New L200 not eating

Comacchio

Member
May 4, 2012
20
0
1
Scotland
Hello,

My first post on this forum after being guided by one of the members..

I recently (last Saturday) bought an L200 pleco to go alongside my two BN plecs. All seemed well for the first 2 days, however recently I've noticed it doesnt seem to be eating.. at all!

I've tried dunking frozen bloodworm near it, placing a courgette stuffed with algae wafers where it hangs out.. Nothing. Doesn't seem interested at all.

I introduced it to the tank by drip acclimitisation over a period of an hour and a half. I've only managed to snap a few pics to try and show what he looks like, but his eyes seem a bit sunken, an indent just below the dorsal fin and his belly does seem a bit concave..




Any advice? Thanks.
 

Comacchio

Member
May 4, 2012
20
0
1
Scotland
Bns are aggressive feeders and could be lording it over the food. Try making 3 well spaced out food stations of veg and add a little vege flake for grazing.
Thanks for the reply. I meant to say, I put in 3 pieces of courgette, all at 1/3 intervals of my tank. I was going to transfer him to one of my smaller 30L tanks temporarily to try and observe a bit better, but wasn't sure if that would just stress him out further?
 

xingu

Member
Apr 26, 2009
1,001
2
36
DXB
Hey mate, welcome here, Garlic is supposed to stimulate appetite, I am not sure however how you use it.

I wouldn't move him just yet, Lisa (site admin) is a good fish doctor and there are other here who should be able to suggest some things to help.

Re your courgette query in your pm at the other place, no that doesn't happen to me, post the details here.
Posted via Mobile Device
 

Irene0100

UK Support Team
May 14, 2009
4,271
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36
Norfolk, UK
oh dear, did you buy him from a shop?
i suspect its stress but could be ill,
what are your water parameters? BNs will tolerate much wider range of ph and hardness whereas phantoms like quite soft water, low tds, and ph circa 6.5.
but i see you are from scotland where generally the water is quite soft to very soft?
have you tried indian almond leaves?
 

zeebo

Member
Jun 11, 2010
1,986
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ct ,usa
Hi and welcome ! ok , I have kept the blue phantoms, which are very similar. The way I got them to eat (they probably dont recognize the veggies as food yet) is to slice a piece of zucchini and stick an alage wafer ,you can break it in half , whatever, sick one end in the zucchini , so most of the wafer is sticking out ...he may have been fed the wafers at the store and be familiar with them, once he goes for the wafer , he will also get a taste of the zucchini and realize it's yummy food. Might be good idea to leave some skin on and some off , to see what his preference is , as my phantoms would only eat the skin. Give this method a try a few nights in a row , and please let us know if he begins to eat. Once he begins eating the zucchini, (raw) you wont need to use the wafers anymore, unless you are goin

Also, could be stress from the move as others have suggested , but I have never lost a new plec using this method. Good luck .keep us informed.
 

mrRRunner

Member
Oct 2, 2009
85
1
6
Staffordshire UK
Hi, I have both Green and Blue Phantoms and they can be very shy like most plecs and only eat at night when you are in noddy land, leave the courgette overnight and remove in the morning to stop your tank getting cloudy, it may take him/her a few weeks to settle in, hope it starts to look better soon.
Also de-shelled peas can help if it has a digestive problem,
Good luck, lovely plecs these.
 

Comacchio

Member
May 4, 2012
20
0
1
Scotland
Hey mate, welcome here, Garlic is supposed to stimulate appetite, I am not sure however how you use it.

I wouldn't move him just yet, Lisa (site admin) is a good fish doctor and there are other here who should be able to suggest some things to help.

Re your courgette query in your pm at the other place, no that doesn't happen to me, post the details here.
Posted via Mobile Device
Cheers Mike! I'll have a look in a shop tomorrow for some garlic infused fish food I guess. The courgette issue:

Recently if I put courgette in the tank, a day or 2 later my filters all clog up with a slimey substance. So far its clogged up my 205, 206 and U4 filters which causes my tank to crash if I dont get to it quick enough! Pain in the neck as I would like to leave (obviously change every day) a piece or 2 of courgette in for my plecs to graze on!

oh dear, did you buy him from a shop?
i suspect its stress but could be ill,
what are your water parameters? BNs will tolerate much wider range of ph and hardness whereas phantoms like quite soft water, low tds, and ph circa 6.5.
but i see you are from scotland where generally the water is quite soft to very soft?
have you tried indian almond leaves?
Yep I bought him from the MA in Glasgow. My params are: 0 Amm, 0 Nit, 20 Nitrate, PH 6.6ish. I don't know my water hardness as I have never tested it. What do indian almond leaves do?

Hi and welcome ! ok , I have kept the blue phantoms, which are very similar. The way I got them to eat (they probably dont recognize the veggies as food yet) is to slice a piece of zucchini and stick an alage wafer ,you can break it in half , whatever, sick one end in the zucchini , so most of the wafer is sticking out ...he may have been fed the wafers at the store and be familiar with them, once he goes for the wafer , he will also get a taste of the zucchini and realize it's yummy food. Might be good idea to leave some skin on and some off , to see what his preference is , as my phantoms would only eat the skin. Give this method a try a few nights in a row , and please let us know if he begins to eat. Once he begins eating the zucchini, (raw) you wont need to use the wafers anymore, unless you are goin

Also, could be stress from the move as others have suggested , but I have never lost a new plec using this method. Good luck .keep us informed.
Hi, thanks for the advice. I have tried sticking wafers out of a piece of courgette and placed it right under his nose, but he didn't seem interested at all! Does seem to graze on the wood/slate quite often now though.

