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My daughter wanted to be helpfull and put a whole thing of flake food in my 29 gallon( one of the midsize containers). I got all my fish out. Which included my Sailfin pleco, two Candystripe Plecos, a common pleco, a bunch of various Gouramis, and some schoolers. They are all in a temporary tank until I get my big one stabilized again. My question is could anyone recommend some food for the plecos? The tank they are temporarily in is new and doesn't have any buildup for them to munch on. I gave them some algae flakes a couple hours after I moved them and they dived for them. Any and all advice would be helpfull, and yes the food is now out of reach and the child reprimanded. The candystripes are only an inch and a half in size and the sailfin is at about 4 inches. The common is about 2 and a half inches right now.

Thanks.

how long will it be before you clean the tank an hour mabey two. what are you intending to do.

dont feed the fish you will just pollute the water they can handle going without food for a few days.

I've been working on it for a day now with just big clowds of muck still coming up. I'm on my third partial change of twenty percent. I'm hoping to be able to have everyone back in my big tank by the end of the weekend. I tried to get the food all out but it had gone to mush almost instantly, its nasty enough that you can smell the water is bad.

Do you think they'd be ok for three days of no feed? The temp tank is barren that they're in. Clean gravel, clean plants, nothin in there but ticked off fish.

Healthy fish can go for several weeks without food, so I wouldn't worry about it. Pollution of the temporary tank is a much bigger concern than your fish feeling a little bit hungry.

Rusty

if you really get frisky, go buy a small zuccini and cut it up into small peices and portion it out. Just have to weight it down. I usually rubber band mine to a small peice of lava rock or a big shell. My plecos LOVE IT. But then the poo alot...

Hello,

I'm not sure I understand what the problem is, you said

third partial change of twenty percent

but why don't you just stick a gardenhose in your tank and drain it?
The fish are secure, plants can usually handle a few minutes(5-10 is no problem, longer is possible for things like Anubias but it depends on the plant species) outside the water or you can just put them in a bucket with water. Drain the tank, clean the filter,put the plants back in if required then let the tank settle for a few days if possible and put the fish back in.Problem solved, just keep a close eye on things.
By the way I thinks it's sweet your daughter wanted to help care for the fish , my 3 year old nephew is like that, one of the first words he could say was 'Fish"

I think the whole mess is back on track now. I went and had the water tested on Wednesday and they confirmed a near lethal nitrate level. I gravel vacced out about 20 gallons and did a refill. The tank is still settling. We have nasty hard water here so it takes a couple days. I threw in a couple feeder goldish last night and they are still alive so I'll test again tomorrow and if the levels are good get my kids back in there.

The nice thing about this is that I was able to get some decent pics of my plecos. I'll post them up another day to get a second take on making sure they are what they are.

A couple of them seem to like the new tank better so I'll leave them in there. My two candystripes seem to feel a lot more secure in the smaller tank so they'll stay.

I stuck to minimal feedings. Instead of flakes I served frozen once a day along with a couple algae wafers at bedtime. I got lucky and they all survived. My daughter apologized to the fishies also.

Thanks for all the suggeastions. My main thing when I started the thread was to not lose any fish and I didn't. That makes me happy.