Feeding zucchini to plecos

[thegrandpoohbah]

So I want to start feeding zucchini slices to by BN pleco. So far he doesn't seem to be too interested. How long can I leave it in there before it gets mushy and starts to pollute the water?

[Jonesy]

i have 4 plecos. A L66 scribble, a common, a bulldog and a clown. I have found that all of them will eat zucchini as well as other fruits and veggies. The trick is to blanche them first, and feed regularly so they get used to it. It took mine a week or so to get used to having this new item in the tank. After that they started poking around it, the eventually they all took a turn at it. Even my L66 who is a carnivore took somewhat of an interest. BN's will readily take it up.......Other treats you may want to try are mango, cucumber, sweet potatoes, peas and beans.....Use a fork or a plant weight to hold it down. If lights are on a timer, put the food in about half an hour before lights out so that you have it in before they come out of hiding......Be patient, they will eat it and they will enjoy it...

Good Luck!!!!

P.s....Don't leave the food in the tank longer then 24 hours or it will start to spoil and really screw up your water quality

[CACAdmin]

Intersting. I have never had a problem with lack of interest. I feed zucchini on a regular basis to my plecos. I boil it until it is really soft and drop small chunks with skin attached into the tank. It sinks well and I have no need to weight it down. All 6 of my (various) plecos love it. They also get peas and broccoli but I think zucchini is their favorite.

Are there snails in the tank... snails love zucchini (at least mine do) and compete with the plecos for it. Maybe some competition for the zucchini would stimulate interest... who knows?

Best of luck!

[Melody]

Very sound advice, if I'm anyone to judge. :yes: I have always blanched my Zucchini first, but I'm not sure if everyone does or has to. I do it because the non-plant-eating snails can't eat it if I don't. It will eventually soften, but by then its poluting your water.

Zucchini is a source of Vitamin A, some Vitamin C, along with Potasium & Folate. You'll quickly lose the Vitamin C with cooking, so try to cook it as little as possible.

Keep in mind that if he's getting a lot of leftover food when you feed the other occupants, he won't be as enthusiastic about any food he has to work at eating, including algae.

[thegrandpoohbah]

He is the most active algae eater I have ever seen. Even better than my SAE. That's why I am feeding him now, he has eaten almost all the green algae that was in the tank. He did eventually find the zucchini but then the SAE scared him away. I left it in there all night so he would have more opportunity to eat in the dark.

[Melody]

Yeah they are ace algae eaters to be sure. Apparently being spoiled isn't the problem then....lol. Good thinking leaving it overnight :) .

I've got some concentrated 100% Spirulina tablets coming in that would be awesome for algae eater supplements. A lot of the so called algae foods don't actually have a lot of algae in them, and there always seems to be other ingredients in there. When I want to feed an algae wafer, I want to feed an algae wafer. These things are supposed to stay stable in the water for so long, they're used for longish-term / vacation feeding. I'll let you know what I think of them. At least with those, everything in the tank has a chance at them.

[Soggybottom]

Pretty much everyone in my main tank will nip at zucchini. I blanch both sides until soft but not all the way through. I don't understand the pea idea though...Plecos can eat pellet-type items like cut-up peas with that mouth of theirs? In my tank I think it's more likely they would get missed and lost under the plants to fester away...

[Melody]

They can eat peas because they wanna, in a word...lol...they're softened with cooking to wafer consistency so it doesn't take much for them to 'scour' them. They love them, that's for sure, so do shrimp and pretty much any other vegie-loving fish I've ever tried them on. They're one of my main ingredients in any homemade food for that exact reason. :biggrin: They're also packed with vitamins {Vitamin A, B1, B2, B6, C, K and Folate}.

[thegrandpoohbah]

Melody, let me know how those spirulina pellets work out. I'm sure my platys and snails would appreciate more of that in their diet too.

[Melody]

Sure thing. Mine are coming in from the States, but there is a Canadian company that sells them too. I find that wafers cloud my water anyway, although the Omega One brand seems ok in that regard. Hopefully that won't be a prob with these.