My pleco wont eat the cucumbers

lildunn34 · Post by **lildunn34** » 02 Mar 2003, 16:14

i slice up the cucumbers and put it at the bottom of the tank floating by a heavy string barely touching the surface and its all there the next day, isnt the pleco suppose to eat

oneoddfish · Post by **oneoddfish** » 02 Mar 2003, 18:49

try slicing cuke in half lenth wise and holding to bottom (I use big metal salad fork stuck in one end so cuke is standing up lenth wise) try zuccini or yellow squash next THEY WILL EAT THE ZUCCINI

lildunn34 · Post by **lildunn34** » 02 Mar 2003, 20:11

ist zuccini a cucumber

Post by **Silurus** » 02 Mar 2003, 20:14

I always thought zucchini was a squash...

vulkoq · Post by **vulkoq** » 02 Mar 2003, 20:37

zucchini and cuke are not the same thing.

lildunn34 · Post by **lildunn34** » 02 Mar 2003, 22:24

ok just a while ago my pleco was sucking on the cucumber for like 2 minutes and then swam away, did it eat anything or what the hell was all that sucking about?

noki · Post by **noki** » 04 Mar 2003, 03:39

vulkoq wrote:zucchini and cuke are not the same thing.

both zucchini and cucumber are of the same family of plants, Cucurbitaceae, commonly called the Squash family, both are heat loving plants, originally vining plants.

"zucchini" is a type of "summer squash", of the widely varied "squashes" which come from the western hemisphere where they were originally bred by Native Americans into many forms from a few related species (?)

"cucumbers" come from India region originally, evolution seperated by continents, has been grown for well over two thousand years in the old world.

zucchini can be very easily grown outdoors in the summer for organic "clean" veggies for your fish... i have not tried giving fresh cucumbers to my fish, the cucmbers are quite yummy picked and eaten immediately so afraid the fish miss out.

Graeme · Post by **Graeme** » 04 Mar 2003, 03:49

Cheer's for that education on greens (cue's and zucc's). I never knew Cue's came from Asia.

polkadot · Post by **polkadot** » 04 Mar 2003, 04:15

Which one is messier? Cucumber or zucchini? I always hate it when they eat up the cucumber leaving the seeds floating all over the tank.

Guy · Post by **Guy** » 04 Mar 2003, 09:58

By the way, zucchini is courgette in this part of the world! I think this causes confusion sometimes! The zucchini wins hands down with my pl*co. There was a thread about feeding pl*cos a while back:

http://forum.planetcatfish.com/viewtopic.php?t=744

Guy

Chrysichthys · Post by **Chrysichthys** » 05 Mar 2003, 14:22

Try leaving the zucchini or cucumber overnight.

I give my plecos a pinch of rolled oats once in a while.

Post by **Coryman** » 05 Mar 2003, 20:41

lildunn34

I dont see a mention of the Pleco species! What species is it? the chances are it is not a vegitarian sp. Many people including some fish shop owners think that because it has a big sucker mouth that it eats algae and other vegetable matter.

For the record zucchini are called courgette here in the UK

Ian

GeoffO · Post by **GeoffO** » 07 Mar 2003, 13:23

OK so by now either the cucumber has been eaten or gone rotten - in which case you will have removed it

If you are going to try again I think the most important thing is to make sure the cucumber is weighted so it sinks to the bottom - this is where a pleco expects to find its food & is happiest eating it under normal conditions - let alone when stuck with a potential bully of a tank-mate such as an Oscar!!

My pleco wont eat the cucumbers

My pleco wont eat the cucumbers

pleco won't eat cuke