Plecs In Ornaments

[digdog]

i have a family of bristlenose plecs living in a 2 foot plastic root. my problem is that i want to get rid of the root and replace it with real wood but how do i get the plecs out? every time i think they are all out and lift the root out i hear flapping from inside. you cant see into all the spaces so i dont enen know how many are in there. i think its breeding pair and 2 babys. anyone else had this problem?

 

[WILDER]

Fish usually swim out when you lift ornaments.
If your nervous get a bucket and fill it with tank water and put the ornament in there to see if there a plec still in there.
Heard of members cleaning there ornaments then finding out there was a fish still in it.

 

[digdog]

the problem is that being a plec they sucker on to the inside, and would need a dustbin rather than bucket to submerge it in.

 

[WILDER]

Must be a big plec the lol.
You could use one of those plastic toy boxes, used one of them before now.

 

[england]

do you still want to breed them because the pipe sounds ideal, cant you submerge the pipe in the gravel then use the wood to cover the exsposed section of pipe?
if no then lift it out slowly and just shake it gently over the tank,but keep it above for a while because i find when you move a rock out of the water with bristles on it they wiggle down and down then finally drop into the water

 

[digdog]

its 2 foot tall and if you imagine an octopus with its legs hanging down and wrapped round each other it something like that. the hole they are getting in is in the middle where all the legs/roots join. the hole is quite small. i moved it from another tank and it wont stand up in this one and looks crap.