My Pleco is attacking my red-tail catfish

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jlb502

Feeder Fish
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Sep 28, 2006
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The title pretty much says it all. The red-tail is about five inches and the pleco is at least an inch, probably two inches, smaller. The red-tail is pretty banged up and his skin is sort of peeling off. The pleco attacks by just suckering the cat, and the cat doesn't really fight back beyond swimming away, though he's hardly even doing that anymore. It seems like it’s a territory thing, as the pleco has been in the tank longer, but still, the red-tail has been there for more than a month. I guess what I'm asking is
1) Is this at all normal?
2) Does anyone have any ideas about the outcome? Will the red-tail fight back?
3) Any advice

Since getting the red-tail, I've come to understand that even my 110 gallon tank won't be nearly substantial for the red-tail after about a year or two, and also that he'd probably eat all the other fish in the tank, and all these other reasons why its not the type of fish for the aquarium I have, but this is the one thing I never really expected to happen. Anyway, if anyone has any thoughts, please share. Thanks.
 
Well plecos have been notorious for sucking the slime coats off of fish, it is probably going for the injury, if the redtail survives and starts growing, I think he will surely be able to defend himself! You have to watch those plecos sometimes !
 
Thanks E. Now, at least I know what's going on. I threw some extra food in there in hopes of giving the pleco something else to focus on.
 
Your pleco has developed a taste for slime coat. I would seperate the two unless you want to wake up to a dead RTC. Territorial battles between plecos and other cats are done with odontodes (spikes that come from the side of the gills). Your pleco will continue to suck on the RTC until it is dead, or the pleco is dead. Seperation is your best bet.
 
i would not worry about the rtc they grow real fast and their skin starts to shed and peel i think the pleco is eating that and the rtc is welcoming him to do it. The rtc will eat eat a 1 " pleco at any moment its on borrowed time along with your other fish.
 
yea i heard about rtc's shedding skin-dunno if its a good thing though. but chances are the pleco will keep on doing it until the cat dies or the cat has had enough and eats it. what do you feed your pleco outta interest?
 
Make sure the rtc doesn't get an infection if there's an open wound.

Carl.
 
my plecos - 14 and 12 inches fight all the time its hillarious they cant really do damage to each other but think they are but i cant help with this just thought id share
 
Well, the red-tail is officially dead. The pleco destroyed him; tore off most of his skin, chunks of flesh, gnawed off half of his tail. It was honestly really gruesome. I would have stepped in, but outside of beefing up the pleco's diet, which I did, I didn't really have a way of seperating the fish, almost immediately it seemed that the pleco had done some irrevocable damage, and this all happened over the course of only about 48 hours. I'm inclined to think the red-tail might have been sick to begin with just because it seems hard to believe that he'd allow this to happen to himself. It's far and away the toughest and most unfortunate thing I've had to deal with as a fish keeper, but I guess its a part of life. Anyway, thanks all for your help.
 
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