New here, help.

[NeonFlux]

Nice to meet you all. I'm William. Glad to be part of this forum. Just entered the pleco catfish hobby.

I need a little advice!


I have just received a Galaxy/Vampire pleco sized at 3in from shipping and he/she is residing in a 5 gallon quarantine tank provided with driftwood. I was just wondering if it's a good idea to keep him in a 5 gallon for a little while until he grows a little bigger 6in-8in? For a large 250 gallon with 1 Silver Arowana tank and plent of other cichlid and large fish. My large 3' ft Arowana seems to be very peaceful. In the tank, he does not attack my 1' ft pleco nor my 4-5"in red blood parrots and silver dollars...

Eh, I was wondering if it's even a good idea to introduce such a small vampire pleco to the tank? The problem is, do you guys think the arowana will eat the small vampy pleco? Or it's fine? The arowana will not bother any pleco species?

Oh yeah, what's the best food out there to feed a large common pleco anyway? I think pleco is starving because it hasn't ate in a while; pleco is only feeding off diatoms and some algaes.

[andywoolloo]

I do not know re the vampire and the arowana, I 've seen pics of arowanas and they look huge with big mouths. I might be scared to do that.

as far as your common pl*co he will love zuchinni and cucumber, weighted down with a stainless steele implemant flesh side up. Raw. Amd also romaine lettuce on a clip. Also mango and papaya once in awhile. Also real food too, Hikari sinking algae wafers, sinking veggie rounds, sinking shrimp pellets. Defrosted frozen food.

There are great articles on this site re feeding.

http://www.planetcatfish.com/shanesworl ... es+of+food

http://www.planetcatfish.com/shanesworl ... ts+what%3F

your Pterygoplichthys is mostly a vegetarian with some smidges of carnivore thrown in. So an omnivore witha bent towards more veg and fruit.

In my experience at least. I give my veg every day and a few times a week some fruit. and he gets the prepared food when i feed the synos that are with him.

[Richard B]

If the pleco is being out-competed for food one option is to use a target specific food, ie one the other fish won't eat - try a blanched stick of celery or a slice of potato, a part cooked dwarf/french or runner bean - there are lots of things you could try.

The arowana is a surface feeding predator & snatching up a small pleco is not a natural feeding method although in the confines of an aquarium could not be ruled out 100%

A 5 gallon is a little small other than a quarantine tank so i'd be tempted to go a little larger if possible for the interim

[MatsP]

Welcome to Planet Catfish.

A 5g tank, as Richard says, is far too small for a 6-8" fish. And it will take the fish quite some time to grow to that sort of size - probably a couple of years. Try something about 55-75g, and you are likely to give your fish adequate size to keep growing as quickly as possible. In a small tank, it's very likely to reduce growth and potentially stunt the fish so that it doesn't grow to it's full potential ever.

--
Mats

[NeonFlux]

I might risk putting the pleco in the 250 gallon after quarantining. Thanks for all the responses guys, you all have been of great help. I think I'll feed the big pleco a big slice of zucchini or potato.