pleco ''eating'' my ornate birchir

[arowana man]

is this normal pleco behaveior. he has left wounds on my ornate and eatn off the slime cote. is he underfed? whats going on????????

 

[richardhmc]

Plecos will normally eat the slime coating off other fish.. what kind of wounds were they? like scales missing? or like round marks?

 

[arowana man]

round marks. the wound is almost white

 

[Ianab]

Not all plecs do that, but some do learn that habit

You are probably going to have to seperate them, otherwise the pleco will constantly pick away at your birchir until it's lost too much slime coat, gets stressed out and dies

It's probably not a feeding problem, just the other fish's slime coat tastes better than it's normal food.

They can do it to any large slow moving fish, Discus and Koi can get sucked too.

Cheers

Ian

 

[WyldFya]

Get them separated ASAP. Then, when you are done getting them separated, tell us what type of pleco you have.

 

[arowana man]

its a common sailfin i think

 

[davo]

Yeah, ain't no stopping it... bichirs and plecos are a notoriously bad combination, for this very reason. It can be a byproduct of poor diet too.

 

[Freakdaddy]

Hi,
I think you might already have a sick Poly and the Plec is taking advantage.

You defineately have a hungry Plec though.

 

[arowana man]

Hi,
I think you might already have a sick Poly and the Plec is taking advantage.

You defineately have a hungry Plec though.

im prety sure the polys not sick. hes prety active and eating. it only occurs when the poly goes near the pleco. i have 3 plecos in that tank. only one is the problem. it happens to be the biggest.

 

[Ianab]

The Poly is probably fine.. for now.

But if the pleco keeps sucking off it's slime coat then it's days are numbered

Cheers

Ian