Plecos Aggressive Fish??

[Shelly]

~Is it true that plecos are aggressive, and very territorial when they get to 9 inches and growing??

I have a pleco right now he is almost 3 inches long. And I've been keeping him in a ten gallon and recently got a 29 gallon.

I had been posting on another forum at a different website and they said "to get rid of the pleco(bring back to store)"-Because he will make the other fish miserable. I've had him for months and don't want to bring him back to the store and has had no problems with him...But this morning-

One of my fancy guppies tails have a hunk bitten out of it and I assume it must be the pleco..So I currently moved the pleco and the 8 neon tetras to the ten gallon. Because they also told me neon tetras are nippy.

In the 29 gallon-> 7 fancy guppies, one minnow, one small oranda, and two platies.

I had always heard bottom feeders such as plecos were peaceful fish...Am I wrong??:confused:

[greeneyedlady]

I've never had a problem with plecos before I have 2 currently one is abt. 6 inches long and the other is abt. 7 inches long. I've had them in the past I once had one that got to be abt. 11 inches before he died and he never gave me any problems. I don't know if anyone here has ever had a problem with plecos before but I have never heard of anything like that before. The ones that I had were never fin nippers either. Hope that helps some.

[NJ Devils Fan]

My pleco is about 5 inches or so, and he gets pissed at the tiger barb when the barb eats his spinach ;). He usually chases him away, then goes back to feasting.

[NickH]

Plecos are usually only aggressive towards other plecos. When they grow larger, they do not like having other fish in their path. When the pleco is the largest fish in the tank this can look like aggression, but it is really just going about it's business.

[1 fish 2 fish]

Plecos are fuuny fish. They just kind of do their thing. They don'[t really chase other fish, just... ignore them, and if another fish is in their way then... well they ignore it or just swim over it. They lay around where ever they want. At least thats how my common plec acts.

[mooseman]

I agree with 1 Fish 2 Fish. My 5 inch Pleco goes where he wants. I have a 9-10 Shovel Nose who is always getting bullied around by the Pleco. Every once in awhile the Pleco will take after the SN and lock his lips onto him until he moves out of where he wants to be. He is turning the SN into a wimp. He certainly stays out of the way of the Pleco when possible. I really think the Pleco thinks he is the only one in the tank, the only one that matters anyway.

My kids used to call him "Sucker dude" but recently changed his name to Sauron (LOTR) because of his mean disposition.

[Shelly]

Well see that is what i thought...About plecos. And maybe I am just over reacting I mean I've watched my pleco with the other fish and he does just go on with his business like they aren't even there. And I've seen him sit with his mouth on his algae chip even when the little guppies are nibbling off of it at the same time just eating away. I just didnt know how thie fancy guppy had so much taken out of his tail...I do have a minnow in their who gets a little territorial but I dunno....That doesnt seem right. Maybe the male platy got after him or the neon tetras....

Thanks for everyones advice:)

[LindaD]

I did have one nasty common pleco. He was about 7-8 inches. He was miserable. This is the first one I've had that was like that. They each have their own personality I would guess. I bought him when he was already 6 inches. He was returned to the lfs. Probably for the same reason.

My oscar used to like to 'sleep' on the bottom in the back corner. Well the pleco would sideswipe him using those points on the tips of his fins. The oscar couldn't go anywhere near the bottom without being 'attacked' I got sick and tired of my oscar always looking like he went to battle. Plus the poor oscar was seriously getting stressed out to the point where he wouldn't swim around the aquarium. So I had no choice but to return the Pleco.

I don't think it's normal for them to be aggressive. But it does happen.

Mine seemed to be very territorial. I was even 'stabbed' by him trying to clean the tank. I was cleaning algae too close to his hideout. And those spikes he had were **** sharp.

[OrionGirl]

An adequately fed pleco won't fin nip. A common won't even pay attention to other fish, unless it is hungry and starts going after slime coating. They can be territorial, but not against a guppy.

Neons are not fin nippers. I've had neons and cardinals for years, and have never seen them even chase another fish, much less nip fins.

I think your other males fancies are to blame. My fancy guppy males have torn tails from fighting with each other. They tend to court the females and fight a lot, and this can damage fins easily.

However, even a 29 will be cramping that bad boy eventually--12 inches is considered small for a common pleco. 18+ inches is average.

[Shelly]

Maybe it is just the male guppies quarrelling for courtship. I have one male that I raised from a batch and hes one of the few left and he has the biggest tail ive seen on a guppy and he seems to be the dominate one of them all also, and he is the biggest. I bought the other male guppy and he had only been in there for about two days and then this happened...Maybe because he was in the other guppies territory?

There was just a lot missing so I got a little scared and plus my neon tetras chase and nip each other all the time...There is one that is very aggressive to the rest. I dont know much about neon tetras but could he be like the dominate one in their school??

I also heard it just takes one neon tetra out of a school to start a whole raid on something....Kinda like Piranas??

[shmeeb001]

ah . . . no. i . . . did you just compare neons to piranhas? 'cause . . um . . . well . . . no. :) actually the behavior that you are talking about in piranhas is 'caused by starvation, not the lone psycho fish.

[Shelly]

icc....okay :)

[GEV83]

some plecos are agressive though and not only to other plecos but to other fish. Some will atack discus and angel fish my plecos from before use to atack my oscars and they would even go on a high speed chase to catch a goldfish I would often find them latter on eating the goldfish they were chasing. So it depends on the pleco and it was a common pleco not a carn but a veggie eater so never underestimate the power of the PLECO.

[famman]

GER1023
I'd always heard that as; "I see I see said the blind man as he picked up his hammer and saw."
:)

[JH]

I had a pleco that once it reached 6-7" it started getting very aggressive. It attacked and killed 3 adult angels that I had. It didn't take me long to turn that fish back in.

This is just my expierence I'm sure others have good ones. Like all the other post each fish is different.

[Shelly]

I no longer have my pleco....He was pretty peaceful but would have gotten too big, and it also saved any accidents that might of happened.:) I returned him to the LFS where I got him.