Topic: Aggressive Pleco?

[Aziem]

Well, my pleco was killed by my oscar a week ago. I don't know what happened but one day, my best friend came and said "hey, your fish killed your pleco! " I looked in the tank and only saw the pleco's head! When i first bought the pleco and the oscar, they were of the same size. But i guess the pleco was scared of the oscar and was always hiding under/behind the bogwood i have in my tank. And everytime i feed the pleco, the oscar would be the one that snatches the food! Poor pleco never gets his share!! So, he didn't grow but the oscar sure did. From a 3 inches to now about 8 inches! Sigh...my pleco never had the chance to defend himself..

[lighter]

Are pleco's normally aggressive?  I have a bristlenose pleco that is constantly chasing my smallest oscar around the tank even when the oscar is nowhere near it, it'll just take off from the side of the tank and head straight toward the same fish every time

This is an unusual behaviour! Normally plecos will only defend that particular area and as long as nobody disturbs area there, it'll be fine. Of course breeding time it'll be more inaccurate to say this. So far the only "fighter" plecos i've seen are among royals. They're really aggressive towards royals and especially those of similar sizes.

[Dan]

Mine does exactly that and whatever territory he decides he feels like taking over, LOL. He king of my tank.

[raven]

My pleco and my Raphaello cat are in the same tank together. They pretty much seemed to ignore each other, but today, I was watching them, and I haven't decided if they are being 'social' with each other, or if the pleco is actually getting territorial. Either way, I'm not too worried as the Raph is larger than the pleco, and he's very very spiny, so the 'goofball' won't hurt him if he even tries! It's fun to watch them interract with each other, though.

Mr Runnerup; Well, at first, the male FM was really mean to the female, but before I gave them away, it looked like they were starting to 'like' each other. They started doing weird stuff, well, kindof like a Con's dance, I guess. I should've kept them. It would have been cool to raise fry by mouth brooders. Maybe I'll find myself a new pair one of these days. They were actually my very first ever cichlids.

[Dan]

Firemouths are cool fish!  I still might get one.  They can tend to be major pain in the asses sometimes, by causing trouble, they can't handle, but for the most part, I feel it's worth the risk.