Noddy this first pic is for you since you love front views!



The rest are to show you the indentations behind the eyes.





As you know, J. Edgar (10") gets bullied in the tank by the other fish. He comes out at all times of the day and night. Feeds on the driftwood and whatever scraps are in the gravel plus the algae on the sides of the tank. I've fed him cucumbers, potatoes, zuchini, but it seems like they go right through him. Poops white if he eats them - like they aren't being digested. Yes, I've tried dropping algae pellets, in food and not in food. The O's love them and will dig them out!

I'm worried because my good friend Noddy said to watch for the indentations behind the eyes. Am I imagining them?

Brooksie

Difficult to say really I can't see anything that stands out in particular. However, I have nothing to compare your fish to.

hi Brooksie, though i hate plecs because it is already considered a menace
in my place... but i do understand that when plecs have indent behind eyes,
it means he is malnourished.. it doesn't mean you did not feedhim well but
more sickness or parasite.... and one day, you will find him still anchored
in the glass wall but dead.

tobe honest.. before i hated them i had been raising plecs in my tank too.
and had kept an 18 inches common one... but when it proliferates in our
body of water, i started to hate them... not really hate them but the one
who irresponsibly release them in our tributaries...

lesion around the mouth is also an indication that he is sick...

those food will indeed go through them very fast.
Seeing mine will devour a quarter of a zuchinni every feeding time.
Very good pics to show the indentation and you're right, if it is caved he could eat some more.
But when a pleco is growing fast it will use up the supply of fat that they accumulate in that indentation.
On the whole the fish looks healthy to me.
plus there's a difference in nutrition between the different kinds of food.
Cucumber concists of mostly water.
That's why i feed the zuchinni to my fish.

keep tossing in some wafers some hours after lights out.
Allthough i found my SD's have an even better nose for the wafers and they start looking for the wafers immediately after i throw the wafers in.

I'll ditch the cucumbers and stick to the zuchini with algae wafers. This is also the first time that I have found algae on the side of my tank. Not much but a little spot. He missed it! Oh well, that is also why I have a scrubber!

Thanks all.... I love this site!

have you tried dropping the wafers in after lights out? I would do that or distract the oscar with some pellets on the other side of the tank.

I've tried a bunch of different ways. Those damn O's find it before he does. If he finds one, they see him eating it, they go attack him to get it from him.

Sometimes the oscars seem to really enjoy being pains in the ass. Luckily my oscar always spit the wafers out. He didn't like to eat them, but did seem to really take a 'shine' to just snatching them only when the pleco was going for it or had it first out in the open. For some reason at night time he ignored it though.

One thing that seemed to work though was the tiny brine or mysis. It takes time and they are focused on catching all the little floating shrimp and the plec can rummage around and get them at the bottom, or eat his wafer while the oscars are distracted.

Im surprised your plec cant seem to get to the wafer before the oscars...mine always found a way to sneak over and get at it first. He would also take it into his cave where he could eat in peace, or i would place it right in front of it so all the plec had to do was stick his snoot out and pull it in.

This sounds funny but I honestly think he is scared of the other fish. If they start towards him, he swims away. I'm going to keep giving it a try though... zuchini with wafers after dark.