My plec refuses veggies

[Loser]

I added a common plec and a few other bottom feeding fish to my aquarium in October last year. All is well but the plec refuses veggies. He totally ignores them, I have looked up everything. I've tried blanching his food with garlic and all sorts of veg such as leafy greens, broccoli and cucumber, "he" just ignores it. I have ordered frozen veg for him now. He eats bloodworms and shrimps, algae wafers (with courgette and shrimp) and some sinking pellets but vegetables do not interest him. What will this do to his health? Do you know what I can do to encourage him? I leave all of his veg near his cave but he swims past it and goes for his algae wafers instead
I usually keep the veg in for 3/4 hours, once I even left it in over night and still had no results! Any advice would be appreciated.
Thanks!

[black ghost]

Maybe it’s getting enough of the other foods? They’ll always prefer the tastier higher protein stuff. Having said that, they’ll usually eat both...

[plankton]

It may be worth leaving the veg in for two days, I do for my bristlenoses. He/she may then realise it's food......
It won't be a problem if he's ok, but it would be nice to know he's getting extra vitamins and minerals from the veg.
With the BNs, courgette seems to be favourite and will last two days in the water, cucumber tends to go soggy after a day, so I understand you taking that out.

[Ric]

Perhaps he prefers soft food, i.e. blanched leaves of spinach or even salad, which makes them almost mushy. When I had a common pleco (in my youth) he loved salad leaves.

[Loser]

Thank you all, I have thought about leaving food in for longer but after an ammonia spike I always get paranoid. Will try with the leaves and update you all though. Hopefully the frozen veg I ordered will work too!

[MattHunt]

Some years I rescued a common pleco, whom I named Fenton.

He spent several weeks refusing veggies and then one day the penny dropped and he was happily set about cucumber, courgette and sweet potato (blanched only - fussy creature). For some time I thought he just had shares in Sainsburys.