Could my Atabapo Plec be attacking my goldfish?

cvermeulen

cvermeulen

Sucking up knowledge
May 18, 2007
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Los Osos, CA
Real Name
Cam
I know, it's an unlikely union... my goldfish's tank was running at 78F already due to the warm weather, so I chucked him in my newly set up 200gal, along with all his gravel and decorations, to try to seed the tank and speed up the cycle. Anyways, he's been joined by a 5" atabapo pleco... and I've noticed that he's very curious about the plec, but also quite wary. Anyways, today I noticed his tail it torn... could the plec have done this to him at night or something? I didn't think many plecos were really that aggressive to non-bottom dwellers.
 
when i had to put my black moor into my pleco tank during an emergency situation, my rubberlip pleco tore his tail to absolute shreds overnight. about 70% of it was gone. thankfully it grew back over a period of several months. i am not familiar with your kind of pleco, and i don't know if maybe your goldfish simply tore his tail on an unfamiliar decoration, but if you see increasing damage or any kind of territorial behavior from the plec when the goldfish is nearby, i would remove the goldie.
 
DaisyTattoo said:
Are you sure its torn and not fin rot?
Click to expand...

I don't think so... he was in perfect shape yesterday, and now he's got two good sized tears in his tail.

There isn't really anything in the tank yet, so I don't think he blundered into anything. I'm surprised really... I stayed up late the other night and watched them. the goldfish would get too close to the pleco and the plec would just bugger off, and the goldie would chase him until he stopped, and then hover a few inches away, interested but cautious. Maybe the story changes when the lights go out.
 
some plecos will eat snails - my royal, even though he wasn't supposed to be big on protein, would actually wear down the shells of my little mystery snails until they broke through, and then suck the snails out. also, goldfish will eat snails if they are small enough to be sucked right in without chewing.
 
it's definately the pleco. my common ate the eyeballs out of my black moore and celestial. what are you feeding it? my lfs told me it attacked my goldfish due to the lack of protein in goldfish food so it ate the eyeballs and the stress coat.
 
Tehy've only been in the tank together 2 nights (just got the plec the other day). the L052 hasn't eaten anything as far as I can tell. I left cucumber, zuccini, and some algae wafers in there last night. all were untouched this morning.
 
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