Picky Pleco?

[Alyssa Holdwick]

My new clown pleco, Pennywise, doesn't seem to have any interest in his algae wafers (tetra brand). Pennywise is still new to the tank so I didn't expect him to eat a lot but it seems to be only the wafers that he won't eat. He nibbles on the driftwood, the algae on the back wall, and the cucumber slice I gave the other day. Should I try a different brand? Does anybody else have this problem?

[Tom H]

From what I've seen it sounds like it's just a preference. My pleco only ate the wafer if there was nothing growing on anything else. If you're feeding multiple things at the same time they'll eat what they like least last.

[DaveO]

My bottom feeders instantly swarmed Xtreme Bottom Water. I had the same experience with Tetra.

[Hobbit]

I think your pleco is just full on other tasty food and isn’t super motivated to try new things right now. 😊

When I first got my plecos, it took them weeks to figure out I was feeding them. I even caught one nomming the glass right next to a big chunk of Repashy food but refusing to eat the Repashy itself. 😆 They would do this with wafers, pellets—anything I put in there.

Now several months later they’re both big and wide and know exactly when it’s feeding time. They clamp down on their wafers and nom like crazy.

Just keep offering the pellets at the same time in the same place each day. Eventually they’ll figure out what you’re doing. The suggestion of offering a few different foods at once is a good one too. Then you can be confident that it’s not the food that’s the problem—it’s them! 😆

[Colu]

I  would try some Hikari algae wafers  cucumber or blanched lettuce or spinach Sera wood chips that what I feed my pleco never turns food down

Edited May 10, 2021 by Colu

[Solidus1833]

38 minutes ago, DaveO said:

My bottom feeders instantly swarmed Xtreme Bottom Water. I had the same experience with Tetra.

I've got 4 different species of Pleco, and they ALL love ^ Xtreme's wafers. Its the one pleco wafer that all my plecos will attach to. 

[H.K.Luterman]

I just want to say I love the fact that you named a clown pleco Pennywise. Great name! 😄 

[Goosedub]

I got 4 BN Plecos from 2 different sources. 2 of them eat my sera catfish wafers like it’s their job, the other 2 won’t touch them. The picky ones also wouldn’t eat repashy for a while, I had to throw zucchini in just to get them to eat something. They were looking thin. Now they all take repashy. Gonna try the wafers again soon. I would just give it time.