new pleco won't eat!

Wickedpurple

Wickedpurple

AC Members
Jan 3, 2011
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Hello!

I got Lloyd on Friday from the LFS and I have not seen him eat yet. He hid in my pirate ship for a day or so, but now he's on the back wall next to the heater, IN the bubble wall, lol. He has moved around at that location, but I have not seen him eat, even with the lights off. He's near the top of the tank... I can lightly poke his face and he gets mad and moves off, so he is responsive. Perhaps my tank should be warmer?

I got scared and looked up info... his tummy is a bit concave, so he has to be hungry. I tried algae wafers, didn't eat it. I went and got tubifex worm cubes, carnivore wafers and little carnivore granules thinking he might want those instead. I tried those last night (and put a BUNCH in, 'cause the neons and shrimp got excited) and they were gone this morning... but Lloyd seemingly didn't move. I tried throwing it all in there again tonight and see what happens.

I think he's a L387... light tan-ish with small dark spots on face to better spots/stripes on body. So he should be an omnivore and not eat wood. Sorry the pics are bad, my camera just won't focus on the tank. Please, any ideas or am I just being impatient? I don't want him to starve to death! :(

Set-up:
29g, 6 neons, 10 or so ghost shrimp, 1 Lloyd
am 0, no2 0, no3 about 0.10, temp 76, about 10% wc every week w/ about 1/3 gravel being vac
undergravel filter, biowheel/ mech filter, fake plants, awesome pirate ship bubble wand

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You probably just need to be patient; a lot of new fish don't eat for their first few days.

Plecos also like to chew on wood. If you can get any African root wood pieces to put in the tank, or any other aquarium safe driftwood, it'd probably make him very happy.

When my plecos aren't eating algae, they're scraping the wood in the tank.
 
Oh no! I found Lloyd on the bottom of the tank this morning, with a little white round thing on his face. I think the shrimp started eating him, since he wasn't moving? Carnivore wafer is untoched, though the pellets are gone, could be shrimp though. Maybe I can't have plecos and ghost shrimp?

I stuck a net in fearing the worse and he will barely move... *cries* I can't do anything about it now, I have to go to work. I guess I'm taking him back later today, since this is the last day for a refund. :(
 
Looks like the Clown Pleco I got from Petco weeks ago. I never worry about plecos eating. I toss them in, 1-2 days later I add cucumber and eventually they get it. Plecos love hiding and love real driftwood.
 
Sounds like you got one that had already not been eating for a long time...to the point of no return unfortunately. Best thing to do before buying a pleco is to check out it's tummy to be certain that its belly is not sunken in. Once they begin to show the sunken in tummy, you usually can't turn them around.

If you see a pleco you might like to buy and it doesn't put itself in a position for you to see its tummy good, I suggest that it be caught and you can then take a look at it in the fish speciman container from the bottom. If you don't like what you see, they put it back in the tank for you.
 
pinkertd said:
Sounds like you got one that had already not been eating for a long time...to the point of no return unfortunately. Best thing to do before buying a pleco is to check out it's tummy to be certain that its belly is not sunken in. Once they begin to show the sunken in tummy, you usually can't turn them around.

If you see a pleco you might like to buy and it doesn't put itself in a position for you to see its tummy good, I suggest that it be caught and you can then take a look at it in the fish speciman container from the bottom. If you don't like what you see, they put it back in the tank for you.
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excellent advice! i wholeheartedly agree on closely inspecting any fish before you buy it.
 
Thanks for info guys... seems I'm learning new things every day, though sad it may be at LLoyd's expense. Since he's already starving to get like this, I wonder if the rest of them are like this at the lfs. They had these guys in with a bunch of commons.

I'm on my phone at work... I'll know more once I get home. :/
 
It's official, Lloyd is very much dead (to the shrimp's delight). I got him out, but now you can't tell that his tummy was sunken in. Hopefully the LSF will honor the 5 day refund and they have fat tummy plecos.

Do you think the shrimp had anything to do with it? I read they should be fine with plecos, but maybe he didn't like them on the bottom?
 
A healthy fish(with the exception of fry) should have few problems with not being fed for 5 days. It is almost definite he was in poor health when you got him.
 
+1 the fact that he ignored so much food, and that he was so skinny to begin with tells me that he had problems to begin with. I would do some more research before you pick up another, a bristlenose would be a better choice for a 29g. Just throw some driftwood in there (only a few bucks at Petco, Petsmart might have some too) and feed him algae wafers and you should be fine.
 
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