# my pleco commited suicide!



## cichlid (Jul 30, 2010)

So today, as I was taking the last three Tropicals out of the tank before I picked up the 5" red zebra from iKuiK, I couldn't find my pleco. i mean how do you loos a 6" long hifin. i ripped out the background paper ( and left it out, I think the tank looks better with out it) I couldn't find him anywhere.

I opened the top draw of the stand I made, under the tank and found a hard crusty dead pleco, laying on its belly almost perfectly reserved. 

The confusing part is that fact that... theres barely any whole for him to jump through. on either side of my filter there are small openigs, one is 2"x1" the other is about 2" square. where he landed in the drawer ( that sticks out a couple inches past the back of the cabinet top) was the 1x2" whole.

WTF?!?


----------



## VinnyD (Apr 21, 2010)

hmm ..seem like your pleco has committed suicide for a while since its hard and crusty(preserved)..but then...dun u look at the fish in your tank at least once a day? oh well..it happens...some animals just like to escape...........may it rest it peace and wish u the best dealing with the situation


----------



## Immus21 (Jun 14, 2010)

It's amazing the tiny openings some fish manage to get out through. It's always a sad day when you find a piece of fish jerky that used to be a prime specimen. Sorry for your lose.


----------



## donjuan_corn (May 6, 2010)

I traded a 10 gallon with filter for a 7 " pleco and the day after i got it I lost it. It took me 2 days to find it. It was 4 meters away from my tank behind a power bar behind the t.v....... couldn't believe it. Man did that stink.


----------



## TCR (Jul 13, 2010)

back when i had a lobster, he always got out. I had about 50lbs of books on the top of the tank so he didnt open anything. He got out anyways... we moved out of the house and I never did find him


----------



## Smiladon (Apr 23, 2010)

I had a Discus jump out from a 1" opening in the back of the tank...He jumped out at night (after or during the lights were turned off) and I found him missing in the morning and I found him in the back of the tank all dried up.

Similar thing happened to one of my Bettas in the past.


----------



## 2wheelsx2 (Apr 21, 2010)

If plecos don't have enough hiding spaces, they feel threatened and will try to get out of the situation. I had a male L144 climb up the outlet (through trickling water, but mostly air) of a Rena SmartFilter and through the filter intake area....3x. I got a piece of wood in the tank for him to hide in and he never did it again.


----------



## neven (May 15, 2010)

i've had a danio jump out and another one got the bright idea to swim into the outtake of my xp1 at full flow. that got caught into a vortex just inside of it, and spun until his head exploded (not sure if it exploded, but there was no head left!)

Wasn't an overstocked tank and low agression at the time, they just decided to go for it. I've also had an amano somehow get out


----------



## eternity302 (Apr 22, 2010)

WOW What a coincidence, my 7" sailfin jumped out 2 days ago =( i had him for 2 years! My ONLY pleco in my life!


----------



## Mferko (Jun 8, 2010)

ive had my aceii so excited at feeding time that they sometimes jump out of the tank by accident and i have to quickly put them back in lol, they jump up and down or just stick the first half of their body out of the water. sometimes you can pet them on the head before feeding them even lol, i like their personality.


----------



## target (Apr 21, 2010)

I've had a bala shark jump out and end up dried up under the couch, an irridescent shark jump out during a water change, dropped him back in easy enough, and a 9" tinfoil barb jump out of the holding tank when I was redoing the main tank. He easily cleared the bin by a foot, dropped almost 3 feet to the ground, then bounced around a few times before I could get him in a net. He was fine though. 

I also had a blue crayfish disappear from my tank. Never found him either.


----------



## WCL (Apr 26, 2010)

cichlid, that sucks about the pleco. Gotta wonder what would prompt it to do that.



Mferko said:


> ive had my aceii so excited at feeding time that they sometimes jump out of the tank by accident and i have to quickly put them back in lol, they jump up and down or just stick the first half of their body out of the water. sometimes you can pet them on the head before feeding them even lol, i like their personality.


