upside down pleco should I be concerned??

[rourk89]

I have an 8 to 10 inch pleco that I rescued from a lady about 2 weeks ago. I say rescued because this pleco was living in a 10 gallon tank with 5 guppies in it. Anyway I brought him home and put him in my 55 gallon African cichlid tank. this morning when I turned the lights on I noticed that he was upside down lying at the surface of the water. I bent over to take a look at him and as soon as he saw me he "came back to life" and splashed at the surface and went back to hanging on the side of the tank. has anyone else ever seen this type of behavior? is this something I need to be concerned about?

 

[rourk89]

addition to the above. first it was a 20 gallon tank, and NOT a 10 gallon tank. and second I was just informed that my roomate found the placo just lying at the botom, not moving ro breathing. she went to poke it with a net and BAM he "came back to life".

 

[vanillarum]

The pleco on the bottom and not moving is not unusual. The pleco on the top, upside down, is very unusual. I would be concerned. I have never seen this behavior in the 7 years I have been keeping plecos. Good luck.

 

[ManEatingShrimp]

I have seen my bn plecos swim to the top and hang upside down but usually on for a few seconds. then they swim back to the bottom

 

[Glabe]

it could be a victim of old tank syndrome. moving from horribly maintained tank to a healthy tank can be hard on a fish. it could also be something random, like he's learned to graze off the surface for flakes because people tend to not feed plecos. it happens. best of luck!

 

[verbal]

The motionless on the bottom is not unusual. The upside down at the top is a cause for concern. Just keep the water quality high and hope for the best.

 

[fballguy]

I used to have a pleco that would float upside down at the surface to eat flake food. Maybe yours is just hungry?

 

[rufioman]

^mine used to do that when I first got him and he had a hard time competing with larger fish for food. Only lasted about 2 days once he figured out he was a tougher fish than albino cory cats I would monitor him for a while...could be ots kicking in and taking the poor guy out, but I would imagine he's just shocked and taking a while to break into the tank. What I mean by this is that plecos can take very abrupt changes in water temperature, ph, etc., which isn't good in the first place, and will still turn out alright. The fact that it's responding is a good sign. Dose the tank with prime/stress coat and wait it out.

 

[rourk89]

Thanks, it really seems like OTS. The lady I got him from when I went to buy some cichlids from her, said she was feeding all her fish goldfish flakes cuz they were cheaper and they seemed to like it. And once I heard that I bought the last two fish in her tank that I didnt really want, but immeditaly just had to have. And as I was laving, I saw the pleco out of the corner of my eye and just had to have him too. Thanks for all the info. I shall dose some stress coat and throw in a spectrum alge tablet or two for him tonight

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[excuzzzeme]

Plecos upside down on top or bottom is very normal. Why they do it is anyone's guess. Mine does it from time to time but never for a long duration. Even though I feed him accordingly, on occasion he will go after the Oscar's floating pellets and eat them. While eating he may be upside down or any other position. Sometimes he just rests in odd positions.