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Hi guys, first post here. I am a fishkeeper of 50+years but not experienced with larger plecs. I have just acquired 3 x new Scobinancistrus (around a week ago). A really small L014, A small juvie L253 and a much larger 8" L048 (pictured). I've put them in a 120G which has a couple of medium sized SA cichlids, a large snakeskin gourami and a few other bits and bobs. Plus a boisterous shoal of 5 x 5" clown loaches.
Socially, there are no problems, no aggression. However the clowns, being typical greedy bu**ers, eat all the food offered in a big rush.
These Scobinancictrus are much less confident feeders at the moment. The large L048 is out and about a lot in the day, but I have only seen him actually eat one piece of prawn. He seems to have ignored all the pellet food offered. The L253 I have seen out and about a bit during the day, but with no specific feeding behaviour. I hope they feed mainly at night, and I do put food in at lights out as well, but I suspect the Clowns hoover this up mainly as well. I have actually sold the clowns and am holding them for collection in a few weeks. I would ideally move them on today to give the scoobies more time to feed but I have committed to keeping the clowns for the moment, and I have no other tanks suitable to move them to, so I am stuck with them for the moment.
Does anyone have any suggestions to encourage the scoobies to feed - and food that the clowns won't gobble it all up. Currently I give a variety of pellets, from small up to large Hikari carnivore pellets. These larger pellets don't seem to be eaten by anyone obviously but they do seem to disappear overnight. I also feed bloodworm (gobbled up by everyone, and the plecs have no chance), plus prawn , which I leave in large enough pieces that the clowns can't eat it quickly. I have also ordered some freeze dried earthworms which should arrive tomorrow.
I am still concerned that these wild-caught scobinancistrus are not really getting a chance to feed, and simply not eating enough.
Any suggestions apart from "move the clown loaches out quicker" ?

Hi hamfist. Welcome to PlanetCatfish.

Your dilemma is not easily solved until the clowns are gone, but for now you're doing the right thing - feed at night and hope the plecos are getting some food. The other thing you can do is overfeed in the shortrun and keep up on water changes to compensate. If the clowns are the pigs you expect them to be, hopefully excess food leaves enough for the plecos too.

In the meantime, do you have a smaller QT tank to keep the plecos in until the clowns are gone?

Cheers,
Eric

Unfortunately all my other tanks are shrimp tanks (i'm a bit of a shrimp nut at the moment), so completely inappropriate for clowns or carnivorous plecos. I must admit I never use quarantine tanks. I trust in excellent filtration, good water quality, plus deworming treatments for new wild-caught fish. It has served me very well so far.

Thankyou for your comments. I'm pretty much using the strategy you suggest so its nice to know I was going in the right direction. I have just put in some rehydrated earthworms for tonights meal. I also have some EBO mussel sticks arriving soon, plus some Bug Bites Insect-based cichlid pellets and some Repashy Bottom Scratcher all incoming. I have spent quite a lot of money on these plecos so its worth the investment on quality foods to me.

Another thing to add is that plecos are "shrimp-safe". They won't predate on shrimps smaller than a couple of cm.

Jools

Jools wrote: ↑29 Dec 2023, 23:32 Another thing to add is that plecos are "shrimp-safe". They won't predate on shrimps smaller than a couple of cm.

Jools

I have no experience of this but there seem to be a number of pretty credible reports that the genuinely carnivorous plecs can and do eat small live shrimp. All my shrimp are reasonably valuable and I wouldn't want a greedy Scooby to hoover up half of them.

You could put in a tank divider? Doesn't need to be glass.

Or set up a holding tank from any water tight container. Large bucket, wheelie bin, box lined with plastic sheet, wheelbarrow etc. It's only for a few weeks.

aquaholic wrote: ↑31 Dec 2023, 23:50 You could put in a tank divider? Doesn't need to be glass.

Or set up a holding tank from any water tight container. Large bucket, wheelie bin, box lined with plastic sheet, wheelbarrow etc. It's only for a few weeks.

Both are excellent suggestions. However, both would also add stress to either one or both groups of fish (a holding tank for the loaches especially so), which may be worse that the feeding issue itself. I think I would also would struggle to construct any sort of divider. I hope its not just me being lazy but I am going to persevere with my current strategies.

Update on the Scoobies, is that 2 of them are being much more active during the day already, also at feeding time. I suspect they are getting enough food to keep them going already and as each day goes on they will become more confident and more voracious in their feeding. I suspect the smallest one is emerging only at night, so I am definitely continuing with the last feed after lights out.

I now have a pic of the juvie L253 (sold to me as one anyway)