Pleco takes a leap of faith

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mweis_1

Registered Member
Feb 20, 2014
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So I recently decided to add a rubber lip pleco into my 55g community tank. I had a bristlenose pleco living comfortable inside for a month and decided he looked lonely. So off to the pet store the rubber lip caught my eye, size wasn't too big all seemed well. A week later i put him into the community tank and could almost instantly tell that the bristelnose had established a firm territory and while he was peaceful with all of my other fish the same couldn't be said for the rubber lip.
Getting to the main guts of this story... a week went past and i honestly thought they were getting used to each other and the occasional chases seemed rather playful but yesterday i came downstairs and didn't see the rubber lip. I looked all over... but figured he was simply in hiding.. later that night there was still no sign of him so i looked under my driftwood and inside my two penguin 350s i had seen him attempting to enter days before hand. Well last place i looked was behind the tank and there sat the sad silhouette of the pleco dead and dried on the floor.
My question to all of you is... with normal water parameters and a fair amount of cover in the tank did he literally get scared out by the bristelnose? What could have caused this?
 

kumar420

AC Members
Feb 5, 2014
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What is the tank size, and is there any foot traffic (people, pets) in that area? Or loud noises (stereo, TV with a surround sound system) which can scare fish into jumping out of the tank.
 

mweis_1

Registered Member
Feb 20, 2014
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Its a 55g, on a concrete floor, just me in there.. a radio occasionally but certainly not too loud. I suppose the door shutting or a light being turned on? It's a mystery hah
 

SirMuffin

AC Members
Sep 11, 2011
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I could see him being chased and then going up the glass and jumping out of the top. To me it would have to be near the top anyway to get scared and jump out and not just swim around the tank really fast like mine like to do.
 

vanillarum

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Jan 4, 2008
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Mass.
Just curious as to whether there was a cover on the tank at the time ?
 

The Zigman

Here fishy fishy fishy!!!
Oct 5, 2007
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Near Chicago, Il.
www.uglymuggs.com
Plecos gulp air... It may not have had anything to do with water params or territorial fish in the tank.
Maybe he just got a little overzealous and jumped out..

I have about 60 BNs right now, and I have picked them off the floor appearing dried and dead, but at least twice I have put them in the tank only to have them come back... remarkable really.
I do try to keep tops on all my tanks
 

Anders247

IG-88 Invaders
Jun 10, 2014
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Ancistrus species plecos are usually aggressive towards each other, unless there are many of them.
 
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