Clown Pleco Relocation?

[JEGuerra]

I've had a clown pleco for a couple months now, and he has adopted this skull decoration I have as his cave. I added in some rocks and have this one real nice cave I want to see him adopt, is there any way I can sort of nudge him to relocate to the new cave, or is it basically impossible to make him relocate?

 

[fishorama]

Just take out the skull for at least few days. You may need to gently shake him out of it first if he doesn't swim out when you pick it up. But as to whether he'll think your new cave is acceptable, you'll find out.

 

[JEGuerra]

Just take out the skull for at least few days. You may need to gently shake him out of it first if he doesn't swim out when you pick it up. But as to whether he'll think your new cave is acceptable, you'll find out.

So I tried that, as soon as I picked up the school he swam out, and I sorta escorted him to the right side of the tank where the cave is, and after putting him on that side I waited about 10 minutes, when I went back to look he was chillin in the cave, so hopefully he sticks to it!

 

[fishorama]

Great! That was easy, huh? Now give him some time to make the new place "his". You might want to relocate the skull, when you eventually put it back, far away from its original spot. Try feeding him near the new cave so he'll like it even more.

Did you get some wood or just rocks?

 

[JEGuerra]

Great! That was easy, huh? Now give him some time to make the new place "his". You might want to relocate the skull, when you eventually put it back, far away from its original spot. Try feeding him near the new cave so he'll like it even more.

Did you get some wood or just rocks?

I have some driftwood in there I added the other day, and I have another piece of driftwood sitting in a water bucket outside because it kept floating to the top of the tank so i'm hoping it'll get waterlogged enough to stay down. On top of that I used to have some other rocks in the tank but I took them out and added some new rocks with little holes that go through em for the fish to swim through and all that, I'll take pictures for all that. (BTW that last pic is the clown pleco chillin in his new cave)

 

[TwoTankAmin]

Plecos hide. it is what they do. Depending on the diet of a pleco, it can influence how often you might see them out and about to some extent. The Aufwuchs feeders and the algae and wood eaters tend to be out chewing on stuff more often than the meat eaters. However, many plecos tend to be more nocturnal. Where they live they are on the menu and this means they are wired to hide at the slightest hint of danger. Those which pause for an instant to identify the cause of some movement may get the answer in the stomach of something.

Males claim caves but females do not. They may shelter in caves, but they do not claim them. They do like tight spaces. Often if a fishkeeper does not supply a cave type hiding place, a pleco will do it's own aquascaping to create a space it can use.