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I purchased six 1-inch blue eyed L144 plecos along with six 1-inch albino common bristlenosed plecos. I've been feeding them zucchini, hikari algae wafers, and shelled green peas. All fish are eating well. It's been 6 weeks and the albinos are now more than double the length of the L144. Why are my L144 not growing? They are all in the same 30 gallon tank and ammonia/nitrite are zero. Water in my town (New Jersey, USA) is hard and alkaline. Food is constantly abundant. Tank is bare bottom. 25% water change every 2 days. Tank only contains these 12 tiny plecos and no other fish. No driftwood - do L144 need wood to thrive?

The breeder who sold me these tank bred L144 is feeding the same foods and says that L144 are just slow growers.

What would you say are the top 3 foods of your L144?

I also noticed that the albinos have fat bellies while the L144 are never fat and their bellies are always triangle shaped instead of round, despite eating all the time.

I'd try a bit more protein. To my believe especially juveniles need some in their food. That doesn't explain the different in growingrate between the both.

Sounds like you are feeding all the right foods. Maybe too much competition between differently sized fish?

I have a group of 20 of them in a small 10 Gallon and they are growing significantly faster than my other bristlenose fry. I have softer water and a single small piece of mopani in the tank. I do 2 weekly 50% water changes to keep the water parameters in check. I also feed mine every other day swapping out fork-fulls of mexican zuchini, cucmber, sweet potato, and green beans. Every week I do add 2 or 3 cut shrimp into the tank and they DEVOUR it. I think I would agree with CoryfanAad above, seems like there is not enough protien in their diet. Try the shrimp, or I used to use Hikari sinking carnivore pellets and they ate that up to. I keep a few tetras in the tank and feed the NLS (New Life Spectrum) sinking pellets and the L144 seen to clean those up pretty well too. Hopefully this helps!

my l144 fry dont grow as fast as the regulars but not that much of a difference. I also think you should add some more proteine to their diet.

Thanks for all the tips. I will try adding cut shrimp and carnivore pellets. Raw shrimp right? Not boiled shrimp?

How many hours do you leave the cut shrimp in the tank? Some people use raw shrimp to fishless cycle new tanks so I'm guessing raw shrimp generate a lot of ammonia...

Thanks again!

I suspect the juvenile L144's you purchased were already a bit stunted but that doesn't mean they won't eventually catch up.
I also recommend feeding them much more protein. I haven't kept any pleco yet which went on to breed that I fed primarily earthworm sticks, frozen bloodworms and some live blackworms. You can always include some fresh vegetables and Spirulina algae wafers but I would not make them their primary diet.
Earthworm sticks do not spoil quickly like fresh shrimp meat does and that is beneficial because Loricaridae are grazers.
Earthworm sticks contain plenty of Spirulina and shrimp meal.
My typical growout and breeding setup is a tank with just enough sand to conceal the bare bottom, a few pieces of bogwood and caves of course.
This makes sanitation easier than in tanks with deeper substrates. I generally dislike a completely bare bottom breeding tank for plecos. I use bare bottom tanks mostly when breeding Characins, Killies and Anabantoids.

Where can I buy earthworm sticks? (Update: found them at kensfish.com)
Why don'tyou like bare bottom tanks for plecos?
Thanks for the tips!

I also get earthworm sticks from kensfish.
About the thin layer of sand it's mostly a matter of personal preference.
I feel it helps to produce a bit more complex ecology. I also often kept colonies of Cherry Shrimp in my breeding tanks for the same reason.
I used live blackworms and some would escape and establish colonies. They acted as scavengers by eating bits of the sticks the plecos miss but I've bred most plecos using both bare bottom and very thin layer substrates.

Thanks for all the tips and advice. I really don't understand whats happening to my L144. I don't think its a matter of competition with the albinos because I always leave more pieces of food than there are fish. In this tank of 12 plecos (no other fish), I always put in at least 20 pieces of vegetables/wafers. Do your L144 get fat bellies when they eat? My L144 are always so thin compared to the round-bellied albinos. Could it be that they have some kind of parasite like hexamita to which the albinos are possibly immune?

My one albino bristlenose dead and I find by microscope capillaria worms. One possibility is endoparasite. If fish have capillaria, the stool is very thin string. When situation become worse fish do not eat and became anorectic. Camallus often become out from anus and you can see red worms if situation is quite bad. There can be also gill flukes. Fish scrub themselves often.

I put Camacell treatment to my 10 tanks twice (wormer).

Up the water changes, feed more protein and toss a chunk of melon rind in once in a while as a treat.