L204 semi-eaten?

[Mikael]

I hoped I would never have to post one of these "oh-my-pleco-is-ill-posts", but, how wrong I was...

Tonight when I came home and had a look at my aquarium with my four L204 Panaques and some other plecos I found one of them (a male as far as I can tell) almost upside down in a corner. Looking closer it looked like someone had been eating on him:



There were no other signs of illness, no sunken belly or such.
In the tank I have three more L204s, one which clearly is a male, one clearly a female, one which I suppose is a female. There are also a few common BNs, a L200 and a Blue panaque. Out of these my best guess is that there has been a fight between the L204s and this guy lost. What do you think?

Anyway, I have moved him to another 60L tank whith a filter from the tank he was in, and also 50l water from the big tank.

(Tank parameters if needed: 330l, filtration ~ 1500 l/h through external filters, 1200 l/h throgh power head with sponge. pH ~7.5, kH ~7, nitrites 0, nitrates ~ 20 (a bit to high, will increase water changes), ~30% water change a week, fish fed daily with pleco tabs and various vegies, remains removed)

[Waldo]

I have seen a lot of aggression in our sp. I think the only thing that kept them all from killing one another is the fact that they were always on the defense looking for the bigger L204 behind them. I beleive this techique is called tokyo style complex. It often works with cichlids too.

Not to get off topic I think your right.

[Mikael]

The poor fish did not survive.

Waldo, interesting to hear that you've found them agressive. And with those teeth for eating wood I suppose it's easily done for a dominant male to deadly wound another male. I really hope the ones still alive in my tank are a male and two females, time and odontodes will tell.