Is it common for a pleco to...

[OhNo123]

suck on a discus? So I went to the LFS yesterday and was looking around. And it happened to be feeding time while I was there. The discus didn't eat all the food so the pleco ate the ones that fell. But while the discus was picking at the food at the bottom, the Pleco swam up and started sucking a discus. That discus swam away and 10 seconds later, the pleco started chasing another discus and started sucking on that one. The discus escaped though. Any ideas? One discus did have some black spots on its sides. Don't know what that could have been.

 

[kimmisc]

Not a discus, but my little BN pleco will latch onto my other fish when he's fighting them off of his food sometimes... especially my fat platies. Maybe the pleco you saw was trying to get the discus to leave the food alone?

 

[Lukee]

eats the slimeeeeeeee

 

[Lupin]

Maybe the pleco you saw was trying to get the discus to leave the food alone?

Unfortunately, it is very common for plecos, especially otos, to suck on the flanks of the fish. They do feed on the slime coat which the discus produces. Best not to mix them with plecos who have a habit for sucking the slime as this will stress the discus. The same thing can be said with the Chinese Algae Eaters.

 

[Rbishop]

Slime coat eaters....

 

[Dwarf Puffers]

Tell the store, it'll kill the discus soon enough.

 

[shaggbark]

I have never seen my pleco do this.....................maybe if they have nothing else to eat?

 

[Dangerdoll]

I thought they do this when they need more feedings for the pleco's. Mine never once did this in all my years.

 

[wataugachicken]

well, if the LFS is depending on the pleco to do only what it was doing - eat the leftover discus food - and not feeding anything specifically for the pleco (wafers or veggies), then i am not surprised. right now the pleco is probably just going after the discus to protect the little amount of food that it is getting, but as it gets hungrier and larger, it will go after the discus exclusively if they keep starving it.

 

[lovejonesx]

Sounds like a hungry pleco to me, who is not being fed enough & is dining on the slim coat of a discus.

I've seen plecos do that, but I swore that I'd NEVER have one do it outta hunger,

LJx