CRUEL

[plurmaster]

I got a F8 yesterday thougth to start my first brackish tank. Also got pleco and put both of them in my quarantine tank to deworm and make sure no ichs on them. I cam home today and realize my F8 pecked out both of my pleco's eyes out. I was like WHAT THE????? Thats really cruel Feel sorry for the poor pleco and he's not dead yet. What you think i should do?

[StormySkiez]

That is horrible. plurmaster can you seperate them? I have heard of fish surviving with out thier eyes. Hopefully he is not in pain, poor pleco. He needs some tender loving care.

[plurmaster]

yes very horrible when i saw there's 2 holes on top of his head then next thing i realize those are the eye socket which the eyballs are missing. I seriously didnt know F8's are that agressive..espcially didnt expect towards pleco's. sigh...puffer behavior really is unpredictable..thats why they are very interesting fish that we all love

[Agnate]

Yeah, I don't know what it is, but fish always seem to go for the eyes... they must be really delicious, or something.

[Pufferpunk]

I hope you weren't planning on keeping them together anyway. The puffer belongs in BW & I am moving this to that forum.

[plurmaster]

lol....of course not. They are in qurantine tank ATM until i see no sign of sickness...pleco is going into 20 gal heavily planted my polly old home and F8 is going to a 10 gal brackish tank which is currently under going cycling. After reading all the post i still dunno where the F8 should go. I might as well hit my head onto a brick wall. heh

[Agnate]

Aren't Plecos way too large (as they get older) to go in 20 gallons? I wanted an algae eating way back when I got my first 20 gallon, and I was told by my LFS that I should avoid a pleco for anything less than 50 gallons (I think that's what they said). They suggested Otos instead, which were awesome little dudes and produced WAY LESS waste than a Pleco.

[inkyjenn]

depending on the species of pleco, its probably going to get much too large for a 20 gallon tank. and if its heavily planted, you want to kiss that goodbye soon too. as the pleco grows, its going to get harder and harder for it to maneuver around the tank. as it does, it will accidentaly pull up your plants as it tries to move. and my other bit of advice is if you got the pleco to clean your tank, i would find him a new home right now. plecos are poop machines. my bf has a 9" gibby in a 75 with a sand bottom, and he has to suck out the tank almost daily to remove the sometimes 12" long poop strands that are lying around. do you know what kind of pleco you got? if its a common it will get huge. if its something like a clown pleco or bristlenose, you can keep them in smaller aquariums, but even then, they usually like around 30 gallons minimum. imo, otos are much better for smaller tank sizes

as for quarantining, i think its better to quarantine each type of fish alone so that if there is a problem, you can treat the one group alone without having to worry as much about possible medication interaction problems.

[Pufferpunk]

I believe the common pleco most LFS sels for 10g tanks grow to 18". There are dwarf species of plecos, like the dwarf bristlenose, that grow only to 3-4".

[sparks42]

I had guppies or barbs or something, and I remember my GSP ate their eyes

[plurmaster]

U guys are right didnt come across my mine that pleco tends to grow very large but they grow slow so i got plenty of time. Another thing is..i realize pleco are real poopin machine..ewwwwww

[LinearChaos]

If you think about it, pleco eyes do look an awful lot like a small snail on a rock...

[inkyjenn]

plecos dont grow that slowly. i had one get too big for a 30 in no time flat. unless you are starving them, they grow pretty large in a short amount of time (less than a year). do yourself a favor and find a new home for the pleco.

[t1gerbee]

melafix for the plec... he'll survive without his eyes as long as you can stop infection. You can't take him back to LFS now as no one will have him.

Let him rest up in the 20G and when he gets bigger and his sockets grow over you can work out whether to re-home him or ugrade with him.

My rescue goldfish had their eyes picked out by another goldfish (LFS was going to dump them) but i took them on and they are absolutely fine, finding food easily and living happily.


As for the Fig 8.... think he needs to be kept on his own, don't fancy the next poor fish that comes into contact with him!