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I got my l129 on Sunday (my first pleco!) and I'm struggling to get him to eat. I wait until the lights have been off for a couple hours before dropping shrimp pellets or carnivore wafers near where he hides in the rocks, but my pig of a giant betta always catches the scent of the food and eats it before the pleco has even bothered to move. Even wafers I could have sworn were too large to fit in my betta's mouth were swallowed in one bite. Are there any tips or tricks I can try? Do I just need to give him more time to settle in and get hungry enough to go for the food sooner? I would love for him to get frozen food like the rest of the tank but even with lights off the other fish will eat it first, even if it's sitting right in front of the pleco's face. Any help is much appreciated!

If you can see that the Betta is eating it is probably still too much light in the room or on the fish for the hypancistrus to feel comfortable.. Or hypancistrus isnt hungry..

The pleco won't eat if it is stressed. Maybe it needs warmer water or more oxygen dissolved.

Maybe, you should drop another wafer, after the betta ate it? At some point it has to be full

The water is at 80 degrees and the filter is all the way up. The flow is hard enough to push the betta around on that side of the tank and occasionally uproot plants. I made sure the betta was stuffed to the brim before feeding the pleco and I did try feeding the pleco multiple times but the betta kept eating the food. He got so full he could barely lift himself off the ground, yet he continued eating. Bettas really won't hesitate to eat themselves to death.

As to why I can see the betta in the dark, it's due to his coloring. He's a giant dragon scale with a purple-blue irid covering half his body, so no matter how dark it is I can either see the white or the glint of the irid. He's also very friendly so when I walk by he makes his way to the front of the tank and his ever growing belly is very obvious.

Is the betta grabbing food in the water column or from the bottom? If only the former then you could drop the food down a tube of some sort and not lift the tube until the food hits the bottom.

He's taking the food from the bottom. Partially burying the food doesn't work either, as the betta has no problem going eye deep in substrate to get it. Putting it in a small space also doesn't work as the betta and the pleco (already full grown, just about 3 inches) are around the same size.

some bigger food, like a frozen shrimp, pinned down by a fork, could work here. But you will need to get some other things for him to eat as well, only shrimp is not sufficient over time.

Like grocery store frozen shrimp? I tried mysis shrimp last night, which is my bettas least favorite, and I covered the tank with a towel to make it as dark as possible. I still woke up to a fat betta.

Mysis is something my fish seem not to like at all.

Yes, I am talking about these big frozen shrimp from the grocery, the ones you would prefer to eat yourself

I'll definitely try that! I'll also look in to other types of fish I can try out. Is it true that it's best to stick to saltwater varieties so any parasites that survive freezing won't be able to survive in the freshwater tank? I don't eat sea food myself so anything the pleco doesn't like is going to go to some lucky friends!

I think covering the tank in a towel worked, as a large number of plants were uprooted this morning and my betta has never done that. However, the towel kept the tank too warm so I've instead covered it in thick black paper.

I bought small shrimp and chopped mussels. I plan on tying the shrimp to a rock and sticking it where the pleco hangs out so the betta can't carry it away. In terms of other fish varieties, the store carried cod, trout, salmon, and flounder. Would flounder be suitable? I can't find any information about it online. It comes in the smallest bag so its my first choice if possible.

With regard to the fish you mantioned - I think they are all suitable, but remember, for a predator the intestines of a prey are the most important - these have vitamins and mineral in them, the muscles (the meat) is only proteins.

In most cases fiosh offered for humans is cleaned. That is, the fish is gutted and you only get the meat. Which is a pity, if the fish is for feeding purposes.

You might try getting the guts from a fish selles - for a nice price, as it is waste for him. What you pay is, therefore, purely extra profit

The idea of that kinda grosses me out, but since the shrimp was a failure I may give it a go.

Don't expect him to eat all of the shrimp. Even 10 smaller plecos do not manage to eat a whole shrimp overnight.

