Naughty pleco, should I be concerned?

[rcjubei]

Woke up during the middle of the night to get a glass of water, the lights in the house where all off, I decided to feed my pleco with a algae wafer when to my surprise I saw him on the tail of my 7" discus? The discus was at the bottom of the tank in between some plants resting and the common pleco was latched on to his tail? I would say the pleco is about 5" in size. I have never seen any behavior like this from the pleco. The discus is healthy with no marks on body after taking a closer look. I tested water parameters just to be safe and all appears well.

It was as though the discus wasn't even putting up a fight, just letting him suck on his body? Should the two be separated or is this something that just occurs, has anyone ever had a similar incident occur?

Now that I think about it, earlier during dinner I was watching my pleco kind of chase the larger of the two discus around?

 

[BrianNY]

The pleco should be removed. Discus produce a very heavy slime coat which will attract fish like the common pleco. A safer pleco would be any species of Ancistrus.

 

[Springcheeks]

I agree with Brian, one a fish gets into this habit you can not get them out of it.
Naughty plec!

 

[thatonegirl]

I read somewhere that plecos see discus as big swimming dinner plates. I used to have a pleco that would do that to my goldfish. I just took him back to the store and got a snail for the tank instead.

 

[Menagerie]

Yum! Slime coat!! The same thing has also been well documented between some plecos and goldfish.

 

[rcjubei]

Thanks all for the replies, the pleco is in a bag and off to the local fish store. I'm going to miss him, he was the hardest working fish in the tank beside my SAE.

 

[Mussa888]

I'm glad I'm not crazy. Over the past few months I too have looked into my tank at night and found my Pleco eating the remains of a fish or too, and all of my shrimp. I could never know if the fish died on it's own or something helped it along. I have lost 2 hatchet fish, 1 glo-light danio, 1 neon, 2 large shrimp, and I think that's it. I've nick named him KILLER. Is this normal behavior for Plecos or not!? I'm not sure what kind he is, but he's bright orange with pink eyes.

 

[Menagerie]

Sounds like an albino pleco of sorts. Some members have reported KILLER plecos, but from what I have seen, plecos usually finish a fish off if it's on the bottom.

 

[Guest]

thats why people always say not to put plecos in a goldfish tank or pond because they produce a very "tasty" slime coat and they will eat it and kill the fish