My Pleco stopped working

[lilfishy]

he won't clean up the algae anymore and the tank glass is getting green. Plus he is bothering my dwarf frog and sucking on him instead. Is this normal behavior or is something up?

 

[lilfishy]

oops

I just saw the discussion board for bottom feeders. Sorry if this is in the wrong place.

 

[catfishmike]

well i fixed the missplaced thread and yes these are normal behaviours for a pleco.this usualy takes place with common plecos and not the more exotic plecos.the common pleco(hypostumus plecostomus)is not a great algae eater and has been known to bother other fish fom time to time.if you really need an algae eating fish try otto's a dwarf pleco of sorts.much better algae eater than the common pleco.odds are though the algae you have is unappealing to algae eaters.most algae eating fish like only one or two kinds of algae.also some algae isn't algae at all instead its a form of bacteria and is not eaten by fish

 

[Angelfish]

Your pleco sounds perfectly normal, when I had mine he ate shrimp pellets and I NEVER saw him eating algae. He also used to go and suck on my pictus cat like yours does to the frog. Like catfishmike said, if you are wanting an algae eating fish try ottos. (SAE's are also great but some can get agressive).

 

[dana307]

funny behavior. I didn't know this about pl*cos. Mine hide most of the day and then work on the glass at night.

 

[lilfishy]

I got two otto's today

they are a lot smaller than I thought. They seemed to go right to work. Do they eat the algea disks and excess food too or just the algea?

 

[catfishmike]

yea they'll eat algae disks so much so that you should be sure that they can't eat too much.sometimes mine will scavenge for excess food but don't count on it.remember the best tank cleaner is you.get that gravel vac and syphn out excess food

 

[lilfishy]

Well

I was a little concerned they wouldn't have enough food right now cause I really cleaned the tank, and plants (plastic) and gravel and did a 50% water change. I cleaned out the filter tubes too, but don't worry, not the bacteria pad. I just don't want to starve them accidentally cause I removed the algea or something.

 

[wayne]

Catfish - an awful lot of plecs sold as common plecs aren't Hypostomus plec. but Liposarcus sp. - maybe radians. What's the difference - dorsal ray count, 7 or 8 on Hypostomus, about 14 on Liposarcus. Apart from that, they're both big, misused as algae eaters and are much the same.