Sad day for my Pl*co

[JeffNebraska]

I have had a beautiful clown pl*co for about five months. Every now and then, he managed to get himself stuck in the hairnets I use to hold one of my grassy plants to buried stones in my gravel. The stones and the nets are totally under the gravel surface. I had freed him from these nets about five times. But my tank is so densely planted now, I was getting used to not seeing my pl*co for days at a time.

Last night, I decided to make a concerted search and found him dead in one of the hairnets. It was a real shame.

Anyone else experienced this? Should I yank out all these hairs nets and the grass living on them? This is the technique they use at my LFS, and they told me they've never had a problem. Can I get another pl*co?

 

[lmw80]

Oh my, that is terrible news. I know that people use rocks and driftwood as a base for grasses and mosses. I believe it is tied down with fishing wire, which would, indeed be better than nets. I would suggest to either leave the nets and not invest in another pleco, or remove the nets and invest in another pleco. I wouldn't experiment any more with plecos and nets, even if the nets are under the gravel.

 

[William]

Everyone makes mistakes, And I know its a pain to do something that major if you don't have to..

But you really should have replaced the nets with an alternate means after the second time he got stuck..

 

[lmw80]

On a second note, and a different angle to the situtation:

I know you said you had a densly planted tank, which is a good habitat for plecos. However, did you have anything...a cave, a pot...anything that your pleco could hide in? They love hiding, and when he got caught in the net, he may have been burrowing to have a place to hide. If you do take out the nets and invest in another pleco, make sure you add a spot for him to "get away from it all" lol.

 

[Guest]

Sad, but we live and learn. I use hairnets also, but then wrap the wood or rock with fishing line (nylon monofilament, not "wire"). this keeps everything really tight, no bits of net to get caught in.

However I have no plecos, so have not had a problem. I know they are pretty spiny and such, I'd bet anything it was a spiny area that got caught.

I do agree that they really do like pots or caves to hide in also.

 

[talenzmeier]

RIP

Sorry to hear that! I suppose it's not strange when we feel sad at the loss of a fish. I know it bothers me every time it happens! I want them all to live!

 

[JeffNebraska]

Thanks for the kind words. You're probably right William, and that's part of why I feel so lousy about this turn of events.

To answer the questions, I do have a large cave-like piece of driftwood where my cories spend all their time and my pl*co liked to hang out there.

It wasn't his spines that got caught. Strangely, he always found a way to work his way into the mesh with his whole body. I have never seen either my Cories or my ottos caught at all, but he must have loved to suck on those stones.

I'd like to switch to something like fishing line, but I'm not sure that it would hold the individual strands of grass down. Maybe I could get a single long, thin, flat stone, put all the grass on there and wrap it with fishing line. This would probably look better, as well as make me feel like I could get another pl*co.