Bad suckie fish, BAADD!

A Vertigo Guy · Post by **A Vertigo Guy** » 20 Dec 2004, 06:08

I put my friends electric blue in my sump where my bushynose resides to keep the muck in suspension (might I add it has gotten hella fat too down there). I guess fish scales and slime were a very tasty alternative as it had eaten off both completely and Im left with a dead electric blue. Just wondering if anyone else has had suckie fish eat off their fish.

AVG

TxFinFan · Post by **TxFinFan** » 20 Dec 2004, 19:09

You murderer!!!

Yann · Post by **Yann** » 20 Dec 2004, 23:28

Hi!

How can you tell he has killed him, he just might have eaten him out while he was already dead...

Cheers
Yann

tjudy · Post by **tjudy** » 20 Dec 2004, 23:58

I have bushynose plecos in every tank that I own with all different types fo fish.. I have done so for 20+ years. I have never seen a bushy even chase after a live fish. Not even a close-to-dead live fish. A dead fish, however, is very quickly open game.

A Vertigo Guy · Post by **A Vertigo Guy** » 21 Dec 2004, 06:12

The electric was still alive the following morning. Granted this is a big bushy @ 4.5". The sump is a 150G Wet/dry so theres fairly a good bit of room to move around. Whatever the reason it happened Im just lettin others know and that I wont ever be doin somthin like that again.

AVG

Post by **Barbie** » 21 Dec 2004, 07:54

I keep ancistrus with the tiniest fry. I've never had one actively kill anything at all. They are very careful not to eat their little fry when you leave them to live in a colony. I seriously doubt your bristlenose hunted down and attacked a cichlid and killed it. They are really only aggressive when defending or fighting over territory, and he wouldn't have felt threatened by an electric blue, be it M.johanni or S. fryeri. A sump with it's high turnover isn't going to be the ideal place to quarantine a new fish, IMO, because while the pleco has his mouth to hang on, and is built for high currents, cichlids are just not.

Barbie

A Vertigo Guy · Post by **A Vertigo Guy** » 21 Dec 2004, 09:09

Alright normally I would concur with everyones statements about ancistrus not being aggressive blah blah and whatnot; but first off the fish's scales are all GONE! Its only two fish in a 7 or 8 gallon area one of them a suckermouthed fish and the other a cichlid that has its scales completely (yes completely! I thoroughly examined it after the fact)gone the next day AND its still alive swimming. The pleco didnt scavenge the fish since it was still very much alive and swimming so what am I supposed to think?!!?? I think thats the point you are all missing.

Peaceful or not, the pleco doesnt read a book telling him not to nibble off a larger fish.

Barbie, you can doubt all you want that the pleco didnt attack the elec blue if it helps you sleep at night but that doesnt change the fact that he did it! Yeah I dont think he would have felt threatened and if he did he wouldve retreated. The damage the elec incurred tells me it was not a simple territory defense. If it were, I should see bloody gashes and such from the gill spines.

As well of course they wouldnt eat their fry, fry have spines on the gills too! Try swallowing those stickies you find in grass and I think you get the idea.

You also mentioned that they are only aggressive when defendintg territory and that he wouldnt have felt threatened. So wanna explain to me why the elec was missing his scales completely?

As for quarentining, please do not insult my intelligence to think that a sump is an ideal place to quarentine when the same water that runs through the sump runs though the aquarium as it would defeat the purpose. The elec was merely there to be held until the next morning.

As for the sump being a high flow area, it actually is a very low flow area because if it isnt, how do copious piles of fish crap manage to collect there if I dont siphon it out regularly? Theres more current in my overflow box than my sump.

Ive pretty much come to the conclusion that plecoes WILL eat off larger fish if contained within a small area regardless of anything otherwise anyone says because Ive seen the evidence. All the stories I hear of plecos eating fish which I used to blow off as impossibilities; I now have them confirmed with my own experience.

And again, I posted this with the intent of letting others know and to know if anyone else has ever had this happen, not to the possibilities of whatever else aside from the listed action above.

Post by **Barbie** » 21 Dec 2004, 10:00

AVG, do you feed this pleco that's kept in the sump of your tank?

You have to realize I keep literally hundreds of ancistrus, with no problems whatsoever. I grow out baby Cyprichromis in the same tank with dozens of ancistrus fry AND adults, with 0 losses. I raise 15 or 20 different types of cichlid fry on average, and I always have bristlenose in the tank, with no problem. Your one isolated incident does not mean there will be a sudden epidemic of bristlenose attacks, IMO. That was the only point I wanted to make.

Barbie

A Vertigo Guy · Post by **A Vertigo Guy** » 21 Dec 2004, 11:03

I wasnt reporting an epidemic. But I think Ive made my point clear already. Im done with this topic.

tjudy · Post by **tjudy** » 21 Dec 2004, 14:44

Te original post did not mention that the electric blue was found alive with no scales. The original post also asked if anyone had a similar experience.

