How long do you give a pleco until you figure it's dead?

T

TorturedSOUL

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Apr 3, 2005
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Just curious how long you all give your pleco before you write it off to "I'll find it's skeleton when I break down the tank"?

What's the longest you've gone before you see the little bugger again? :huh:

I have a chocolate pleco I haven't seen in months :sick:
 
How big is the pleco? Have you checked you water parameters? For an ammonia spike? Do you change you water and do gravel vacs? I don't mean to be rude, but you really have to neglect a tank to lose a fish for months.
 
It's not true that a tank has to be neglected to "lose" a fish for months. My 40 BR is well planted with lots of caves and various hiding places. I don't see my clown pleco for months at a time but am confident that he's alive and well. Every now and then he'll show himself, but not very often. If the tank has lots of hiding places, I wouldn't write the pleco off as dead at all. The fish is probably nocturnal, so looking into the tank with a flashlight at night might give you a sighting.
 
budrecki said:
How big is the pleco? Have you checked you water parameters? For an ammonia spike? Do you change you water and do gravel vacs? I don't mean to be rude, but you really have to neglect a tank to lose a fish for months.
Click to expand...

What are water changes and gravel vacs?
 
if you're not kidding..then you have problems.

:eek:
 
It may be overkill but I count all my fish every day except my guppies. My zebra loaches and albino BN pleco hide a bit but I can usually find them.
 
I will go days without seeing my one eel. My tank is pretty well planted and he likes to burry himself in the substrate. Every once in awhile I will be arranging my plants and scare him by accident. However, I have found that if I want to see him I need to check out my tank after the lights have been off for several hours. But, I have never gone several months without seeing one of my fish!
 
I have 3 "mustachios". They were labeled at the LFS as a type of cory but they are far too large to be cories and I assume they are some type of syndontis, possibly a lace catfish. I originally put 5 in my tank and during the pollution of our city water lost 2 (percholorate is a menace but that problem is fixed). Occasionally I would see a glimpse of a tail but for almost a year I more or less lost sight of them and never was able to see more than one tail at a time. After I put in a second heater early this winter, all three appeared jammed against it and they are HUGE (well, at least in comparison to the last time I saw them). Since then I see them most evenings, although rarely all three at the same time. These guys hide most of the time in the driftwood and come out mostly at night.

Jackie
 
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