Oh goodness no I wouldn't expect him to even put much of a dent in it, even though it is an extra small shrimp. It still looked exactly the same as when I put it in, minus the snail poop on it. I'm pretty sure the pleco chose to feed on the dwarf pencilfish that wasn't looking very good yesterday and probably died through the night. I did a thorough investigation looking for the body and came up with nothing

As Jobro and others on this board told me, stop by Cost Co and pick up a package of frozen (human style) mixed sea food- shrimp, scallops (my pleco's favorite), crab, mussels, whatever. It will be too large for the Betta to swallow whole and put it on a fork, it will stay on the bottom. Remember sometimes it will not accept the food the first time it is introduced. I just picked up a bag of frozen fish- about two inches in length, at a Japanese food store. I'll try that for the first time in a few days. I have just tried for the first time beef liver. it didn't work. Must be microwaved until firm so that it doesn't fall apart. Don't let the food foul the water.

I've tried shrimp, clams, and flounder, all put on a fork and left at the bottom of the tank all night. Every morning I pull it out completely untouched. I haven't been able to get to Costco. The pleco is starting to look pretty thin. He also won't use any of the caves that are in there. Should I put him in a quarantine tank and see if he'll eat when he's by himself and fatten him up a bit while I try to figure out the community tank?

Have you tried the zucchini? Squash? Again I use a fork to keep it anchored. I slice the zucchini in half just in case my plecos favor one side over the other. After two or three days (when it looks fuzzy) I remove it. Try to find some 2-3 inch frozen whole fish...
again with a fork. If you get desperate, go buy a few goldfish, throw them in the freezer. Use a fork. Good luck! -Barry

I tried zucchini but I only left it in overnight. It was untouched. I'll try it again and leave it in for a couple days. I haven't seen any whole frozen fish of any kind at the store. What about freeze dried? My cats have some pure freeze dried minnows... I'm also willing to try Phoenix worms or something if you think that could work.

I like the point that was made earlier: whole fish contain gut contents, brain, cartilage, etc. if you cannot find a bag of whole frozen fish, try my goldfish idea.
- Barry

My plecos eat flakes with big pleasure - Sera - San flakes and got grown about 1 cm for 2-3 months. Maybe you have to buy some more plecos because if he is alone that scares him.

I don't feed flakes, but I may try Sera pellets at some point. I looked in to getting more but the l129 is apparently too territorial and could be aggressive.

I drove around and eventually got the last bag of frozen silversides at a Petco. They're bigger than I would like but it was the best I could find. I'll cut them in half or only feed the middle or whatever the pleco prefers. I like goldfish too much to ever use them as feeders. I'm pretty positive the pleco hasn't moved even an inch in four days except for moving his tail a bit, so I hope this gets him feeling better.

the Tank is 70x30x30? Should be fine to handle 3 of them if it is not overstocked, yet. I have the feeling "the more the merrier" works pretty good for the smaller plecos.

Is there real wood in the tank? He might be feasting on that right now. I actually hope so, because he won't make it forever without eating anything.

As of now it's far from overstocked. One giant betta, 6 dwarf pencilfish (7 if the sick one makes it out of quarentine), and the l129. I'll definitely see about getting more. They run about $30 each here, which I know is cheap compared to a lot of plecos but it's still a bit painful for a college student.

Right now that tank doesn't have wood since this one isn't supposed to be one of the wood eaters. I have an older piece for it but I've been trying to get some of the dang nerite snail eggs off of it. I might toss it and get a cheap piece of cholla wood in the mean time. All my tanks have Indian Almond Leaves in them which I know are great for microorganisms when they start to decay, so maybe he's picking on that a bit?

I think the 1/3 of a frozen silverside I had in there last night caught his attention. It at least got him to move. Half of the plants in my tank are uprooted! I only left it in for 3 hours because I didn't know how long was safe without trashing my water. I'll try again tonight but this time I think I'm going to let it soak in a cup of tank water for a little while first so it's thawed completely when I put it in. There was a small chunk missing that I hope he ate and didn't just get torn off on the rocks.