I have 5 little ancistrus sp.3 suckers, and they won't eat! The foods I gave them are Hikiri pleco wafers(I heard they are adored), normal sinking spilurina tablets, and tetrabits. They don't eat, and all the food spoils and I have to siphon it out. This has continued for about a week, and they aren't starved, but are slowly becoming thin.
I can't find out the reason.....My bigger one eats any find of food I give him....And I kept him since he was a 3/4 inch baby.
What should I do? They are really trying to look thin. Should I feed them fresh vegetables or something? And how do you pursuade finiky plecos like royals(Don't have one....Yet) to eat?
I'd be tempted to try courgette (zucchini???) slices (this seems to foul the water less than cucumber, and is detected by my Ancistrus "sp.3" before cucumber- literally in about 3 seconds, although now they watch for me putting the food in so it doesn't even take that long) or even something like frozen bloodworm to try and ellicit a feeding reaction. My 3 Ancistrus get a lot of cucumber and courgette which they love, but they also eat a lot of bloodworm, catfish pellets and even flake food which is intended more for the Brochis. They don't get much algae so I do have to feed veggies (the tank's only lit for a few hours each day, although they do get some natural light (obviously more in Summer) as the tank's next to the window.
My little BNs prefer cucumber over anything else. I put one slice at each end of the tank, at the back, attached to the glass with veggie clips. They seem to like the center portion the best, but will eat the entire slice. I crisscross the surface the cuke or zucchini with the tines of a fork to make it easier for the littlest one to eat.
About once a week or so, I punch a few holes in the cuke or zucchini and insert a few bloodworms too.
Did you see these little ones eat at the place you got them?
At the top of the forum there is a sticky with a list of information we need in order to help you make a reasonable guesstimate at a solution to your problem.
Since I don't have that information, I would assume that the fry are either being picked on when they come out of hiding by one of the cichlids you mentioned, or the larger bristlenose even. Water quality might also be causing them additional stress. If they're new additions, they might be battling a parasite. The fact that there is food in there decaying every night is probably not all that good for them, although I do realize you're doing it in an effort to get them to eat.
Hikari algae wafers are WAY more nutritious to a thin or starving pleco than cucumbers would be. Cucumbers are a great food as supplement with other foods, don't get me wrong, but they are primarily water. Zucchini is quite a bit more nutritious.
Sounds to me like these small Ancistrus were most likely starved for a prolonged period before you obtained them and you are trying to deal with fish in serious trouble. There is a point at which fry can become a lost cause because of someone's neglect before their sale.
Barbie is right about the greater nutritional value of the wafers. Zucchini is sometimes helpful in at least getting something easy to digest for a system near shut down.
Since they are so small, they are in a breeder trap. I had moved them to a 30 gallon, but they didn't eat, so I moved them back to the trap because the limited space may allow the mmore food.
Well now they're eating a small amount of Tetrabits, and they seem to love grazing on the samll piece of wood I put in there. At least they're not skinny anymore.
I still can't get why they don't eat the algae wafers. I thought they'd love them.....
