Why does my pleco hover at the bottom?

[Jamesabbott418]

Y pleco just Huffers about 1/2 inch from the bottom and just stays there for hrs and sometimes he does it half way up the tank out in the open he just sets there no movement at all?

Is this normal,

Also he won't eat the waffers or any veggies i put into the tank, I just want him to be a happy fish

He's 4" long IV had him for a month
125 gal tank with less than 10 fish and 4" being the largest

All water test are perfect.

 

[J.Mcpeak]

Plecostomus are bottom feeders hiding usually under rocks, bog wood or in sand. That's what they do. Do a Web Search Loricariidae.
Unusual activity may indicate illness. Post a pic. Try to post one of the side and underside.

 

[Jamesabbott418]

Ok il post pics As soon as I can get them It hard to get a pic of him

 

[Plecostomus129]

Plecostomus are bottom feeders hiding usually under rocks, bog wood or in sand. That's what they do. Do a Web Search Loricariidae. Unusual activity may indicate illness. Post a pic. Try to post one of the side and underside.

Agreed +1. My pleco is always hiding, and he always tends to hide when people turn on lights. The species is very skittish, and will often hide when it senses danger.

 

[DeirdreHoyle]

My pleco didn't used to eat wafers or veggies at all but now he loves both of them. I think either a.) he didn't know what they were until he had seen them enough times or b.) he was sick from poor water quality because after I got the water parameters back to normal, he started eating cucumbers like no tomorrow! Have you checked your water?

 

[Jamesabbott418]

Yes water is perfect other than 40ppm on nitrate

 

[mistersprinkles]

Yes water is perfect other than 40ppm on nitrate

You need to do more frequent water changes.

 

[J.Mcpeak]

You need to do more frequent water changes.

Agreed, floating in the upper levels is unusual for species/family. Normally they are planted to something, side, bottom or decor.

Consider bacteria/parasite infection. New wild fish, common problem.

 

[Jamesabbott418]

I do water changes once a week 50% and one week last month I did 25% everyday for 5 days and I could not get my nitrates Lower than 40ppm am I doing something wrong would live plants help with nitrate? Or would adding something?
What about a uv light would that help?

 

[J.Mcpeak]

Uv will have no effect on nitrate as far as I know.

Do you gravel vac when you remove water?
The reason I ask,
When I had two plecostomus 46&36 cms. in an 860 litre tank, I had to do two changes per week, 200 & 100 litre. Most of that water was siphoned off of the gravel with a gravel vac. That's less than 50% no problems. Sometimes I needed to do more!
There were other fish in tank 11 clown loach and always 20+ Cory.

The filters were 2 FX5 fluvals which I did one every other week, so two cleans per month per filter, 4 cleans total. Complete strip down new wool etc.

What do you call a water change, some people consider just taking water out of the top to be sufficient.

This was copied from another post I made;-
Water change should be re-titled syphon-filter or gravel-vac to remove water and detritus from your system. Remove a clean bucket of water from the tank and use this to clean filter media, sponges etc. at this time check impeller and clean if necessary, replace filter wool with new clean material and replenish tank with new correctly acclimated water with the correct parameters.

So I suggest for one plecostomus,
Keep on vacuuming gravel to get most of the waste out, 125g with a plecostomus probably will need 3-5 buckets per clean, removed by vac. Twice per week, dividing week up. You may need two buckets of clean tank water per filter.

All the muck in filter and on tank bottom is causing the nitrates, my tank didn't have enough plants to remove all the nitrates, plecs eat plants. They are heavy waste producers.

How many of which type filter is fitted?

 

[Jamesabbott418]

Ok

When doing a water change I use a gravel vac and suck all gravel witch is pretty dang clean you can't hardly tell that anything is coming out of the gravel, this has only been true since I built my sump filter setup, before the sump the gravel water would be nasty looking.

Now as far as filter cleaning I only clean my xp3 once a month and the sump also, I only clean the filters monthly because of the bacteria spike after my tank stays cloudy for a couple weeks and looks terrible.

I have 1 xp3 filter and a 30 gallon sump filter setup complete with at this time; one gallon of k1 media in a air moving compartment, one gallon of bio balls and ceramic rings and charcoal, all layered between foam filters, with a 700 gal per hr pump
I plan to have more media put into this sump but at this time that's it

After getting my uv light I will clean my filters more often because the uv light will cut down the bacterial growth that clouds my tank

 

[J.Mcpeak]

The waste is collecting in the foam filters then, not in the gravel as I previously thought.
Rinse more regular in a bucket full of tank water, that should stop nitrate rising, if the waste isn't in the tank and it's now in the filter no amount of water changing will reduce it as the source of nitrate (the waste) is still present.

My previous post outlines 4 filter cleans in a month.

The only other option I can think of regarding water, it's already in the source water.
Test tap water, fill glass wait 24 hrs, run test.

Plecs need over average filter maintenance. They produce a lot of solid waste, a great deal more than any other fish I've kept.

The other option I outlined earlier, bacterial or parasitic disease.
New fish, wild caught, 99% chance it's infected with something.
Healthy wild fish are rare!

 

[Jamesabbott418]

My water source is 0 on all test the only issue is a low ph level but lately that has proven untrue my ph is spot on 7.0

I didn't think of rinsing my filter media in a bucket of TANK water I always used tap water, I will do that next time, as I will do more filter cleanings

Thanks for the help,

 

[J.Mcpeak]

My water source is 0 on all test the only issue is a low ph level but lately that has proven untrue my ph is spot on 7.0

I didn't think of rinsing my filter media in a bucket of TANK water I always used tap water, I will do that next time, as I will do more filter cleanings

Thanks for the help,

Chlorine kills bacteria, including the good ones!
That is what is causing bacterial blooms, leave the uv on the shelf! I've never used one. Save some cash for beer etc!

 

[J.Mcpeak]

Thanks for the help,

Thanks for the thanks, means a lot to me!

 

[Jamesabbott418]

Well I have well water so no chlorine here

Thanks

 

[J.Mcpeak]

Is it from a 100% natural source? Water courses can be diverted for treatment then fed back into the system. Some kind of treatment must have taken place to make the water safe from cholera etc.
Municipal supplies are usually controlled/treated by a water company. Addition of fluoride and chlorine and also sometimes chloramine and ammonia may also be added.

If it's 100% natural I assume you boil or treat the water to make it safe for consumption yourself.

 

[Jamesabbott418]

My water comes from a spring through a 400 ft deep well I live in the sticks lol so my water is all natural

 

[J.Mcpeak]

Forgive my inability to guess your location and well depth!

If the water is pure as you say it is, I assume you have tested it.
Pure water will be acidic, acid water past a certain pH will kill the bacteria in your filter.

See previous post regarding use of tank water, I see you have already noted this.

 

[Jamesabbott418]

Yea but hey thanks on your info, you have given me some good notes to go on