Lazy Pleco?

[kaledeon]

I have a ~2.5 inch pleco that was given to me a few months ago. He's kept with a Jack dempsey that's a bit smaller since I only have the one tank, and from what I've seen this isn't a problem.

The pleco always hides under a piece of driftwood and I've only ever seen him out once, he just doesn't seem to eat any of the algae in the tank. The underside of the driftwood where he lives is nice and clean, but other bits are very algaeish and he doesn't eat any of this at all. Niether does he ever eat the algae off the glass or plants. Is he just being lazy or what? I've been throwing in algae wafers at night, should I lay off these a bit to get him to feed for himself a bit more?

Also, when he appears to be sucking on his piece of driftwood if you look closer he's on his back but his mouth's not actually attached to anything. I though he was sick the first time I saw this but it's been going on for several months now and seems to be a habit of his.. is this how they sleep?

Since I've got the pleco I've had more trouble keeping the tank clean, he craps A LOT and he doesn't eat any of the algae. I'm assuming this is not normal pleco behaviour, I hear they are supposed to be really good tank-cleaners! Can someone please shed some light on the subject?

 

[smithrc]

what type of plec is he?

I'll assume a common in which case then it is unusual behaviour...

You might not see them do it during hte day but by night he should come out and "do his job".

what size are the other fish? it may be that he feel bullied so stays where he is safe

 

[§tudz]

not all plecs eat algae, some eat wood, some meat and other do eat algae.
There arent really any fish that eat ALL algae, some fish eat different algae, like sucking loaches will eat green sludge algae the same as oto's, but they wont eat hair algae. Flying foxes will eat green heair algae, but not black hair algae.

The best thing to fight algae is good tank maintenance.

And yeah, plecs poo loads! and are normally nocturnal, so you dont see much of them during the day apart from a fin or a tail, most the time.

you'll also find that his 'cave' is clean because it doesnt like to live in a dirty hole, pretty much like you wouldnt like to live in a hole where you have left 'small packages' and is dirty either.

I've kept only a few plecs in the past, but they all seem to to be very shy.

- Bristlenose
- bulldog
- l001
- golden nugget
- butterfly (true butterfly not hong kong plecs, which are loaches)

and a few others I forget now lol