Out of hiding

[Madame X]

After almost exactly a year of hiding under a log, only coming out at night to eat (NEVER when the lights were on), my peppermint pleco has decided to explore the tank.

I noticed the past few nights she seemed much more active than usual. Then last night, something caught the corner of my eye and I saw her scurrying around in the back of the tank!

Tonight she's out and about as well, checking things out. She doesn't even panic and hide when I approach the tank. I had the perfect opportunity for a picture and of course I had a media failure! Now she's back under her log.

Is it NORMAL for a fish to hide for a full year before deciding to come out and explore? Or should I be worried about the behavior change? I checked all my water parameters and everything is fine.

[Yann]

Hi!

Yeap it is a "normal" behaviour...

it really depends, some comes out within a day other take years and never show a bit of their fins...that is especially true during day time when the lights are on...

When the lights are out the usually don't have much problem exploring your tank. you should be aware that even if you can't see your fish, he can "feel" you, when you walk toward your tank, you sort of make microearthquake, even if it isn't perceptible for us, it is very mcuh for your fish, giving them plenty of time to get back to its favourite retreat point letting you believe it never comes out...sometimes it is just a question of chance...

Cheers
Yann

[MatsP]

Hi!

Yeap it is a "normal" behaviour...

it really depends, some comes out within a day other take years and never show a bit of their fins...that is especially true during day time when the lights are on...

When the lights are out the usually don't have much problem exploring your tank. you should be aware that even if you can't see your fish, he can "feel" you, when you walk toward your tank, you sort of make microearthquake, even if it isn't perceptible for us, it is very mcuh for your fish, giving them plenty of time to get back to its favourite retreat point letting you believe it never comes out...sometimes it is just a question of chance...

Cheers
Yann

I also believe that Pl*co's recognise different people. When I had my old tank in Sweden, some 10 or so years ago, I had a 10" Pl*co that would come up and beg for food when I came in the room, but if anyone else came in, he'd hide in his cave immediately. This was after I'd had the fish for a couple of years. The first time I wouldn't see the fish outside the cave where he'd sit on the under-side of the "roof".

Using a "night-light" might make it more easy to study the fish when it's dark. I used a home-built setup with a transformer from a trainset and some "train lights" that I rigged into the light unit. That way I could adjust the amount of light from VERY LITTLE to reasonably bright (but nothing compared to the flourescent that I had on during the day). That made it possible to study him during the evening/night-time whilst not having bright lights.

A similar setup can be made by using a low wattage bulb (say a normal bulb at 10w or so) and a dimmer-switch, if you are able to wire the thing up. Don't do this unless you're sure you know how to wire electrical things, as you're actually wiring electricals that will be located near water, and those two aren't good together at the best of times! And don't even think of suing me if you get electricuted, I did warn you!

--
Mats

[pturley]

MatP Wrote:

And don't even think of suing me if you get electricuted, I did warn you!

--
Mats

And MatsP continues the reputation that the U.S. is an overly litigious society...


...Oh wait, he's right, it is!

Low voltage LED Diodes are easier and safer to wire up. Perhaps look into them instead.

The behavior is normal and I agree with Madame X that your fish will begin to recognize you.

[MatsP]

And MatsP continues the reputation that the U.S. is an overly litigious society...


...Oh wait, he's right, it is!

Low voltage LED Diodes are easier and safer to wire up. Perhaps look into them instead.

The behavior is normal and I agree with Madame X that your fish will begin to recognize you.

The LED's are a great idea. I'm pretty sure you can buy them in ready-setup little packages from many different sources, bicycle "lights" for instance that are battery powered will work fine. Can't really think of any other place where you'd get "white" LED's.

To build yourself:

Here's the material neeeded:
A low-voltage, say 3-5V DC-power supply.
A set of suitable LED's (white light ones are nice but a bit more expensive than yellow or red ones).
A 1kOhm Resistor. (Note, higher voltage should have bigger resistor, so if you get a 12V power-supply, you need 2KOhm or so).
A length of wire (say about the 2 x (length of tank + distance to power supply + a bit)). Two different colours is preferred, so you can use on colour for positive and one for negative.

You should be able to get all of those bits in a electronics shop of some sort (Radio Shack, TinkerTronics, etc).

Tools:
Solder iron.
Wire clippers.
Wire stripper (or use clippers carefully to strip the wire).

LED's have two sides, Anode and Cathode, or plus and minus. They are indicated by different length "legs". The easy way to remember it is that the long leg is made up by adding the lines in the PLUS sign, and the short leg is the shorter line of the MINUS sign.

Solder the wire to resistor, then another wire from the other side of the resistor to the plus side of the LED. If you want more than one LED, you can start with another wire at the "outside" of the resistor. Then another wire the other side of the LED.

So you have something like this:
P+-----R----L----P-
where:
P+ is the plus side fo the power supply.
R is the resistor.
L is the LED.
P- is the minus side of the power supply.

Again, of course, only use tools that you know how to use, be safe and don't do stupid stuff...

--
Mats