What are you feeding you plecs???

Doodles

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Apr 8, 2009
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A good idea to share what we are feeding and could help other people with what is good or not and what is preferred.



I currently feed veg and wafers on alternate days and they have 1 day fasting

Veg I Feed

Courgette
deshelled peas
red/orange or yellow pepper(bell pepper/capsicum)
mushroom
melon rind
Spinach
sweet potato
Grapes(on occasion)


Sometimes the plecs have one veg, sometimes a couple of different ones

Algae Wafers

Tetra multi wafers
Hikari Algae wafers
Tetra algae wafers( when i can get them)
 

Zebra Pleco

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Nov 18, 2010
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Gardenstown, NE Scotland
www.zebra-plec.com
I feed, my L46, L260, L333 and L134's

Frozen Bloodworm - Once a week as a treat or
Frozen Lobster Eggs.

Sunday they starve lol

Mon - Thur
Hikairi Sinking Carnivore tablets
tetra Prime
Some Garlic pellet (forgot the name)
Earthworm sticks
Bloodworm & Brineshrip pellets.
Occasionally sprinkle of flake for my tetras and algae wafers for my cory sterbs.

Friday is veggie day, they get either a zuccine, cucumber or courgette. (Zebs never touch it, but the rest tuck in nicely)

All fry get, No.3 fry powder then crushed hikari sinking tablets or crushed Tetra prime.
 

Doodles

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Apr 8, 2009
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Its usually Sundays that mine starve too lol

Forgot to mention, when feeding courgette, I scrub but leave the skin on, my L200 loves courgette skin :)
 

Jackson

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Jan 14, 2011
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Toronto, Ontario, Canada
My young plecs get fed probably 4 out of 7 days a week even 3 out of 7 some weeks

Mostly feed them veggies mostly carrots and green peas and home made foods. They get NLS pellets once a week.

My older guys get fed twice a week once NLS tabs and the other a mix of hard veggies. For the most part it's all wood that they eat. The tank only has panaque and hypostomus 137's and 37's

I'm still doing everyday or every other day WC's just to get the debris off the bottoms.

PS. If you have the chance to try out the NLS mega fish tabs you should. I've never seen my plecs eat foods like they eat this stuff.
 

Doodles

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Apr 8, 2009
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The NLS mega fish tabs look pretty good, are you talking about the ones that have veg and fruit extracts too?

A complete, balanced daily diet in a chunky 10mm sinking pellet.

New Life Spectrum food is made with high quality, easily digestible South Antarctic Krill, Herring, and several all-natural color-enhancing ingredients for a balanced diet that boosts immune system function and enhances the full spectrum of your fish’s color. With the belief that all fish require a complete and fully balanced varied diet, New Life also contains Algae Meal, that consists of Seaweed, Kelp, and Haematococcus pluvialis (a micro algae), a premium grade of natural Spirulina, as well as a fruit & vegetable extract that consists of Spinach, Red & Green Cabbage, Peas, Broccoli, Red Pepper, Zucchini, Tomato, Kiwi, Apricot, Pear, Mango, Apple, Papaya, and Peach. All New Life Spectrum products also contain a generous inclusion rate of Garlic (Allium Sativum) with the Thera-A formulas containing a mega-dose of this natural anti-parasitic ingredient.
All ingredients used are almost identical, since we cannot find anything better than what we are using. However, the crude analysis will be different due to the percentage of ingredients incorporated into a specific formula.
Typical Ingredients: Whole Antarctic Krill Meal, Whole Herring Meal, Wheat Flour, Whole Squid Meal, Algae Meal, Soybean Isolate, Beta Carotene, Spirulina, Garlic, Vegetable and Fruit Extract (Spinach, Broccoli, Red Pepper, Zucchini, Tomato, Pea, Red and Green Cabbage, Apple, Apricot, Mango, Kiwi, Papaya, Peach, Pear), Vitamin A Acetate, D-Activated Animal-Sterol (D3), Vitamin B12 Supplement, Thiamine, DL Alphatocophero ( E ), Riboflavin Supplement, Folic Acid, Niacin, Biotin, Calcium Pantothenate, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride, L-Ascorby-2-Polyphosphate (Stable C), Ethylenediamine dihydroiodide, Cobalt Sulfate, Copper Proteinate, Ferrous Sulfate, Manganese Sulfate, Choline Chloride.
 

