L444 Feeding Care

[Kiara1125]

Hello all, I got a striped bulldog pleco from my friend a week ago. He's already eaten all the algae in my tank and I want to feed him other things. I'm concerned because he hides behind the filter all day (I expected he'd do that), but he doesn't eat anything. He just sticks to the glass and scoots around a bit. I'm wondering what vegetables he can eat without my 3 goldfish attacking the food. Also, where should I put it? I'm thinking about trying the egg white method and leaving the lights off with no way for him to see me. He still darts away when I try to peer at him. I've tried cultivating algae in the past, but that didn't work too well. Any advice?

[tagamasid1023]

Its is not unusual for a Chaetostoma to behave like that, considering that it is newly introduced in your tank. The fact that it ate all the algae in your tank, suggests that it does come out to feed at night. Continue to offer variety of servings such as tablets and veggies. Just drop them in different places across the tank, this will ensure that food is not concertrated in a specific area. But don't overfeed.
Chaetostoma like fast flowing waters and stone furnitures. Try to mimic an environment suitable for them. The Chaetostoma would be better of with other tankmates such as small tetras or barbs instead of the 3 goldfishes.

[Kiara1125]

Thanks! I moved him to my community so he can eat the algae in there. He's coming out in the daytime more and I put him in the community (biggest fish being a female betta) so he can possibly eat food that the others eat. He has a nice, round belly and I feed my community fish frozen foods (such as baby brine shrimp, daphnia and bloodworms), wafers, pellets, and vegies like peas. Might he get nutrition from these as well as algae?