Pleco Ready For The Olympics!?!?!?!

[Tommy Gunnz]

Hey everyone.

I recently inherited a pleco (most likely common or sailfin) from a friend and added it to my 55 gallon tank until I can find it a home that will be well suited for its potential size. Basically it is constanly hiding, which I am aware of is normal, but the odd thing is that this pleco will all of a sudden fly from its hiding spot up the tank and basically bump its head on the lights. It then goes down with huge bubbles going up from it and hides again. I think that this happens a lot both when the lights are on and off and I have two large air bubble curtains running on each end of the tank. I bring this up because at first I thought that it might be trying to gasp for air, but it really isnt that frequent (maybe once every hour and a half or so) and like I said, there is an oxygen supply in the tank. Also, none of the other fish do this (even my 'jumpers' do not try to jump) and I have had another pleco in this tank before and it was nothing like this one.

Could this just be a 'personality trait' of sorts or should I be worried about some other type of cause? Any help or information would be appreciated!

 

[redswi]

Sometimes plec's are just retarded...mine used to squeeze between the glass plates on top of my tank and warm himself under the lights

 

[dylema]

Hi, My BN plecs used to do this too. I have seen a couple of threads here before about this and if I remember correctly the general concensis was that it is fairly normal for them to do it for a while and slow down as they grow up. Feel free to correct me if there are new thoughts on this.

 

[juicebox]

yes, it's normal for plecos to jump. my parents used to have a common pleco; one day my dad came home to the pleco lounging on the floor! he had apparently jumped out of the tank. my dad put him back in the water, though, so no worries.

my common plec used to jump up to the part of my filter where the water flows back into the tank. he ate the algae that grew there, but he doesn't jump anymore.