Pleco lonely?

[Scottw68TN]

I just moved a pleco out of my main tank as the 2 guys where getting big and needed to thin it out a bit to make room for some growing fry. Now remaining plec is cruising around the tank, a behaviour not yet seen in him till now. Is he heir apparent to the tank or looking for a friend?

 

[ferret]

If it is a common pleco, I've always heard that they do not particularily take kindly to their own kind. If he's been moved to a smaller tank, he may just be restless or searching for food because the tank isn't as built up with algea and such.

I've recently had to move an 8in common pleco from a 75 gallon to a 20L temporary tank while cleaning it (See the unhealthy fish forum...an on going battle against ammonia). He was extremely restless for a while, searching the sides of the tank.

After a few hours he finally settled down. I knew there was nothing in the tank for him to eat so I dropped a small slice of cucumber in for him to eat. He latched on to it and has behaved more normally.

What size tanks are you talking about? If you're worried about fish getting big, the pleco might be the one you really need to worry about.

 

[Scottw68TN]

Actually I'm referring to the common plec I left in the main tank 75gallons. The moved plec was a grumpy fish anyway and nothing seems to have changed with him.

 

[Scottw68TN]

Yes they are pretty solitary but just seemed wierd to me the other seemed to be searching. And yes they get big I will probably trade him out when he hits 8 inches maybe more.

 

[ferret]

My mistake. Maybe he's happy and exploring all his new territory Just a thought. If the other was 'grumpy' and territory, that might be the case. My common plecs (Both 8-9 inches, in a 75 and 90 gallon tanks) are fairly active. They will sit for long periods of time, and then have active spurts where they seem to check over the whole tank for food.

 

[TankGirl]

I think there were subtle territory boundaries expressed by each pleco, and now the remaining one needs to cruise around and determine the extent of his domain! He may do this for a week, then calm back down to normal.

 

[Scottw68TN]

Probably. Just strange they hung out together under some driftwood. Most of the day and te one in the tank had clear dominance over the other. if the lets say smaller one (not much there both about 6 inches) was eating a wafer the bigger one would just show up and it would yeild its wafer no questions asked. No fighting just a definate respect for authority.