Hong Kong Butterfly Plec

[mikesmikes]

Heres something that perplexes me and im hoping someone has a reasonable explaination, my girlfriend has a butterply plec, only a couple of centimeters in length, this morning she found it on the gravel, on its back, stiff, dead? well she put it in warm water for ten minutes and massaged it back to life. How??? The reason she tried this is when she cleaned her tank previously she accidently put them in cold water and they were so shocked they basically fainted? played dead? Can anyone give me a reason why they are evidently not dead when they seem to be??? I know this is my first post but trust me its really not a wind up.

 

[Bloo]

They are not plecs - they're not even loaches either. They are also known as Hillstream Loach (amongst many other common names). They are cold water fish that require strong fast currents and should not be kept in a tropical tank.
How she "massaged" it back to life in warm water perplexes me a bit.

Edit: if this is the type of "plec" you're talking about (they come in many colour variations)

If not: then this is a true butterfly pleco (L168) Zonancistrus brachyurus

 

[mikesmikes]

Thats exactly the species, we both keep them in cold water tanks but they dont have any current to speak of, the colour seems about the same as featured in pics 1,2 +3

 

[Bloo]

Ah sorry - misread ! OK, so you don't have the catfish then
Still don't really know he she managed to "revive" him or what was wrong..... perhaps someone else has a better idea

Obviously any large temperature change, will cause the fish to react in shock. This is not good and stress can lead to illness.

 

[mikesmikes]

Well the catfish does look amazing, i just feel bad because i had a butterfly plec also on its back the other day, stiff/dead etc and i got rid of it, now im worried it wasnt clinically dead