Red tail ate pleco

[K626]

How do you get a red tail to spit out a pleco? I saw someone had a story about it on here, and I kinda need to make my guy spit out the rhino pleco he's got in his mouth.......

...

Well, the problem solved itself. He got the thing backwards, and then I guess gave up and spat it out across the tank. ??‍ So no problems as of yet. Freaking 20" catfish has never messed with the pleco, until now. Probably because it wasn't doing good, and ended up at the bottom. I can't wait until the pond is cycled so I can move it.

 

[Fishman Dave]

Good job he ate it tail first, cos otherwise they don't come out easy!
I lost my 16" arrawana to my 12" redtail many years ago after living together best buddies for 9 months.
He should (fingers crossed) settle in your pond and leave other roommates alone.

 

[K626]

Good job he ate it tail first, cos otherwise they don't come out easy!
I lost my 16" arrawana to my 12" redtail many years ago after living together best buddies for 9 months.
He should (fingers crossed) settle in your pond and leave other roommates alone.

Ouch, losing an arowana would definitely be worse lol. His only tank mate is going to be the rtc/tsn hybrid, and they're within 4 inches or so of each other. So hopefully they'll get along.

 

[ydnim]

My personal experience has never ended well with Plecos and Red Fins -- Although I've read that they can be kept together, I ended up having to remove him from the tank to make sure he stayed safe ?

 

[thebiggerthebetter]

I was going to suggest to chase around the tank and net the RTC in the water or even take it out of water and it should have spit it out.

If any significant part of a tank mate fits in an RTC's mouth head first or tail first, chances are high it will end up there sooner or later or much later.

 

[K626]

I was going to suggest to chase around the tank and net the RTC in the water or even take it out of water and it should have spit it out.

If any significant part of a tank mate fits in an RTC's mouth head first or tail first, chances are high it will end up there sooner or later or much later.

Yeah, I should know better by now. The pleco always did a good job of staying out of the way until recently. I always kept an eye to see if the rtc was actively looking for it. The pleco started to slow down and slip up, then got slurped.

 

[Fishman Dave]

I think I now get away lightly with my current one. He’s 2ft and despite living with other big fish, he also lives with silver shark, mystus leucophasis, Jaguar cichlids, pimelodus maculatus, seven feather fin synodontus, two synodontis nigrata and two gibiceps plecs.
Doesn’t bother anyone.

 

[krichardson]

Good thing the pleco was spit out as it probably wasn't going to be a very pleasant experience for the RTC come poop time.

 

[K626]

I was prepared to catch his fat self and try to extract if necessary. He's now solo in there, so that worry is gone. I'm hoping that once he and the hybrid go into the pond together they don't fight now. They're both pretty large (20 and 24 inches ish), so that could be a brawl if they decide not to be friends.