Marinero

Howdy,

Just got a rubber lip pleco to try to solve my algea problem without getting a pleco that will grow 2 feet long. The only problem is the little guy seems to only be interested in hiding under a rock ornamate and not in getting busy on the algea.

How good of cleaners are these guys supposed to be compared to common pleco? Is it just me, or do they seem much more shy? Are they too shy to get to work?

Marc

How long have you had it? I've had mine for 2 days now and it will hide/stop moving if it sees me and thinks I'm looking. I went to the other side of the room, though, and watched it happily eat off of the side of the tank

It's a pretty timid fish (well, if it sees a person) and will hide if it's not used to you

EmpPleco

I don't have a rubber lip pleco, I have an Emporer Pleco, which is a good algae eater as well. Mine does the same thing as Marc's does. He hides until he thinks I am not looking, then he cleans away
I do think that the smaller plecos are very shy And the bigger ones would be too if they had big enogh places to hide. Joke - haha. :P NEwho - All fish need a couple days to adjust to their new environment as well. Just give the little guy some time

newbie101

I've had mine since early November and he still NEVER ever comes out. I have this little bridge in the back corner of the tank and he (literally) hangs out on the underside of that. IN the last couple months I've never seen him come out. He used to come out and then retreat when he saw me, but now nobody ever sees him out. He didn't do a thing when I had an algae problem and now I've noticed a bit of algae here and there but he never eats it.

newbie101

I think I might try getting some more hidey-holes for him and see if that helps

Butterfly

Most plecos are nocturnal and come out very infrequently in the daytime. So give him a few days to get settled in and check your algae
Although my Rhino Pleco (Pterygoplichthys scorphus) comes out all the time.
Carol

Marinero

Well finally on night #3 I've seen evidence of the little guy's work. This morning about 75% of the algae on the inside of the aquarium glass was gone! ...sneaky.

atmmachine816

rubberlip pleco is also called a rubbernose pleco and bulldog pleco and gets around 4 inches right