Hi, I have both Green and Blue Phantoms and they can be very shy like most plecs and only eat at night when you are in noddy land, leave the courgette overnight and remove in the morning to stop your tank getting cloudy, it may take him/her a few weeks to settle in, hope it starts to look better soon.
Also de-shelled peas can help if it has a digestive problem,
Good luck, lovely plecs these.
Yep I left courgette in overnight but as above, it causes my filters to grind to a halt!

I think I seen him having a piece of pleco multi wafer last night, so hopefully it was stress and he starts getting an apetite, but I'm still not confident he's eating enough! Time will tell..
 

Jo Crane

Member
Apr 23, 2009
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1
16
Cheshire
www.rareaquatics.co.uk
Had the shop had the fish in long more than 8 days? if so ask them what they have been feeding, if not it may be suffering from stress on import they arrive stressed if they are moved on to fast they dont get time to recover from this stress and start eating again having extra stress added, the first thing they will do is stop eating given time to settle and spot on great water quality this can be over come we feed our wild caught imports Tetra Prima & Tetra Pro Algae to trigger them to start eating for some reason this mix works very well even with the most reluctant of fish one thing to look out for is white stingy poo a bit like long spider web this will indicate something totally different which will need managing in a different way
 

Doodles

Retired Staff
Apr 8, 2009
8,786
2
36
Had the shop had the fish in long more than 8 days? if so ask them what they have been feeding, if not it may be suffering from stress on import they arrive stressed if they are moved on to fast they dont get time to recover from this stress and start eating again having extra stress added, the first thing they will do is stop eating given time to settle and spot on great water quality this can be over come we feed our wild caught imports Tetra Prima & Tetra Pro Algae to trigger them to start eating for some reason this mix works very well even with the most reluctant of fish one thing to look out for is white stingy poo a bit like long spider web this will indicate something totally different which will need managing in a different way
:thumbup::thumbup:

Recently if I put courgette in the tank, a day or 2 later my filters all clog up with a slimey substance. So far its clogged up my 205, 206 and U4 filters which causes my tank to crash if I dont get to it quick enough! Pain in the neck as I would like to leave (obviously change every day) a piece or 2 of courgette in for my plecs to graze on!
I din't know if you are, but don't leave the same pieces in for more than say 12 hours. The rate at which courgette breaks down depends on a lot of factors, including how fresh it is when you get it and water parameters also play their part, temp etc.

Also a lot of L200 like the skin, in fact my L200 doesn't really touch the fleshy part. You need to scrub it to remove the waxy sheen it has, I just use a clean scourer, before adding to tank.
 

Comacchio

Member
May 4, 2012
20
0
1
Scotland
:thumbup::thumbup:



I din't know if you are, but don't leave the same pieces in for more than say 12 hours. The rate at which courgette breaks down depends on a lot of factors, including how fresh it is when you get it and water parameters also play their part, temp etc.

Also a lot of L200 like the skin, in fact my L200 doesn't really touch the fleshy part. You need to scrub it to remove the waxy sheen it has, I just use a clean scourer, before adding to tank.
I'm unsure how long the shop had them in for. Ill go buy the tetra stuff tomorrow night after my work.

I woke up to find the pleco grazing on cucumber stuffed with algae wafers. It scattered when it seen me though, so I reckon its still shy. This was at 5am so might need to start putting food in after dark.

The max the courgette would be in would be around 15 hours and its come straight from the fridge. Ill try once more with a different shop and not asda's smartprice stuff!

Thanks for the advice. Hopefully the pleco will start putting on some weight!

Allan
 

Doodles

Retired Staff
Apr 8, 2009
8,786
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When you buy courgette make sure it is firm to touch and not squishy at all and feed it raw.
 

xingu

Member
Apr 26, 2009
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2
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DXB
Glad it is eating something bud, a wild caught fish is an entirely different proposition to the BN's you already had.
 

Comacchio

Member
May 4, 2012
20
0
1
Scotland
Well I cleaned the filters and hoses last Friday morning.. They are already vastly reduced flow now.

I'm really at my wits end as to whats happening! I've been removing any leftovers after 12 hours and yet the filters are still being majorly clogged!
 

Rey

Member
Feb 17, 2011
74
0
6
Texas
Glad to hear your green phantom has started eating.:clap:

Hope the filters clear up soon.

my L200's took awhile to start eating bought them over a year ago and the big one almost never comes out from his wood cave except at night. I remember looking and seeing so many soggy algea wafers in the morning:dk:

I have also blanched or par boiled sweet potato or zucchinni in water that has had fresh piece of garlic boiled in it to extract the juice and entice the fishes to eat. I would think even just soaking the veg slices in that garlic flavored water may help and possibly have some health benefits.

have you tried algae pellets? most pleco go crazy for them.

Also earth worm flakes seem to be hard for any fish to resist.

Even though some plecs require a more vegetable based diet,or an awfuchs/micro-algea,micro-plankton diet. I have fed most new wild caught plecos frozen treats like bloodworms, mysis etc. just something to get them started eating again or fatten them up during quarantine.

Also if there is a spot that he likes to cling to I would put a slice of sweet potato or zucchinni right where he hides so hopefully he will cling to the food and realize it's tasty and start eating. I did that with a recent L-18 I bought that took awhile to start eating. Just be careful the BN's don't eat too much leftover shrimp or bloodworms. Too much animal protein and the BN will get bloat.
 
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bigbird

Pleco Profiles Moderator - RIP FRIEND
Sep 9, 2010
6,306
1
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Sydney, AUSTRALIA
glad he is feeding. remember do not overfeed as this does also put a huge bioload on your filter. I only feed all of my Ls at night. I only feed the dither fish in the morning with flakes. the reason I feed at night is that is when they are more active and wake up so to speak. I also place veggies in at night and remove first thing in the morning. What other fish are in your tank ?
cheers jk :thumbup: