and anything....I do mean anything even other fish alive or dead. They need to be fed too...can't survive on algae alone. Not all plecos are vegetarians.
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Yes, he has definitely 'slowed down' ! I was just totally shocked by that first night. It's a common one, about 5 inches. I planned to feed a mixed diet of pellets and fresh veggies. It doesn't seen interested in any tank mates, though once it grows out I'll keep an eye on it.
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They will contribute a lot of waste when you first put them in the tank because there is usually so much algae for them to eat right off the bat since there was not a pleco in there to start with. Once they clean it all up then they aren't quite as bad as people make them out to be far as being waste machine.
I'd have to disagree - even if they eat all the algae in the tank then they still need food... unless you're talking about not feeding them.
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They will contribute a lot of waste when you first put them in the tank because there is usually so much algae for them to eat right off the bat since there was not a pleco in there to start with. Once they clean it all up then they aren't quite as bad as people make them out to be far as being waste machine.
I'd have to disagree - even if they eat all the algae in the tank then they still need food... unless you're talking about not feeding them.
You're missing my point, I would never suggest not feeding a fish you know me better than that. I feed my plecos daily, but if you have a tank that has been without any plecos in it for a long time then when you first put one/some in it they have an overabundance of food (lots of algae) that they will tear through until it is all gone. So they will produce more waste when you first put them in the tank until they clean up all the algae. After that they don't seem to produce as much waste once you get them on a normal diet of wafers/pellets and once a week zucchini.
When I first got plecos I had about 8 months of algae growth on the 3D background of one of my 55g tanks. The waste they produced the first week was unreal while they were cleaning it up. After that it tapered off and was not bad at all.
Think of it this way. Put a fat kid in a room full of cake and what's he gonna do? Eat himself into diabetes until all the cake it gone. Then you put him on a regimented program of one piece of cake per day for his normal food after that ;)
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I know you weren't saying not to feed the fish, that was just busting your balls a bit. ;)
In my bedroom tank I have:
1- L177
1- L128
1- L191
1- L091
The algae in the tank (decor&glass) hasn't changed one bit & the waste hasn't changed either.
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Can't speak on others, just my own experience with mine. In my 55g hap&peacock tank I have 3 adult male BNP, 2 brown mid sized BNP, one long fin mid size BNP, my 7" L-200 high fin and that 4" rio pleco you helped me ID awhile back. When I first put them in I had a ton of waste as they were cleaning up my background, but it's not all that bad these days even with normal daily feedings of pellets and wafers.
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In my 120, I have 16 Bristlenoses. I still have a lot of algae and I don't see a lot of turds. Lazy fish. lol