Some advice if u may?

[Bajamaniac12]

Im having a little trouble with a new tankmate and my common plec, he is a featherfin catfish

Maybe about 3" and my plec is about 8-9" the catfish is trying to eat the plecs underbelly!

Is there anything i can do?

It was only added yesterday so is it being curious or is he trying to kill my plec?

Moving to another tank isnt an option unfortunately.

Thanks guys!

[Bajamaniac12]

Some advice if u may?



Sorry for the double post, heres a photo

[troy tucker]

Feather fin catfish can be aggressive. does he have a place to hide? You may have to rehome one of them. I have had one kill a few young BN pleco's but never seen it pick on anything bigger then him self.

[Bajamaniac12]

Some advice if u may?

Yeah theres plenty of hiding places, there well fed aswell

Would increasing the variety of food and amount stop this? Maybe hes hungry?

[TaTeR ToT]

Yeah theres plenty of hiding places, there well fed aswell

Would increasing the variety of food and amount stop this? Maybe hes hungry?

There always hungry lol.
What is the size of the tank, temperature, what are you currently feeding?
Water temp being in the higher range ie; 81-85 f can cause increased activity and aggression in some species.
Tank size is important as well, these guys need space they can easily reach 8-9".

[Bajamaniac12]

Some advice if u may?

There always hungry lol.
What is the size of the tank, temperature, what are you currently feeding?
Water temp being in the higher range ie; 81-85 f can cause increased activity and aggression in some species.
Tank size is important as well, these guys need space they can easily reach 8-9".

They have a wide variety of frozen, they have bloodworm pellets algea wafers, watermelon and cucumber, its a 250 litre tank, and im currently slowly reducing the temps down from 91 its at 86atm as i was treating whitespot

[allysangels]

91??? that might be your problem... to treat ich i raise up to about 86. and featherfins are very aggressive toward plecos anyway. troy is right, one of them will need a new home at some point.

[Bajamaniac12]

Some advice if u may?

Yes mate 91, 86 stops ich reproducing and 91 kills it full stop :)

[mistahoo]

91??? that might be your problem... to treat ich i raise up to about 86. and featherfins are very aggressive toward plecos anyway. troy is right, one of them will need a new home at some point.

I'm with Ally on this. I raise the temp to 86 and no higher. My heater doesn't go past 86 anyways and I'm sure my fish wouldn't like the temp higher. True that they stop reproducing at 86, but I had no clue 91 kills them. I've always used the good old remedy of salt and heat at 86. It's worked every single time I've had ich.

[Bajamaniac12]

Some advice if u may?

Thanks people, lowered the temp down to around 76 and the fish are very calm, my BGK even started sleeping upside down lol

[mistahoo]

Re: Some advice if u may?

I wouldn't advise that. Unless the ich is completely gone. I usually treat for about a week after signs of ich are gone to make sure.

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[allysangels]

yup. what he said.:emt_thumbs:

[Bajamaniac12]

Some advice if u may?

I wouldn't advise that. Unless the ich is completely gone. I usually treat for about a week after signs of ich are gone to make sure.

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Yes im sure its completely gone, slowly raised to 91, kept it there for 10 days and then slowly lowered it down again after a massive water change, followed the instructions on a website i found, if i can find it again il put the link up :)

[mistahoo]

Ah. Okay 10 days is enough to kill it with that high of a temp... Your featherfin was probably only aggressive because of the very high temp. My fish get really aggressive when I raise the temp to around 86. I feel them, I get very agitated when the temperature is very high and I'm sweating my a%* off.

[CRUSHER]

Featherfins are punks when it comes to aggression but thank goodness they have tiny mouths and cant cause any damage. underbelly of the pleco is soft so thats why the FF is trying to get them there. i wouldn't worry about it to tell you the truth... just saying