My poor pleco seems to be kind of a pushover when it comes to its meal.

I am dropping in one algae disc per night rather than a half of one since the cories love the things. Unfortunately, they love them so much that the pleco seems to be missing out.

I have tried distracting them with shrimp pellets, but that didn't work.

Admittedly, I don't think the pleco is in any danger of starving to death, but still, I would prefer to find some way to ensure it gets the full nutritional requirement.

Any suggestions?

how many cories do you have? first you put the shrimp pellets in for the cories and then you put in an algae disc for the pleco, the cories wont eat as much of the disc. i do the same thing for my frog. i used to put the frogs frozen worms in and the fish food in at the same time, the fish at all the worms. now i feed the fish than i feed the frog. works very well.

I have two cories, but I plan to get a third as well.

As I said, I have tried distracting them with the shrimp pellets. They don't seem to like them as much as the algae wafer and go for that first, and like I say, my pleco is pretty lazy and doesn't break any speed records going out to find its dinner.

no, you feed the guppies and put in shrimp pellets, than like an hour later, put in the discs.

Have you tried putting in the algae wafers at night after the lights are out? Cories are mostly active and dawn and dusk (crepuscular) and may still try to feed after the lights are out. My panda cories would spawn right after lights out but a few hours later, they'd "go to bed." That would be when you could try the food for the pleco who is active at night.

yes, thats another option. matt do you have albino cories? you probably know that if you want another one you will need to get another albino. cories only school with there own species. i had an albino and then got 2 bronze cories and they never schooled. and the albino is actually an albino version of the bronze cory.

or you could seperate them and put the cories in another tank.

no, there is an easy solution for this, Robyn and i have both used these methods and they work.

To answer the various questions:

1. Are they albino cories: Yes. And yes, as I said previously I am getting a third one for them as soon as they restock.

2. Have you tried a staggered feeding schedule: Here is how my feeding works:

a. When I get up I turn on the lights and then I give the guppies a dose of flakes, I drop in a few shrimp pellets for the cories, and I tend to the fry with a dose of liquifry and some crushed flakes. I also use a little of the fry bites since 10 of them are now big enough for that.

b. When I get home from work (Usually about 3 PM) I do pretty much exactly the same thing, except I don't do another dose of liquifry. This meal will be replaced with a feeding of brine shrimp if they are done.

c. About an hour before I go to bed (Usually about 9 pm) exactly the same as morning. Sometimes I replace this one with brine shrimp if they weren't done in time for the after work feeding.

d. When I go to bed (Generally around 10-11 pm) I turn out the lights and drop in an algae wafer for the pleco. Of course, the cories go for it as I mentioned.


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The cories don't seem to care that they have already had a generous helping of shrimp pellets, leftover flakes, and even possibly brine shrimp. They just attack that algae wafer like it was the best thing in the world.

I don't really understand it. Maybe the cories have some sort of nutrient deficiency and they will eventually adapt.

Cories are very active for the first few hours after the lights go out. My aquarium lights are only on from 7 am to 6 pm so by 10 pm when I go to bed, the tanks have been dark long enough that most fish except the pleco are asleep. You can continue what you're doing as long as the algae wafer(s) you add are enough to please both the cories and pleco.

if that doesnt work you could put 1.5 algae wafers in, but that is a last resort, because overfeeding is bad.