PL*co Houdini

B

Bryanfykes

AC Members
Nov 6, 2004
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Fruitland, MD
Hi guys (and Girls),
Im new here, it seems nice, I hope I can give as much help as I get! Anyways, its 4:57 am and my lovely wife just woke me from a sound sleep as she was getting ready for work (she works at a Hospital) with frantic screams!
Seems that our beloved Pl*co was laying on my office floor! he seemed to be still a little damp and reponded to touch, so I kinda rinsed him off in a bowl of tank water (to get the dog fuzz and dust from the carpet). I then returned him to the tank. at first he sorta stood on his head in the middle of the tank (!) but all of a sudden, slowly swam to his normal hiding place.

My question is this, is this normal? do they have a habit of jumping from tanks? secondly, how the "H" did he do it? Ii have a light hood on my tank, which
was in place and has only a small flap for feeding. he could have gotten through it, I suppose, but it would have been a one in a million shot! will he be okay? I put some stress coat in the water to help, is this the correct action? Also, its a 10 gal. tank and he is probably 6 inches long. should I step up to a bigger tank? (ive been looking for an excuse to do so anyway, my wife tight-fists the the $, if you know what i mean!)

Thanks
Bryan
 
Well you better get a bigger tank for him
hes obviously not to happy in a 10 gal if hes
6 inches big thats a pretty tight space for him.
Plecos are known to go to the top of
the tank for a gulp of air every now and then
mine would do it all the time and if you only have a plastic lid he could have
being a 6 incher pushed the lid open and jumped/fallen out, quite
literally ..... put a weight on the lid untill you get a bigger tank,
im not sure if the jumping to the top is for air is a lack of oxygen
in the tank issue or what but now that my plec is in a 65 gal i
dont see him doing it as often but they are a nocturnal creature
and its hard to see em doing it at night unless you hear the splash
of water ... if you want to do go big just running this by you get
a 50 gal with glass hood for 100 dollars get a canister filter at big als fishstore online
fluval 303 for 70 dollars and a stealth shatterproof submersable heater 30 dollars. and just use a desk lamp
or something for lighting 200 dollars and your pleco will love you for the rest of its life time ... its better than getting a 20 gal waiting till he outgrows that then getting a 30 gal waiting till he out grows that ect ect .. its a waste of money on filters and tanks and it will only take you to
what i mentioned above 200 isnt alot to spend on a fish if you really love
him and dont want to loose him or have him live a cramped unhappy life...
For a stand you can use tan concrete cynder blocks ... 50 gal tank stand at the store =200 dollars, 10 cynder blocks and wood slate 15 dollars guess which one i went with, its fun building your own tank stand with the cynder blocks and nice thick wood peice.. well good luck with your pleco im out ... :rolleyes: :mad2 :mad: :bowing: grand total 215 sorry unless you allready have a nice sturdy table or stand or somthing 200..
 
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Welcome to the forum!
A regular pleco can reach well over a foot in length. At six inches, he's pretty crowded in a 10g (having a big fish in a small tank is sort of like you living in a bathroom - it can be done, but you'd be much more comfortable with an entire house).
If money's tight the easiest thing to do would be to return your pleco and purchase a smaller catfish to replace him, maybe a few otocinclus affinis ('otos') or a rubbernose. If you've grown very attached to this fish and don't want to return him, you will need to get a tank that's fairly large in order to house him comfortably for his full lifespan. I've got a 45g and I wouldn't feel comfortable keeping a pleco - I'd say no less than 65g would be appropriate, but other people may have better recommendations; I haven't got any experience with big catfish.
In the meantime, it's a good idea to weigh down your cover so that if the pleco jumps he won't be able to knock it open.
 
Yikes!!

Guess im going to have to break out the big bucks!!! i've had this pl*co for about 4 years (he was a little over an inch when i got him) so im kinda attached to him. I guess im going shopping!!

Bryan
 
I don't mean to burst the new tank bubble, but sooner or later, your pl3co will get kinda big for a 30g. You'll probably have to look at something at least twice the volume of your 30g to happily house a full grown pl3co.

They sound like awesome fish, and I'm glad that yours is doing well after his adventure outside of water :)
 
Yeah, I know, but i have only a small amount of space. hey, BTW, i just put it all together and added tetra aquasafe to the water. how soon before i can move my menagerie over? in my 10 gallon i have: 1 pl*co, 1 albino cory cat, 4 glow light tetras, 1 neon tetra, 1 black molly, a blue gorami, 1 white cloud, 1 zebra tetra (i think), and 2 giant danios. I know, i know, too much! I want to move the bigger stuff to the 30, and leave some of the smaller stuff in the 10. And hey, no weird comments about the mix, im saving fish destined for "the Flush". freinds bring me pets of all sorts to keep that they no longer want/ cant keep. fish are pretty new to me (except for my Pl*co and glo lights, ive had them for about 4 years). I really like the little buggers and am really liking this stuff!!

Bryan
 
wHOA!! Thats a lot of fish!!

Anyway, depending on what sort of filter is on your 10g you could put some of the old filter media (like sponges, floss) into your new filter to start up a new bacteria colony. Or, even simpler, run the new filter alongside the current filter in your 10g to get the bacteria going on the new filter.

If you're using the same filter for both tanks (putting the one from the 10g onto the 30g) just move it to its new place and turn it on.

There's some really awesome information on this forum on cycling so just do a search for cycle or cycling and you'll get an overload of info.

BTW my suggestion is to probably keep the gourami and danios separate. They're usually too hyper for peaceful gouramis.

Good luck!!
 
The gourami and danios came from the same home, and they dont seem to bother one another. Will they interact badly once they are in the bigger tank?

Bryan
 
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