questions about my bristle nose pleco.

I have had a bristle nose pleco for about 3 years. His name is festus. He was adorable and tiny when we first brought him home. The issue is that I already had a traditional pleco and I thought he seemed lonely so I asked the fish salespeople at the store if a traditional and a bristle would get along and of course they said that they would. Needless to say festus was sweet the first year or so while he was still tiny, but as soon as he started to grow and sprouted his bristles, he turned into a little . He's only about 4 inches long and maybe an inch thick, and our traditional, sammy, dwarfs festus, as he's nearly double his size, but festy bullies him endlessly, steals all his food, and aggressively attacks him constantly. I can't keep letting him ruin my sweet sammys life so I wanted to ask...is there anyone near the far northeast (edgewater) side of Chicago who would be willing to come adopt festus and give him a good home? Or would he be able to survive if I were to release him into lake michigan? Please let me know.

 

Question about my bristle nose pleco.

questions about my bristle nose pleco.

questions about my bristle nose pleco.

 

DO NOT release him into the lake. That is illegal, and very bad.

 

It's against the law to release the fish into the lake. I'd call up a few LFS in your area to see if they can take the BN pleco. Bristlenose plecos aren't that rare, they should be willing to at least take it.

 

And he won't survive long either, too cold.

lfs will definitely take them, I'm trading my juvies for rainbow cichlids just finished takking to my guy today.

 

What size is your tank? I'd guess the common pleco is too big for it.....

 

What is lfs?

 

Local fish store. What size is your tank?

 

It's 150 gallon.

 

Do you have a spare tank to put the aggressor in overnight and swap some decorations around in the tank and then reintroduce him after 24 hours and see if that helps?

 

Merged duplicate threads and moved to the pleco forum. Please only post one thread for a particular issue/topic. Makes things less confusing for those responding.

Thanks,
Mike

 

Yes but it's a much smaller tank, only 38 gallons..



Oops. Ok. Sorry...

 

Yes but it's a much smaller tank, only 38 gallons..

38 gallons shouldn't be a problem if the fish is only going to be in there overnight. I'm not proud of it, but I've had to keep fish in some pretty cramped situations for a day or so.

 

Yes but it's a much smaller tank, only 38 gallons..

That's fine for a BN pleco.

 

I called the only local non - chain fish stores around here and all of them said no, but one, and the one that said they'd take him said they'd end up euthanizing him!!

 

Really? That's unfortunate. Are the chain stores willing to do anything? I have one chain pet store (Pet Supermarket) accept fish in the area. I prefer to give them to my LFS though, even though they don't give you credit for the fish.

 

I'm not worried about credit I'm just worried about him ending up somewhere awful...I can try petsmart and Petco I guess.

 

I get what you mean, that's the same reason I avoid giving them to chain pet stores when possible. Not all chain stores are bad, but quality control seems to be better in LFS, since their income is reliant on their stock.

 

If they have room for him..Petco is pretty good about taking fish and putting them up for adoption. I got a BEAUTIFUL bright yellow BN Pleco that way...for free! He/she is doing great!

 

That's fine for a BN pleco.

A med size bn would do fine in there long term if there are no other male plecos.

 

The 38 gal would be fine for a BN pleco. If you don't want to keep him ,you could try putting him on Craigslist. Alison

 

I was thinking...and reading up on this subject... and the question that has NOT been asked is...Do you have any hiding places? The Pleco is somewhat territorial...and if there is no place to hide, then you may have this bullying problem. In a 150 gallon tank, my Lord...you should NOT have a problem..unless there is a lot of open space where they cannot hide.

 

I was thinking...and reading up on this subject... and the question that has NOT been asked is...Do you have any hiding places? The Pleco is somewhat territorial...and if there is no place to hide, then you may have this bullying problem. In a 150 gallon tank, my Lord...you should NOT have a problem..unless there is a lot of open space where they cannot hide.

Great question. Something just doesn't seem right with this problem.