1. Not enough information in post #1.
2. The question was being responded to.
3. Fish are living things... there are always exceptions.

Ancistrus like meaty foods as a part of their diet. I am not surprised that a pleco in a sump that does not get fed will seek protien from the first opportunity that is presented to it. I am surprised tht it attacked a live fish though... if it happens in my home I will no longer be surprised.

Allen Myers · Post by **Allen Myers** » 22 Dec 2004, 02:23

Just my two cents. I have Bristlenose adults in all of my angelfish and guppy tanks. On many ocassions, I have seen the adult Bristlenose aggressively chase an adult angel or guppy away from an algae wafer or sinking pellet. However, I have never seen a Bristlenose harm anything.....just a few idle threats when someone gets too close to their food

Good night.

Taratron · Post by **Taratron** » 22 Dec 2004, 03:18

When I had my male BN in a 20 gallons long tank, he was MURDER on any cory larger than an inch long. He slashed up a brochis cat of mine very badly, but seemed to adore the pygmy cories, which he would let sit on his head, of all places (oh, to have had a camera then!) and even steal the wafers from under his mouth.

He's now in my 29 gallon tank, leaves the brochis there alone, and I don't see the pygmy cories in that tank swarming over him at all.

TxFinFan · Post by **TxFinFan** » 25 Dec 2004, 23:17

Some of you guys need to get over yourselves. Just because you've never seen what happened to Vertigo doesn't mean it doesn't happen.

Then again maybe you're right and the Electric finally got tired of living in his scales and ripped them off himself. Yea...that makes much more sense...especially since somebody on a message board said a Bushynose couldn't possibly be capable of such a thing!

Taratron · Post by **Taratron** » 27 Dec 2004, 03:28

Txfin, the questions asked for clarification were never answered by the initial poster. I am certainly not saying that a BN pleco would not go after food, alive or not, if he was starving. But we never received information about the duration of this sump setup for the pleco's inhabitance or his diet.

saradora · Post by **saradora** » 27 Dec 2004, 17:14

Just another two cents...
I have made several posts over the past year or so about my very aggressive common pleco. Mysterious things (and deaths) have occurred in the tanks I have kept it in (and nothing mysterious in my other tanks). I have witnessed this pleco harassing other plecos, cichlids, and gouramis. I suspect that it has directly (through latching onto) or indirectly (through stress) contributed to the deaths of several of my fish.
However, that said, there is no way I can discount the opinions of people who have a lot of experience. There is no way to really figure out what happened without utilizing all the information that is available. In my case, I consider opinions like those of this forum's moderators before my own, simply because in comparison to their years of experience, I really have no idea what I'm talking about.

Post by **Barbie** » 27 Dec 2004, 17:31

Thanks saradora, but I wasn't trying to make the point that it couldn't happen, just that if your fish are getting enough to eat, they won't be aggressive and develop problematic behavior. This thread was started without enough actual information about what had happened, and the discussion sort of ran off on tangents. I've even had farlowellas at the store that would take to chasing fish around, but they were hungry, and frustrated. A good serving of food and they went back to being model citizens. They weren't doing any damage, but I've got a few plecos that I'm sure COULD do damage if they wanted to.

With that said, they aren't a fish designed for hunting prey. The fish in this thread had to be weak and unable to swim away, or the pleco couldn't have done the damage that it did. That's just my opinion, though, and should be taken with a grain of salt, just before bedtime, just like any other information that you're given that doesn't quite add up to the same experience you had personally. That's what makes the world go around!

Barbie

YouTube · Post by **Jools** » 28 Dec 2004, 11:40

I think Barbie's right.

I have yet to see a well fed, appropriatly housed pleco kill healthy fish to eat. I've seen poorly nourished plecos take fancy goldfish that were just too "fancy" to get out the way. I've not seen such things like plecos attacking discus or angelfish etc. I've seen plecos damaging stingrays and cichlids but they were being kept in too small surroundings.

However, I hear all the time about "killer" plecos that 99 times out of 100 are plecos that are first on a carcas or sickly fish. So it is understandable that most accounts of "killer" plecos are treated with a desire to find the "real" reason behind an "attack".

Bottom line is that common plecos are big fish and not suitable for smaller tanks. Other, more suitable plecos, like Bristlenoses or Whiptails are suitable but share the same omnivorous tendencies that, on a smaller scale, make them equally likely to be found munching on a dead fish.

Jools

TxFinFan · Post by **TxFinFan** » 28 Dec 2004, 15:37

Vertigo,

EDITED BY MODERATOR (PTURLEY):

pturley · Post by **pturley** » 28 Dec 2004, 16:32

Let's not get too personal here...

...TxFinFan I deleted the body of your post.

If you disagree, fine. Post your opinion and reason why.

Per the forum RULES please be respectful of others.