i guess i am doing the right thing as far as my pleco is concerned but i dont just want to focus on my o and neglect my pleco, the pleco gets two algae discs a day and seems content. sometimes my o will eat an algae disc i guess this wont hurt him cuz he is still active. i just need to know more about care for the pleco i would say he is around 4 inches.

I wouldn't worry too much about your pleco, they normally find more than enough to eat. However, when I did have one a few years ago I used to give it a large chunk of cucumber which I would put in the tank just before lights out weighed down with a plant weight. They absolutely adore this type of food and they will have it all for themselves without the worry of the Oscars stealing it.

thats pretty cool i will try that sometime!

OFL wrote:


yep have to agree i have a plec' in all of my tanks and they LOVE cucumber, and when they have had enough all my other fish dive on it,
havn't got a plec' in with my O's but i still feed them bits of cucumber (no skin) and they love it

also i recently got some stick on food tablets you just press them in the glass and it's great to watch all the fish nipping at them, in two of my tanks the plec's have started sticking themselves over them and sucking until they have had enough,
lol no good for the O's as they manage to rip them off in about 20 seconds

My plecs get a couple of algae wafers each twice a week and a slice of cucumber or courgette (zucchin for our US cousins) twice a week. The rest of the time he eats algae and they will also eat any uneaten oscar food. It also a good idea to have some bog wood in the tank for them to rasp on

Mine don't like cucumber, but the 2 in my 180Gl will eat a whole zuchinni every week.
They will also eat all kinds of algae wafers and tablets, but they prefer the Hikari wafers.(my O eats those like cookies!)

My biggest one eats all the algae from the decorations.
Plus the gravel will be checked for food every day (or night)
My Pseudacanthicus , Yellow Phantom and Xingu new polka dot also love bloodworms very much.
Does the pleco have some driftwood allready?
He needs those woodraspings to digest it's food.
Plus a hide out is needed.
A pleco with a roof over his head is a happy pleco!

what??? plecos need wood to digest their food? who told you that??? mine grew over 13" and never had a stick of wood in the tank. (there was a stump but i dont think it counts since it was plastic)

They actually need the tanins that are in the wood for their digestive system.
But most good pleco wafers have rasped wood added to the content allready.
I presume yours ate algae wafers?
lovely fish that is!

hey Win how long it take you to get your pleco that big?

occasionally noddy, usually it would swim upside down and eat the same pellets i was feeding the oscar, it was wierd as soon as id start feeding the o, it would be inverted right there with the oscars pellets eating them too. but yeah, i gave it wafers a couple days a week, but really i had it to keep the tank clean, it did a decent job of it aside from the poo. i had to get rid of it after it got so big, it kept trying to sucker onto my oscar in the night and the o would freak out and bash into the glass. i could see it doing it so i rehomed it. and it only took like a year pauly, it didnt take long at all, infact i got both of those fish the same day, they were the same size, and after a year, my oscar was like 11-12" and the plec was over 13" so they grow just as fast as an o' they just dont have as thick of a body, but it can keep up length wise with an oscar if you feed them right. i really REALLY liked that pleco, but it had to go bc it was hurting my o u know... now its living out its days happily in a 2 acre pond lol.

ya i agree i love the pleco
hope it doesnt start sucking on the oscar
that would equal bad times and rehomeing aswell
but none the less sick pleco or X pleco lol

my britslenose normally stay well clear of ym oscars etc assume they eat the wafers i put in for them at night... but like the boss says, weight down some cucumber and throw it in and mine would knock u down for it if it could!! they love it