Feeding the Rubber Lip

[ddavis1979]

I have had a rubber lip pleco for a few days now, and i have never seen him eat anything.

I have put zucchini, hikari algae wafers, romaine lettuce, and omega one veggie tabs in the water and I cant seem to find evidence that he has found or eaten any of them.

I dont have very much algae in the tank and I am worried about its diet. how can I tell if it is eating? How can I encourage it to find and recognize the food?

Do rubber lips eat the same diet as BNPs and other plecos?

[sailor]

Any rubber lip I have ever had have been mostly nocturnal. I would drop in algae disks a couple times a week an hour or so after lights out.

[Lady Hobbs]

He will probably die. He should not have gone in that tank until it was done cycling. Bottom feeders are the last to go in a tank and only after it's been cycled. I would imagine he isn't eating because the ammonia level is too much for him.

[ScottishFish]

Hobbs obviously knows your tank isn't finished cycling, so if it is not cycled then I agree with her.

However, I have known plecos to take a while to recognise food and fresh veg. A common pleco I used to have and an L022 both took 2 weeks each to even attempt eating my courgette on a fork. Plecos require dedication and time from their owners

[JayZero911]

Coming from someone who "rescued" a Rubberlip from a vary unhealthy shop tank, if you keep up on WC's your pleco will be fine. Mine was in my 20g for about 3 months, and that tank never did cycle even with seeded media. He got to see some really high levels of ammonia but is just fine. That and he hit my 20g with Ich, and I totally spaced he was a "scaleless" fish and came close to killing him with meds (he thankfully recovered). Even the tank he is in is just doing a mini cycle, but I have made it a daily chore to do WC's in all my tanks (cycled or not).

Anyway about feeding. I had him and another RL in my QT tank for a week before they ate anything. One ended up dieing in QT, they both had bad ammonia burns when I got them. After that tho the other little guy would not leave the zucchini alone and would hollow a good sized peace out overnight. He was only about 2" and the food was bigger than him. So it will take time for him to eat, and when he dose he will gorge himself. My little guy doesn't eat like that anymore, so I figure he was just really really hungry by then.

[Cliff]

You can always find execptions out there. I know, I have personally run across a few of them.

I would suggest re-homing your pleco untill the tank is cycled. That would be in the best interests of the fish, IMO

[Goes to 11!]

I would sugges re-homing you pleco untill the tank is cycled. That would be in the best interests of the fish, IMO

+

[JayZero911]

Well if we are dodging the original eating question and focusing on the fish in his tank that need re-homed. Rubberlip and cory need re-homed cuz the tank is not cycled, and the neons need re-homed.... or the Tiger Barbs and Rainbow Shark for aggressive reasons. Good luck, but I hope you do get your pleco to eat.

[Cliff]

Posts 2 and 4 did cover some good ideas on feeding plecos

I beleave the other posts were trying to add some additional assistance to help the OP avoid some potential problems down the road

[Goes to 11!]

And also...

This has been covered in another thread, His tap water reads 2ppm ammonia, It's an uncycled tank and he was informed that getting more fish was a bad idea.

We are not dodging the OP - We are reinforcing previous info already given.