getting my pleco out of hiding!!!

Briko03

Briko03

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Sep 20, 2004
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i just put in a piece of drift wood however my placo is extremely shy and has not gone near it yet...in fact he has a lil clump of fake flowers he hides in an i never see him come out.

I am considering removing them in order to get him used to the tank and his tank mates and perhaps his driftwood. What do you all think of the idea?
 
The plecostomus is nocturnal, so maybe if you give him a night to find it, he will :)

Or maybe put food (algae wafer) by it? My pleco hides but always seems to know where the food is!
 
My aquarium came with two plastic plants which I left in for filler, but now my real plants occupy more room. Anyway, my clown pleco took to hding under a plastic plant in between the plastic and the glass of the aquarium.......so I never saw him, even thinking he might be dead! Then I read about them needing wood to graze on. Soooooo, I broke the bank and bought a nice piece of mopani wood. It has an arch in the middle, and the fish can swim in and out of it. When he saw it he ran for it within the first half hour I had put it in the tank. Is your piece of wood solid? Like a one piece block? I suggest cutting an arch in it. Now, I can usually see Wilbur hanging from the wood under the archway, he thinks no one can see him, but there he is hanging under the archway. Now I know he's ok :D 'cause I get to see him everyday.
 
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i would definitly not remove his favorite lil clump of flowers! if this is where he feels safe and likes to hang out, removing it will cause him stress (would you steal a 2 year olds favorite blanket?). if he is not ready to explore then don't force him. are there only 1 or 2 fish in the tank? maybe getting a school of tetras or other mid-water fish would make him feel less vulnerable (this is called adding "dither fish", and it can have dramatic results). in any case give him a day or 2 to check out the driftwood before deciding he doesn't like it, and i also like the cutting a hole in it idea.
 
how long have you had him? A lot of shy-ish fish will hide a lot for the first month or so after they are first introduced to the tank. heh, i have a bristlenose in my 55 that i've had for 3 years. just 6 months ago he started comming out (although rarely) durring the day.

ryan
 
The lesson here is that you cannot always force your fish to change behavior that is natural to them. As already mentioned, pleco's are nocturnal and it is against their nature to come out of hiding during daylight hours. Just allow him to get comfortable with his surroundings and do what comes naturally.

Incidentally, our pleco has just started venturing out during the day, to the delight of my kids, and we've only had him for 2 weeks.
 
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