Unbelivable behaviour by my female L-102

Chill · Post by **Chill** » 16 May 2004, 16:36

I have had a old trichogaster leeri in a tank with my L-102 pair and this morning I failed to see her anywhere.
I searched the whole tank. She wasn't to be found anywhere, so I took a flashlight and looked in the caves. To my big surprise I found her dead in the cave where the female L-102 lives, she was having a feast on the cadaver.
Due to the shape of the cave, I know that the tricogaster would never swim into it, so my only solution is that the L-102 somehow has "dragged" her into the cave.
Anyone else ever experienced anything like it?

PlecoRising · Post by **PlecoRising** » 17 May 2004, 04:40

Why can't you just call it a Gourami??

pturley · Post by **pturley** » 17 May 2004, 04:43

PlecoRising Wrote:

Why can't you just call it a Gourami??

Do you realize how many species of Gourami there are? The topic regarding the use of Latin names has been covered extensively in "Speak Easy".

Chill · Post by **Chill** » 17 May 2004, 10:59

I could also have written pleco instead of L-102, but that woulden't be correct would it?

PlecoRising · Post by **PlecoRising** » 17 May 2004, 15:21

A dead gourami is a dead gourami!

Post by **Barbie** » 17 May 2004, 15:57

The original topic was if anyone has had experience with this problem. How about we try to address that problem. You know the saying, if you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all....

Barbie

pturley · Post by **pturley** » 17 May 2004, 18:07

On Barbie's lead, back to the original topic at hand:

It is not at all uncommon for a pleco, particularly a Hypancistrus spp. to feed on carrion. Including feeding on the carcass of a dead fish.

It could be that the fish is lacking something in it's diet. What are you feeding the fish as a staple. Hypancistrus spp. as a rule tend to be some of the more carnivorous Loricariids.

Graeme · Post by **Graeme** » 17 May 2004, 18:44

I've also herd that some Loricariids will dart for a hand in the tank with dead skin on it as i was shocked to see my L163 attack my hand!

G.

Chill · Post by **Chill** » 18 May 2004, 18:16

My plecos lack nothing pturley

It was more the behaviour of "dragging" it into the cave I was adressing.

Post by **Janne** » 18 May 2004, 18:32

I have seen something like that happend in one of my tank's...for some years ago I found one of my Gymnogeophagus meridionalis dead in a cave there one of my L114 was using, I had not noticed that it was sick or so earlier and when I found it I did not thought so much over why it was laying at the bottom of the cave more then why he had died. Maybe the L114 had drag him into the cave but I dont think he had kill it...just found him dead outside the cave.

Janne

S. Allen · Post by **S. Allen** » 19 May 2004, 03:52

I've a big L025 that will either take a scallop and run into the cave or it'll balance on it's pelvic fins so that it's head and mouth are about 2 inches off the bottom of the tank, making it a big effort for a stingray to try and steal the food. if something in the tank died I wouldn't think it at all uncommon for it to drag off a chunk or even the whole fish if it'd fit in the cave.

kwalker · Post by **kwalker** » 19 May 2004, 06:24

I can add to this topic. approximately 2 months ago i found a psuedotropeus daktari dead in my tank. at the time i did not have a quick second to pull the dead fish. 20 minutes later i came back down stairs to do just that and to my surprise my 3 L-270's where actually fighting over the carrion. i quickly called pturley and was discussing this with him. i observed this for around 30 minutes, all the time talking to paul on the phone discribing to the best of my ability what was going on. he then suggested that i video tape the action, which i tried to do only to find i had no tapes to do so with. Two things i learned, pleco's eat carrion, and always have a tape hidden from your family for important matters such as this.

ken

Yann · Post by **Yann** » 19 May 2004, 10:43

Hi!

Really I don't think it is so surprising that Loricariidae eat dead meat, I mean Bristelnose have been doing this for years in tanks of many people so it isn't much surprise that other Ancistrini species would do the same...
remember in the wild food don't always come available like it is in a confine environement like a fish tank, so any source of protein is welcome...
The fact that they might take the food inside their caves is more surprising, it clearly show that they want to protect this food from other potential competitors...

Cheers
Yann

Post by **Janne** » 19 May 2004, 17:36

I agree with you Yann, I'm not suprice that they eat dead fish...it's the protection of the food that are interesting.

Janne

blackmystus · Post by **blackmystus** » 19 May 2004, 17:51

over there i saw a cow, it must have moved - cos its gone now.

dont all have a cow.

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pleco_breeder · Post by **pleco_breeder** » 20 May 2004, 18:15

Hello,

Back to the topic, again. This doesn't concern dead fish, but I had a colony of Ancistrus punctatus several years ago. The male was constantly pulling any zucchini that I added to the tank into his pipe to guard it from the females. If I added several pieces, he'd have most of them pushed to the back of the pipe within a couple hours. I think it's just normal for them to try to defend food. I'm sure that every body who keeps plecos has seen some of the fights that break out over a bit of nourishment.

Larry Vires

Unbelivable behaviour by my female L-102

Unbelivable behaviour by my female L-102

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