Psycho Pleco!

[kjmillerfw]

Well, I had an interesting night...I was awakened by stange loud popping like sounds. When I got up to investigate, I was horrified!!! I turned on the light to the tank and one discus was laying horizontal at the top of the tank and the other two were cramming themselves in the corner on the opposite side. All seemed to be disoriented. I believe the popping sound was the fish at the surface slapping on top of the water. I think she was trying to jump out of the tank!!!

The culprit was my pleco who has always been quite docile and rarely ever unhooks himself from the base of my sponge filter. He was darting all over then tank and I'm quite sure INTO the discus. Only reason I have him is he was in the tank with my discus when I bought them from a breeder and they all seems to be aclimated to each other so I purchased the whole bunch.

It's amazing how fast you can wake up from a sound sleep when you see a sight like this! :o

Good news is, everyone is fine this morning. Not sure what happened to the one that was on it's side and at the surface but she recovered quickly once I got the pleco out. Can fish get the wind knocked outta them? All of the fish have marks on their sides today but none that broke through their scales so I don't think it's too serious.

I'm sure that bratty pleco will enjoy the pond in my back yard >:(

I'm still at a loss as to what might have triggered this behavior. Has anybody else had an experience like this?

[Anonapersona]

What do you feed the pleco? Was he hungry?

[kjmillerfw]

He gets fed all day long along with the rest of the fish.

Yesterday he started out his day with some yummy CBW's, then some tasty little tetra bits, then for lunch a nice beefheart mixture, then a formula one flake snack late afternoon with another helping of CBW's late evening.

These fish eat better than I do so I don't think hunger would be the issue. I did just finish up a tetra-bit/panacur followup treatment a couple days ago, so maybe that's it...but I doubt it.

[Paulio]

I did just finish up a tetra-bit/panacur followup treatment a couple days ago, so maybe that's it...but I doubt it.


That is probably it. I have had Pleco respond very poorly to Panacur. Metro and Prazi never seemed to bother them at all but Panacur makes them goofy. I had one that had protrusions from its mouth and anus after a Panacur treatment! That was the last time I used it on them.

Paul

[kjmillerfw]

Maybe the panacur is the cause because "goofy" would definitely describe the way it was acting when I turned on the light. It was wildly darting back and forth across the tank and I can only imagine how it was acting before I got there to cause so much turmoil. I didn't notice any behavior like this during the initial treatment, but maybe it was there and I just didn't see it.

Is there a benefit of keeping a pleco in the tank? I'm not sure I could trust him not to do this again. Right now he's in a new tank that I've just about got cylcled but I had planned on putting him in the Koi pond in the backyard tonight. I have two clown loaches in the original that I consider the "clean-up crew" so I'm not sure the pleco is really a benefit.