Pleco stuck to hob intake

[Meredith]

My bristlenose wont leave the filter intake thingy alone. I have shooed him off of it twice today, and I noticed he is back on again. The suction isn't super strong but it is sucking. Will this damage him at all?

 

[QTOFFER]

My two little ancistrus plecs do this all the time. There's probably some algae growing on the filter intake which is attracting the BN. Or, perhaps the water current just feels good. I don't think it will harm him at all.

 

[thanew]

hrm, mine hides right behind the intake, well both of them.. I dunno, maybe they like the suction ? I havent noticed any damage on my pleco at all, atleast that wasnt caused by them growing (the ripping of the fins)

 

[Meredith]

ok. Thanks.

 

[Guest]

i have an 8 inch common plec in my 55 gallon tank, and sometimes i will hear the water splashing.. he really likes to jump outta the water where the hob filter is, and let his face suck on the area where the water is flowing out of the filter, where it goes into the tank. He doesn't have enough room to jump completely out of the tank, but he must like the current or something. In my 29 gallon tank i have 3 albino bristlenose plecs, and one day i took the filter out because i was going to replace it, and i must have forgotten about it. The next day i'm lookin all over my tank for my 3 lil albino babies and can only find 2 of em. When i finally unplugged the hob filter to clean it so i could put my filter back in, i found the 3rd one grazing on algae or whatever it was that was in my filter. I've never really had a problem with them attaching themselves to the intake tho... Only once did that ever happen, but that was because the cucumber i fed them decided to break away from the veggie clip and get stuck on the filter intake. It musta taken pleco and all with it, cuz the pleco was still attached to the cucumber eating away while the cucumber was stuck to the filter intake..

 

[Froggybaby]

I'm glad to hear I'm not the only one with a pleco that has a filter fixation. I haven't noticed it really doing him any harm, I just panic a bit when I check in on my tank and can't find him at first. The filter isn't strong, so I'm pretty sure it isn't hurting him. I guess they just like the feel of the filter pull.
But here's an adjoining question: will it harm the filter at all?

 

[McLumpy]

But here's an adjoining question: will it harm the filter at all?

I would think that as long as the Pleco isn't wrapped completely around the intake holes, (blocking any water from being sucked in), your filter should be fine.

 

[gkuzel]

Plecos are fascinating. Sometimes I catch mine jumping out and grabbing on the the out flow of my filter, just to catch some algae. I don't think it's a problem. Less we have to clean!