My Osessa barbs are very excitable too when feeding. They have leapt up onto the cross pieces supporting the glass lids. They flopped around up there til they fell back in the water. They are not shy at all, i have caught them in my hand and can easily scoop them out of the water with my measuring cup. This is with them 1 to 1 3/4 inches long. I am actually thinking that when they are bigger and fatter, i may need to lessen the population of them because any food will not make it much past the surface of the tank. Feeding time will be insane and other fish will be hard pressed to get food. Very voracious eaters.

I thaw the frozen food with a bit of tank water before throwing it in the tank. I've scooped up a couple of barbs into the cup while i had bloodworms in it. Talk about excited fish.

I came home to an Amano shrimp curled up on the floor 6 feet from the tank.


----------



## user_error (Aug 15, 2010)

think it could be the heat causing these 'prison breaks'?

i've had a read ear slider tutrle and at least 4 shrimps escape my tanks like this, and I even had an african dwarf frog go for it once...

never did find that turtle...


----------



## AvianAquatics (Apr 29, 2010)

Sorry for your loss 
I've had weird things happen to me too... and they were shrimps! One day I found a full grown Tiger Shrimp in my HOB filter. The filter intake was made up of may small holes that were 3mm by 1mm. Just how he got in idk. I also had a divider in my 10Gal separating my Snowball and CRS. Everyday I'd find at least 1 Snowball in the CRS section but never the other way around. It was because the CRS had a piece of driftwood and the other didn't so the Snowballs wasn't happy. I finally gave up and took the divider out and now everyone's happy  So yea, fish, shrimps and other aquatic life forms are master escapees when they are unhappy, or just plain curious!


----------



## iKuik (Apr 24, 2010)

That sucks man... at least you got a free fish 

I find that places can almost 'crawl' with their mouths. They are actually very powerful.

How is the red zebra anyway?


----------



## Mferko (Jun 8, 2010)

WCL said:


> cichlid, that sucks about the pleco. Gotta wonder what would prompt it to do that.
> 
> My Osessa barbs are very excitable too when feeding. They have leapt up onto the cross pieces supporting the glass lids. They flopped around up there til they fell back in the water. They are not shy at all, i have caught them in my hand and can easily scoop them out of the water with my measuring cup. This is with them 1 to 1 3/4 inches long. I am actually thinking that when they are bigger and fatter, i may need to lessen the population of them because any food will not make it much past the surface of the tank. Feeding time will be insane and other fish will be hard pressed to get food. Very voracious eaters.
> 
> ...


lol ya ive had amanos jump out as well and also somehow make their way into the hob filter, theyre pretty good little jumpers tbh. once i even saw one jump out of teh back of the tank and i think it scurried under the baseboards or something cuz i never found it, i just found a missing piece of aceii jerky while looking


----------



## cichlid (Jul 30, 2010)

the pleco had lots of hiding space, i had a cave in there and it was his... I will add some pics when i get a minute to show how crazy of a situation it was. 

The red zebra seems to be loving it, he has a full 25 gallons to himself, he is shredding my cabamba..lol. which is good, cuz he doesnt like the food I have..what did you feed him?


----------



## iKuik (Apr 24, 2010)

Thats good! Some fish are just crazy lol

I feed my fish (which are all cichlids) New Life Spectrum sinking pellets. You can buy a big bucket of it off of eBay for around $50 and it lasts me for all my fish for more than 6 months.


----------



## Mferko (Jun 8, 2010)

iKuik said:


> Thats good! Some fish are just crazy lol
> 
> I feed my fish (which are all cichlids) New Life Spectrum sinking pellets. You can buy a big bucket of it off of eBay for around $50 and it lasts me for all my fish for more than 6 months.


mine love that stuff too and it seems to last sooo long.


----------



## cichlid (Jul 30, 2010)

I have nutrafin max sapultra sticks right now, he has started to eat it... and most of my cabamba. lol


----------



## roshan (Jul 19, 2010)

*I can relate*

My pleco jumped out of my 55gal tank when i slammed my sticky door shut one day, thankfully i was there to here the plop as it landed and after trying to get those barbs from his mouth free of the carpet, i put him back. I had him for four years before he passed on. ( R.I.P bigmutha)


----------

