Dietary changes?

Allivymar · Post by **Allivymar** » 18 Jul 2003, 06:57

Howdy folks.

I've an 8 inch liposarcus pardalis, who has become a veritable eating machine. Up until a couple of weeks ago, he was doing fine on a diet of Hikari Algae wafers/Tropical Sinking wafers and would scour the bottom of the tank when I fed the other fish for tidbits. I assumed at that point he was getting enough to as the areas behind his eyes were nice and full, and he is fat n healthy. Recently his behavior has changed. He is stripping my amazon swords bare, is ALWAYS moving around the tank (looking for food I am guessing) and is even getting a tad agressive getting to his wafers when I drop them in. I've upped the wafer regimen to once a day (was 4-5 times a week) but its just not enough. Tomorrow I go buy some zucchini. What I'm not understanding is the change in behavior. Do plecs go through growth spurts or something? Should I be adding something else to his diet besides the wafers and soon to be zucchini? He's got a good hunk of driftwood to chew on, and he has kept the tank (except for the one area where he can't get his big head LOL) completely clear of algae so hes only getting greens from the wafers and the others fish's food.

DeLBoD · Post by **DeLBoD** » 18 Jul 2003, 07:53

You could try some bloodworms mine loves them .

Kostas · Post by **Kostas** » 18 Jul 2003, 08:58

Hi,
If there is no algae in the tank you should feed him daily.This change of behaviour shows that he wants more food.If you dont feed him well he may chew on other large fish if you have or eat your plants.Also as DeLBod stated,he needs to be fed something protein rich once a week.

Allivymar · Post by **Allivymar** » 18 Jul 2003, 09:22

Heh, he gets bloodworms as well. I feed the other fish:
Bio-Blend pellets
Spectrum pellets
Tetra flake
freeze dried bloodworms
frozen bloodworms
and he partakes of all of it. The pellets do contain spirulina as well as other ingredients, between the bloodworms and the other fish foods I would have thought he was getting plenty of protein. Plus he is also eating the aforementioned wafers. I do get that he wants more food; what I'm not quite understanding is why now? Up until recently he was satisfied with the amount of food he was getting and I haven't seen a growth spurt in the past month or 2. Is this unusual? Is he going thru some sort of pleco adolescence (I estimate hes about 1 1/2 yrs old). Should I be concerned?

DeLBoD · Post by **DeLBoD** » 18 Jul 2003, 09:49

Just a long shot but my fish eat more when the temperature is up and its bloody hot here in the UK atm (donâ??t know where you are).
Something I noticed with keeping carp was that when the weather was hot they were all very hungry and I put this down to be the metabolic rate increasing with higher temperatures.

Allivymar · Post by **Allivymar** » 18 Jul 2003, 09:56

Thats it! You are a genius DeLBod! LOL Thank you.

I upped the tank temp about a week ago while acclimating a fish from QT to the main tank and have forgotten to bring the temp back down. I can just about date the change in behavior to that day.

*slaps self in head*

DeLBoD · Post by **DeLBoD** » 18 Jul 2003, 10:00

Hope it works out good luck.