However, I have many questions. She is temporarily housed in a cycled 50 gallon with a lot of brownish algae. I expected I would need to feed her (commercial algae wafers and a nice fresh zucchini already purchased), though I *hoped* she would find the existing algae edible.
From this picture, I am assuming that our house brand of algae is, indeed, very acceptable:
Twenty-four hours ago this fish did NOT have that huge belly. The poop trail also seems a bit of a giveaway.
Do I need to be concerned about her eating TOO MUCH? Or should I allow her to continue "cleaning up" the tank and start judicious feeding when the tank looks "grazed down" and she looks less overfed?
Also, this fish came from a chain petstore which labelled them H. plecostomus. I suspect this or H. punctatus is correct, just from reading I've done here trying to figure out what a "common plec" really is. I had wondered about ID a bit as the "commons" in local petstores seem darker, more nearly black/grey, than the ones pictured in the cat-eLog. Today she seems a little lighter and a little "browner" than yesterday. Lighting and background may have a lot to do with it (she is now in a less brightly lit tank with floating plants) but obviously I will need to know -- what do changes in color mean in this species? Was the darker and less brownish color that of somewhat stressed fish (ordinary petstore setup - bright lights, many many little plecs, no hiding places), in which case the browner tinge is A Good Sign? Or is it the other way around (lighter=stressed)? And if the latter, is there anything I can do to reduce stress? Her tank is at 76F, pH 7.0, no ammonia or nitrites, floating anacharis, anchored anacharis, and several ornaments providing hiding places. No wood yet, but there will be soon. For tankmates, she has a shoal of 12 very small tiger barbs.
