Constantly hiding rubber lip pleco

So I have a rubber lip pleco and since ive gotten him (about two weeks ago) I never see him unless hes in a piece of decor you can see into. He spends most of his time on a peice of driftwood in a small hidden cave hes made under it. Whenever I feed him I never see him out either the only reason I know hes eating is because theres always a large chunk out of the wafer. I know they are nocturnal but hes just such a cool fish and I wish I could see him more. I also noticed since I got him hes gone from solid grey to having yellow stripes on him and was wondering what that was. Any info is useful. Thank you.

 

with my first bn pleco he didnt come out for a month, my second came out that day some of them can be very nervious,shy and shocked when in new environments so try to feed him out in the open forcing him to come out if he wants food, is there any larger fish that may be picking on him forcing him to feel like hiding? Its normal for plecos to hide and often not be seen for a while.

 

Plecos do hide A LOT of the time. I wouldnt worry about that. Do you have a pic of the stripes?

 

I have one bristlenose that has gone so long without being seen before that I thought it was dead. Now I'm just used to the fact that it is VERY good at hide-and-seek so I don't worry too much. The one in my other tank I see on almost a daily basis. I think it varies on the individual fish. I have also heard rubber nose plecos tend to hide more. My nephew has one that stays in its hide all the time.

 

with my first bn pleco he didnt come out for a month, my second came out that day some of them can be very nervious,shy and shocked when in new environments so try to feed him out in the open forcing him to come out if he wants food, is there any larger fish that may be picking on him forcing him to feel like hiding? Its normal for plecos to hide and often not be seen for a while.

No hes in a 40 fallon tank with 4 platys and some shrimp. I have really stocked too much yet just adding little by little

Plecos do hide A LOT of the time. I wouldnt worry about that. Do you have a pic of the stripes?

The blurry one was a pic of the first day I got him(sorry for the quality he was quite active that day) and the one with stripes is what he looks like now. I just wanna make sure he dosent have some fish disease I dont know about. Ive had a bad experience with ick about 2 years ago.

 

No it doesnt look like Ich I think it looks ok.

 

Think it probably is a Chaetostoma formosae and the stripes are more or less stressrelated.

Remind these are wildcaught and it might like some bloodworms and brineshrimp as well.

 

Think it probably is a Chaetostoma formosae and the stripes are more or less stressrelated.

Remind these are wildcaught and it might like some bloodworms and brineshrimp as well.

Yeah I looked further into the species and lots of them looked like they had the stripes. And when feeding him brine shrimp I should do the tablets of fresh brine shrimp. Thanks.

 

Yeah I looked further into the species and lots of them looked like they had the stripes. And when feeding him brine shrimp I should do the tablets of fresh brine shrimp. Thanks.

It will eat both eventually, but they're wildcaught so are not immediately familiar with tablets.