# Ugh, jeez, pleco poop



## Zoe

:chair: 
Why didn't anyone warn me that a pleco poop constantly? Yeesh. 
That looks just smashing on my nice white sand :-x 

Do _all_ plecos make that much waste? I grow tiresome of vacuuming the sand every day.


----------



## Puffer Pita

Yes, plecos are very well known for being huge poop machines with a very high bioload because of that.


----------



## dolifisis

You didn't know about pleco poop?  I've only been here a few weeks and have already seen the warnings!


----------



## Zoe

Well, I knew they produced a lot of waste... I just wasn't prepared for the reality of it... on my white sand...


----------



## joe kool

I use sand as well zoe, if you have a gravle vac you can do what I do every couple days or so. start your siphon adn then pinch off the flow of the hose by folding it on itself. Now you can ease the pinch to let it flow enough to pick the waste off the sand and stir the sand a little but now suck the sand out of the tank  

I'm almost afraid to mention it but I've found that the brushynose I have don't have the long stringy poop that wraps all over the place but that may be becouse of their diet. I do know that for a couple days after their zuccini theres' a bit more waste than normal so I make sure to "treat" them a few days before water change. The rubber nose one seem to produce a lot less of that sort of thing also. The "common" pleco is a poop factory and I think they think they are "TPing" (toilet papering) the tank at night (it is gettin close to holloween you know :lol


----------



## Puffer Pita

All five of my bristlenose plecos almost always have poop kites. They poop a great deal. They eat algae pellets and algae from the tank, along with driftwood. Only occasionally do they get real veggies.


----------



## Guest

This thread is so funny...discussing pleco poop. I only have 1 bristlenose and with my dark substrate (Eco Complete) I rarely see his poop strings. I see them on my driftwood at times (because that is where he lives), but unless I go looking for them on the eco, they are pretty hidden.

Sorry you have to look at the poop on your sand. I know that would drive me crazy.  Maybe try the trick Joe Kool mentioned twice a week or so and see if that helps. It means more work though! A BNs cuteness makes up for the poop strings IMO!


----------



## Zoe

lol, i know!

I just had to express my disgust with the whole situation.

But he is just too cute. So he can stay. Personally, I love cleaning my tanks, so it's no problem for me to tidy every few days


----------



## joe kool

I use the eco-complete as well ... I really like the size of it and the fact it doesn't have the "packing" problem some face with other sands. 


Boxermom
Maybe it's the constant supply of veggies that keeps mine "regular" :lol: their nicely shaped uuummmm ... if it can be nicely shaped :lol: any way it looks like little 1/2" pellets, I can take pic's if you want ROFLMAO :lol:


----------



## 207lauras

*Gross*

Never did I think that I would be using Google to look up "Plecostomus Poop" but here I am... These things should come with a warning....Does anyone know the best way to clean it up or should I just keep going along with my net and scooping it up ? Really though it is nasty, it wraps around the drift wood and plants like someone toilet papered my tank : P
ewww


----------



## 207lauras

*oh yeah...*

Has anyone ever heard of a pleco eating a smaller fish? We have a 10 gallon tank and as of a few days ago had 1 pleco and 4 glo-fish and 2 zebra danios. For some reason, we lost 2 glo-fish in a day. I scooped one out when I saw him and the other one (I assume is dead) because he has been MIA for about 2 days. I have sifted the gravel, shaken out the plants and checked the driftwood and still no fish...could the pleco have eaten it?


----------



## FlatLine

I've seen plecos munch on already dead fish... I've never seen them not leave remains though.


----------



## SueM

ROFL, figures FF would be on the top of Googles list for Pleco poop :lol:


----------



## lohachata

this old thread really is hilarious.what would the do if they really kept plecos...i have about 400..try suckin that up with your syphon hose....lol


----------



## 207lauras

that's A LOT of poo : P


----------



## darkstar

> what would the do if they really kept plecos...i have about 400


You have 400 plecs?..whihc kind?

I'm assuming they're not panaques which are *the real* crap machines...


----------



## lohachata

about half of them are juvenile common plecos.most of the other half are bushynose;both brown and albino..the commons are soon to be gone.and in the near future i will be selling a number of pairs of the bushynose.and have a bunch of young growing.should be ready for sale pretty soon.also have about 30 young L-66.i also have 7 males and 1 female;so i am looking for a bunch more females to help with breeding..
i also have L-333;L-136b;L-134 and some calico long fin bushynose...
i am hoping to move this spring so i can set up some more tanks;at which time i plan to add more species of plecos..


----------



## darkstar

Are you doing this in outside pool/pond? Woud love to see pictures if you have any online?

It's just too cold in this country to breed commons.


----------



## lohachata

common plecos are breeding like crazy down in florida.i am not breeding them..i just bought an egg cluster and hatched the eggs.kind of cool actually.
but i am breeding the bushynose and L-66 right now..and trying to get my L-134's going.sorry..no pics at the moment;especially since i an a horrible photographer.you could give me a $50,000 camera and i would take a crappy pic.and i even have a camera that has a mode for taking aquarium pics..i still get crappy pics..lol


----------



## <3~Pleco~<3

I clean my tank once a week, and every time I finish, I feel satisfied because my driftwood is looking all clean and spiffy.
Then I get up in the morning and it is covered in poop all over again! lol
My oh my, how I love my little guy.


----------



## WetChicken

Alright, I have to pipe up and I also find it funny that I got here on a pleco search from Google. heh heh
Mine likes to hide in the wood (after the Kribs IMMEDIATELY evicted him from another ornament) which is conveniently placed next to the intake for the filter. :fish:


----------



## SGT Z

Over the years my pleco has made many a dead fish disappear completely. I've never seen him attack a fish except in self defense.

I used to always see poop hanging from him, but it's been years since I've seen any poop come out of him. He's still alive after all this time, though, so I know he's eating. Maybe as they get bigger the poop falls out quicker or something.


----------

