Goldfish in Distress??

[Bollyeyes]

Hello all. I’m new here so hope this is the right place to post 🙂. I’m no expert with fish keeping but several years ago I had a very well established koi pond. 8 year ago my MIL kindly brought my kids a goldfish in a bowl 😱. Obviously I ended up buying a tank and having no idea about fish keeping except what I knew about ponds. Fast forward and I now have a 120litre fish tank with a few shrimp 3 minnows and the original goldfish. Because of the tank upgrade another family member gifted the kids a baby plec. I know they get huge and it isn’t something I would have ever bought.
My goldfish has always pecked at the bottom and as I like to call it pebble dashes the rest of the fish with pebble bombs. Tbh he is a bit of a menace and railroads anything in his way 😂. I noticed the plec as it got a little bigger would fly out it’s log towards the goldfish but nothing really happened. He’s now bigger and I’m noticing he’s chasing the goldfish around the tank. Over the last week I’ve noticed that my goldfish behaviour has completely changed. He no longer pecks at the ground and is constantly swimming into the filter and I mean constantly. He doesn’t move from there. At feeding time the plec will always end up chasing the goldfish and seems to try to suck him. I’ve read they do like the slime on goldfish. Again I’m a complete newbie and not really sure what I can do? And advice would be really appreciated xx

[Aiken Drum]

Seperate the pleco from the goldfish. You are right that plecos get a taste for slimecoat as they older and their dietary needs change. Goldfish are often easy targets. I dont see this ending well if you keep them together.

[Bollyeyes]

Originally Posted by Aiken Drum

Seperate the pleco from the goldfish. You are right that plecos get a taste for slimecoat as they older and their dietary needs change. Goldfish are often easy targets. I dont see this ending well if you keep them together.

Thanks for your reply. I was hoping it was something I was doing wrong as I would need to rehome the plec 😞. Any idea why the goldfish is constantly swimming at the filter? I would think food but he’s only started to do this since the aggressive behaviour xx

[Aiken Drum]

Originally Posted by Bollyeyes

Thanks for your reply. I was hoping it was something I was doing wrong as I would need to rehome the plec 😞. Any idea why the goldfish is constantly swimming at the filter? I would think food but he’s only started to do this since the aggressive behaviour xx

Stress. Fish get weird when they are suffering from stress. It probably makes some kind of sense to the fish, but to us its odd behaviour.

Maybe its recognising fresher water exiting the filter and is trying to get to wherever that fresher water is and away from the pleco? Fish dont know that there is nothing for them to live in outside of the tank. Thats why they often jump out of the tank when they are living in poor water quality. They are looking for cleaner water.

[Autumnsky]

What are the water parameters?

Ammonia
Nitrite
Nitrate

pH

water temp

Any other details
KH /GH
TDS

Agree the GF is likely getting attacked by the Pleco.

Make sure to check the water quality and also maybe just do a couple extra water changes after the Pleco is removed, to reduce it's presence in the tank, maybe they have pheromones which the GF might be able to detect, and make the water as fresh and new as that might also reduce any ammonia or what have you which could also increase the fishes stress reaction.