the pleco doesnt do anything but sit around and ive never seen any sign of him trying to feed on the gars slime. but i def. see where youre going w/ that. and as for the water changes i have no regular schedule but id say i maybe do a 25 percent water change once a week. sometimes more somtimes less. since ive posted this hes been very mellow and normal. hes just been laying for a while then cruising around the tank. still no sign of feeding though.
gar going crazy
- Thread starter demjor19
- Start date
Is your tank all the way full?? Oddball helped me out with the filling of my 250 by informing me of something I had over looked until just recently..
My Gar did this in my 150 all the time.. But when i moved to the 110 because the 150 blew a seal.. He stopped !!!.. Ya well til oddball filled me in on a key piece of info..that GARs are air breathers
And I did not have this problem in my 110.. But the water never was full... And there was plenty of space to get his nostrals out of the water
So how much space do you have between your glass tops and the water ?
Just a thought
Oh ya.. My 150 was topped off almost all the time
So no room for my gar to breath and he would freak out...
My Gar did this in my 150 all the time.. But when i moved to the 110 because the 150 blew a seal.. He stopped !!!.. Ya well til oddball filled me in on a key piece of info..that GARs are air breathers
And I did not have this problem in my 110.. But the water never was full... And there was plenty of space to get his nostrals out of the water So how much space do you have between your glass tops and the water ?
Just a thought
Oh ya.. My 150 was topped off almost all the time
So no room for my gar to breath and he would freak out...he does have plenty of air to breathe. after i got him i did some research and saw that they do need atmospheric air to breathe. its kinda fun to watch them gulp when they breathe. but im pretty sure thats not the problem w/ this fish. you guys are bringing up some great points but nothing so far seems to fit into this puzzle. please keep the ideas comming! i want to try and figure this out before the fish hurts himself. the one thing i have been noticing is that when he does this it is probably 90 percent of the time in the same location. their isnt really anything in the area. the closest thing would be my heater and filter but i have already tried unplugging them. i have also tried placing some of my aquarium plants in front of the area where he does this, thinking maybe it would deter him from doing this but he just moves them out of the way.
plecos do not eat slime coatings, they do sometimes attach themselves to fish with a wide flat body such as a discus, but not to feed off of it. A pleco ideally wants to eat algea off of a piece of wood (the cellulose in the wood aids their digestion). What kind of cray did you add? Its not a predatory species is it? I dont know what species of crays you get there but all our crays will eat fish. If it was an electrical short Id assume it would effect all the tank inhabitants not just one (aswell as you when you put your hand in there). If it keeps doing this it does have the potential to do damage to its face, consider giving the fish a place to hide, if you havnt allready done so, such as a piece of wood. This will give it a place to relax. Maybe its just getting a fright and is trying to escape, observe it from outside a window and see if it does it when you arent staring at it, then come into the room and see if it starts up again. You might have to repeat this more than once because it might not do what it normally does the first time for some reason. This doesnt seem likely but try anyway you never know.
piscevore;634125; said:
Ummmm... no you are absolutly wrong here, some Plecos (Including the most common ones in the hobby when young) will and do feed on the mucus of other fish if it is easily available. They are not hanging on the side of that discus because it is fun....Think for a second about what Discus fry feed on first before they move on to other foods.....Mucus feeding is very common in juvenile and subadult plecos. Mucus in many fish is very high in protein as well as amino acids and compounds that are an excellent subtitute for hard to find invertebrate food materials in sparse ecosystems. Aquariums are very much sparse ecosystems and these fish will quickly take to other sources of food. Gars and other ganoid fish produce a very thick and rich mucus layer and frequently pleco go right for it.
Giving a gar a place to hide is kind of not really getting gars at all or even understanding them..Have you ever kept one?
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Ive kept 3 (Lepisoteus oculatus) and 3 Ctenolucius hujeta
I cannot agree with the notion that plecos are oppertunistic parisites. Yes they do attach themselves to fish, but not as a parisite. The only time they do this behaviour is when there isnt any of its natural food (algea) available, so it has to get food from somewhere. From your (Polypterus) prior post I got the impression that you were saying that its a normal part of a plecos everyday life to eat fishes mucus coating when in reality its just something that a pleco does when it has no choice, much the same as herbivorous fish eat blood worms, coz they have no choice. Feed your pleco sinking algea wafers and you wont have this problem. These Fish are not a natural parisite but when times get tough they have to survive somehow. I have never heard of it happening to any fish that did not have a flat surface for the fish to attach itself to, so I dont think a gar is susceptible. In my experience (tending to a 100 or so plecos so far) Ive only ever had one case of a pleco doing damage to another fish in such a manner (it was a knife by the way). Thanks for picking me up on my previous mistake though Polypterus, its appreciated. I just answered the question without thinking the answer through enough.
Every fish enjoys a place where it can go to relax, including gars. The three that I kept would often lay on the ground behind plants/objects. If the fish is getting a fright each time someone walks past the tank then giving it a place to stay unseen will help it to relax. I suggested a piece of wood because the pleco will more than likely eat the plants.
Hope this clears up what I was getting at, I admit that I made a mistake and thank you once more for picking up on it and bringing it to my attention
Cheers
I cannot agree with the notion that plecos are oppertunistic parisites. Yes they do attach themselves to fish, but not as a parisite. The only time they do this behaviour is when there isnt any of its natural food (algea) available, so it has to get food from somewhere. From your (Polypterus) prior post I got the impression that you were saying that its a normal part of a plecos everyday life to eat fishes mucus coating when in reality its just something that a pleco does when it has no choice, much the same as herbivorous fish eat blood worms, coz they have no choice. Feed your pleco sinking algea wafers and you wont have this problem. These Fish are not a natural parisite but when times get tough they have to survive somehow. I have never heard of it happening to any fish that did not have a flat surface for the fish to attach itself to, so I dont think a gar is susceptible. In my experience (tending to a 100 or so plecos so far) Ive only ever had one case of a pleco doing damage to another fish in such a manner (it was a knife by the way). Thanks for picking me up on my previous mistake though Polypterus, its appreciated. I just answered the question without thinking the answer through enough.
Every fish enjoys a place where it can go to relax, including gars. The three that I kept would often lay on the ground behind plants/objects. If the fish is getting a fright each time someone walks past the tank then giving it a place to stay unseen will help it to relax. I suggested a piece of wood because the pleco will more than likely eat the plants.
Hope this clears up what I was getting at, I admit that I made a mistake and thank you once more for picking up on it and bringing it to my attention
Cheers
RedDevilDon2005;634164; said:
what are you tank parameters, not just ph and temp?
im not exactly sure what other perameters you are talking about. and as for a hiding place sometimes he does hide in the plants but he will do this at night w/ all the lights out and no one in the room. and also keep in mind he was fine for the first three weeks and recently started this. im also pretty sure the pleco plays no part in this because hes never bugged the gar at all. the crayfish is a predatory cray but has never harmed the gar. they will both be in the same area on the bottom of the tank and they wont pay any attention to one another. but i do keep a close eye on that situation. im still very confused. his eating habbits are also very effected by this. he has eaten very little since this started.
