plecos and air?

[tropicfishman]

ok I heard that catfish can breathe air and live for a long time like this, since the pleco is in the catfish family, can it breathe air liek a normal catfish?

[Jchillin]

I don't know exactly why but it is common for large pleco's to run to the surface and scarf up a bit of the O2. They are not like labryinth's in the air breathing department though.

[Jaybird]

I've never seen my pleco do that, but I have seen my cories do that from time to time. They just shoot to the surface and then dive back down to the bottom.

[tropicfishman]

I hada pretty big pleco yearts ago, around a 12 in ches I'd say, he never did skim the surface for me, but the day I gave the tank to my cousin he starts skimming the surface lol

[fish_4_all]

My BN do it all the time. My smaller female like to "climb" into the filter outflow of my AC at times and sits there for an hour or so at times.

[QTOFFER]

I khow that corys can absorb O2 directly from swallowed air in the gut. I'm not sure if this trick extends to plecos too. I've never seen my BN plec go to the surface.