Pleco Behavior

[hbk6573]

i have a pleco in with my turtles and it seems to constantly go after them attacking their shell with its mouth is this harmful to the turtles or harmless

 

[Robin°]

Hi,
Do they realy attack them, or do they gnaw the shell?
I thing the´re algae or something else on the shell, the catfish wants to eat.
Could it be?
I advise against the maintain from turtles and catfish in the same tank.Because they have different Requirements.
Wich catfish does it concern?
Many greetings,
Robin

 

[HendrixTheOscar]

I would have said the plec was after the algae build up on the turtles shell also.

Some have been known to be aggressive though, one of my past ones certainly was when he was picked on.

I'm plumping for the algae though...

 

[dylema]

To be honest I would think the turtle could do the plec a lot more damage. A lot of turtles eat live fish from what I understand so even id the plec is big enough it might get a bad nip from the turtle.

Dylan

 

[lighter]

I say better to seperate them, what turtle is that? Over the long run, both might show more aggression towards the other.

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

Turtles and fish should not be kept together as a general rule, even if the turtle does not eventually kill and eat the fish, turtles are very messy eaters in general and produce a lot of waste which sinks to the bottom of the aquarium where the pleco lives- this builds up and will cause either ammonia or nitrite poisoning or both, killing the fish (sometimes this happens very slowly, other times very fast- either way its not a nice way to go).

I can't spend long here, but long story short, there are a variety of reasons why turtles and fish shouldn't be kept together in general. What sort of turtle do you have and what sort of environment are you keeping it in?