My Plec Thinks He'S A Mermaid!

[fishnovice]

Got my first plec, a handsome 8in spotted one, a few days ago. Tank has no algae on glass so I'm feeding him cucumber and algae sinking pellets. Now that he's settled down in his new home he's very active (for a plec) and has completely relandscaped the tank, scattering sand, large fake plants, gravel etc all over the place. It's a 3ft tank so he's not short of space, just clumsy. He has 2 strange habits:

• "sitting" on a large ornament with his tail hanging over the edge like a mermaid
• Standing

vertically at the side of the tank, head up tail down

Is this normal?

 

[reeeedfish]

Hold it! If it is a common or sailfin pleco, you will need a LOT more gallons than whatever youur tank is know. But to answer your question: Yes, both are very common activities! What he does on the glass is eat the small amount of algae that is on the glass and the ornament is proobly his "home". Mine his his home and a artificial cliff.

 

[Wills]

Woah 8 inches in a 3 foot tank? That is hardly fair to be honest, all the behavior is normal but man that is just harsh. In a 3 foot tank you want 5 inches max the amount of poop that must come out of him will really overload your filters.

When you say spotted in which way? What colours and shape spots?

 

[fishnovice]

Woah 8 inches in a 3 foot tank? That is hardly fair to be honest, all the behavior is normal but man that is just harsh. In a 3 foot tank you want 5 inches max the amount of poop that must come out of him will really overload your filters.

When you say spotted in which way? What colours and shape spots?

He's olive brown with big round orange spots on sailfin and orange body markings.[have photo but don't know how to post it on forum] Definitely not a common plec. Was told he's probably an adult L001 and won't grow bigger.He could be a leopard sailfin but his markings are different to those in leopard photos so I'm hoping he's definitely L001 and won't grow into an 18inch monster. If he does, I'll somehow have to find the cash and space for a megatank, love him too much already to part with him. Got him a large plastic 12inch half pipe to sleep in and he's loves it. Tank has powerful built-in filter and I'm doing big weekly water changes to keep water clean so should be OK

 

[Curiosity101]

What dimensions is the actual tank?

I reckon surface area wise that tanks far too small for him only 4.5x his body lengthways, and depthwise what is it?

Oh and posting photos, I use photobucket.com to upload the photos, then you get the 'direct url' and bring it here. Either click the 'insert image' button and paste the link in there. Or just put the URL of the photo in your post.

Oh and if he is an L001 you're looking at more like 11", not 8.

 

[Wills]

I would get that mega tank now a 6x2x2 is a fair tank for that fish, or a 6x18inx2 I think might be okay. As curiosity said he is not full grown yet. Also no lone internal filter will work for an 8 inch fish in a 3 foot tank long term I would start looking for an external asap.

Wills