No, he's not dead

[MissNoodle]

My l240 plays dead. He sleeps on his back in his log and gives me a heart attack nearly every time he does it.

[bekateen]

Yeah, I've had Ancistrus do that. I hate seeing it.

[TwoTankAmin]

I have seen this behavior in at least one male pleco in every one of my breeding groups past and present. I am not sue if they go to sleep that way or if they suck to the tops of thecave and when they fall asleep they lose their grip and end up on the bottom on their back.

Usually you can a see the gills flap of a sleeping fish moving. But the plecos are head first in the cave and it is usually too dark to see that.

But clown loaches will sleep laying on their side out in the open. Here is a pic on loaches.com
https://www.loaches.com/species-index/p ... ping01.jpg

[MissNoodle]

It's the worst hahaha he does it almost every day, then when you go close to the tank he waddles himself back into the cave.
Here is a gif of it, hopefully it works. Have to click it

[Joshie]

My second day of having my blue medusa bristlenose (lda074) the female was doing this... nearly killed me.

[Viktor Jarikov]

Labor of love and eye candy of a tank, MsNoodle.

Our adult common plecos never seem to do this but we give them no caves.

Out of our fish that do this apurensis catfish, irwini catfish, soldier catfish aka lithodoras dorsalis, spiny eels, loaches come to mind, they do this out in the open too. Not a near heart attack but having lost a ton of fish, such sighting usually gives me an unpleasant jolt.

[MissNoodle]

Labor of love and eye candy of a tank, MsNoodle.

Our adult common plecos never seem to do this but we give them no caves.

Out of our fish that do this apurensis catfish, irwini catfish, soldier catfish aka lithodoras dorsalis, spiny eels, loaches come to mind, they do this out in the open too. Not a near heart attack but having lost a ton of fish, such sighting usually gives me an unpleasant jolt.

Oh I know botia genus loaches especially do this. It's comical.

But I have to say, my L240 pleco is the only one to do it to this extent.


This is a full view of the tank

[Viktor Jarikov]

Looks wonderful, a paradise for fish (keeper)!