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have had my common pleco for around 7 months and he is still around 3-4 inches, is this normal? He eats a hikari algae wafer every other day, and never have any problems with him. He looks like he has matured compared to older pictures but still seems small. I attached an old picture with a new picture
I

How big is its tank? What are you feeding it? How often do you feed it?

Cheers, Eric

bekateen wrote: 17 Aug 2022, 06:00 How big is its tank? What are you feeding it? How often do you feed it?

Cheers, Eric

75 gallon tank and I feed him an algae wafer every other day.

Tank size should allow good growth. Maybe add different foods?

Cheers, Eric

Like Eric said.... he needs some other foods. He is more of a omnivores pleco than an herbivore, but I would also feed more often too. Skipping a day every so often if fine but every other day isn't (IMO).

Hope that helps,
Chuck

Oddly... Jools and I were just talking about this on the phone. Feed vegetables everyday and tablets or other protein based foods 1-2 times per week. For many loricariids, to get good growth, you want to keep their gut stuffed. It is a situation where the quantity of foods constantly available leads to more growth than the occasional use of a high quality food. The second factor seems to be frequent massive water changes, which may be no surprise given the amount of waste they create when they can eat pretty much non stop.
-Shane