Plecos have one of those reputations in the fish tank world for eating, well, everything. The armor plated catfish will eat carrots, zucchini, and even wood.
It should come as no surprise then that plecos can and will eat lettuce. However, you should only feed them certain kinds of lettuce and you must ensure that the lettuce sinks to the bottom of the tank.
What Type of Lettuce to Feed Plecos?
I recommend only feeding plecos certain types of lettuce. Basically, you should avoid feeding them lettuce that has no nutritional value like iceberg lettuce.
Iceberg lettuce can actually hurt plecos more than it helps them because it has some chemicals that cause metabolic problems for plecos.
Romanian hearts is the type of lettuce I recommend that you feed plecos. You should probably avoid it if possible, though.
You will find that plecos greatly prefer zucchini or carrots over lettuce. It’s also much easier to feed them other types of vegetables than lettuce in my experience.
How To Feed Plecos Lettuce?
Preparing lettuce for your fish is not difficult. Of course, you should wash the lettuce to wipe off any dirt, poop, or residual pesticides on it.
You definitely don’t want that stuff in your aquarium.
The next step is to figure out a way to make it sink to the bottom. My recommendation is a simple one.
Put the lettuce under a rock.
This will keep the lettuce at the bottom of the tank. You can then easily take off the parts that the plecos can’t or won’t eat after a day.
Other methods might be tying it to the bottom or stabbing it with a fork and dropping it to the bottom.
Those are both needlessly complicated in my opinion. Just put the lettuce on the bottom and drop a rock on it – it’s so much easier.
Conclusion
To summarize, plecos can eat lettuce as long as it’s on the bottom of the fish tank. They can and will eat all types of lettuce, but you are best of using Romanian lettuce or some type of lettuce that has some nutritional value. I recommend avoiding the lettuce with no nutritional value like iceberg lettuce.