Jackson

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Jan 14, 2011
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Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Yup those are the ones.

I bought a 63.4 oz tub a few months back and it's almost finished. Asides from the plecs my turtles are in love with them as well. I feel comfortable feeding them this food. Their skin looks a lot healthier.
 

bigbird

Pleco Profiles Moderator - RIP FRIEND
Sep 9, 2010
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Sydney, AUSTRALIA
well for my mob of various Ls I feed

- Zuchinni
- Hikari Sinking Carnivour pellets ( for the L097)
- Spectrum There A +
- omega one shrimp pellets
- Hikari Algae wafers
- frozen blood worm

They usually fast one day a week on a monday when I do my 40% water changes in all tanks.

cheers jk :thumbup:
 

Doodles

Retired Staff
Apr 8, 2009
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Yup those are the ones.

I bought a 63.4 oz tub a few months back and it's almost finished. Asides from the plecs my turtles are in love with them as well. I feel comfortable feeding them this food. Their skin looks a lot healthier.
Have to look out for them:yes:
 

MUTLI

Member
Mar 5, 2011
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Bundaberg ,qld
My L397's get mostly wood and Hikira algea wafers, flake, viforma and my L127's get algea wafers, sinking wafers, flake, bloodworm/brime shrimp, daphina, carnivore pellets occasionaly, viforma, plankten tablets. Zuccini when im not feeling lazy. I try to mix it up
 

plushberry

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Apr 4, 2012
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I see that a lot of you have atleast 1 day a week that you don't put food into the tank. I'm just curious what the benefits are to that? Thanks :)
 

Brengun

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Apr 22, 2009
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Burrum Heads, Queensland, Australia
I dunno either. I just feed every night or for little fry, they might get an extra feed in the morning.
Hikari algae wafers as basic. Sera flora flake everyone gets. Sera viformo for everything except panaques and ancistrus. Ok, sometimes maybe they get a half of one to mature a females eggs.
Cucumber or zucchini once a week maybe. Depends whats cheapest. Even been known to drop a mulberry leaf in sometimes. Couple peas but I hate shelling them so thats rare.
Treat foods, just to mix it up a bit, daphnia frozen, bbs frozen, bloodworm frozen (quite rare), some sort of little frozen shrimp I forget the name of lol, shrimp pellets, nls grow little stuff, other brands of algae wafers, even a shredded bit of prawn if I happen to have some myself for dinner.

There no real rules for what plecos eat as long as you don't over do the meatier stuff on panaques and ancistrus who need more roughage than meaty stuff.
*Edit that: I probably wouldnt advise feeding diced pork or beef.

I have even heard of some breeders who will drop a couple of dog food kibbles in for a treat! I've never been game enough but its a thought lol. :)
 

AusPleco

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Oct 1, 2011
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Rural NSW
I see some people feed shrimp pellets, what type do people use as i have the sera ones and a higher rated one ?

Gonna see if my LFS has the NLS mega fish tablets.
 

Brengun

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Apr 22, 2009
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Burrum Heads, Queensland, Australia
Good questions auspleco. I feed omega one shrimp pellets for no other reason being that they came in little bottles to keep them fresh and they seemed cheap enough lol. I think my fish like them well enough.

I have just bought a bucket of spectrum h20 to mix in with the hikari algae wafers for the meatier lovers as sometimes they don't get to the sera viformo quick enough and it dissolves before they get it. This causes a major population in trumpet snails. So now a little less viformo and a bit of spectrum to see if thats a better idea.

I have also bought Ocean Nutrition Cichlid Vegi Flakes and plan to feed that to most plecos except panaques and bns, at least until I trust it won't bloat anyone. Part of the ingredients is salmon fillets would you believe? Smelled divine and my dog would have loved to get her nose in the bucket lol.
 

AusPleco

Retired Staff
Oct 1, 2011
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Rural NSW
I am probably gonna get some NLS mega fish formula in a couple of weeks when i got the cash as AoA is getting it in this week coming :)
 

hinchles

Member
Feb 13, 2012
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UK
veg
courgette
cucumber
cabbage leaf
sweetcorn (just tip a tin in)

dry
new era catfish pellets
new era pleco pellets
king british flake
dried algae pellets
dried bloodworm pellets
seaweed sheets

Frozen
Bloodworm
Daphnia
Spinach

Live
My arm whenever it put it in the tank :(