my pleco is a bully!?

[d3r]

I have a tank with 8 red belly piranhas. They were my gateway into "monster fish keeping" as I've only had standard goldfish as a kid.

After doing some research i wanted to get a pleco in with them as piranha keepers said it was possible because Red bellys are normally flight>fight and skittish.

So i bought a 4incher...unfortunately it only took 2 days for my Reds to make him disappear. I felt awful but was determined to get a pleco in there. So i got an idea to buy one bigger than the piranhas.

This seemed to work! A little too well. I bought a 8inch pleco and he takes no crap from any red belly. In fact it almost seems like he trolls them for fun.

Doing things like bolting right through the shoal to watch them all scatter...stealing their carnivore pellets when they're trying to eat, kicking them off their spawns and eating their eggs.. when he sucks the side of the tank he swings his head intentionally to hit as many P's as he can.

Are plecos normally this aggressive? Like i said im not a fish expert by any means but it doesn't seem normal to me haha.
(I'm not sure what type of pleco it is..I'm sure its a common one)

 

[Plec123]

How big is the tank? does the pleco have lots of caves and stuff to hide in/under?

 

[Evz jardini]

Some plecs are aggressive especially commons ive had commons that constantly faught with my jardini , jag and my wolf fish , shredded fins and bite marks never stopped him
I've currently got a 10" common in my growout that dont take any crap off stock in that tank either

 

[d3r]

@plec123- the tank is a 120 gallon. Most of my Ps are 5-6". i have 2 around 8". I wouldn't say the plec has A LOT of caves to hide in but he has 2 spots where only he goes. 1 under HIS driftwood and sometimes he sits inside a large alligator skull i have in the tank..both places the Ps can't bother him.

@evz- maybe ill try to get a good pic of him today and you guys can make an ID on him. but ye, its weird like he enjoys screwing with them. who wouldve thought a plec would be the alpha in a piranha tank hahah...even during feeding time he has no problem coming out n mixing it up with the Ps.

 

[Warborg]

Are you keeping the pleco full with his own food? Most of the time aggression from plecos comes from fighting over food. Most of the time a full pleco becomes a lazy pleco which means a peaceful pleco.

Edit: It's also possible that last owner didn't feed the pleco and the pleco had to fight to eat. So he's just going off old habits.

 

[d3r]

I feed all the fish every other day. the pleco gets algae tabs or assorted veggies on a clip.. if i put a zucchini in there right before bed it'll be sucked down to the skin the next morning. Unless plecos are just greedy feeders and are always looking for food even when they are full? Idk..i would think he's getting enough to eat.

 

[Divinehammer]

I can tell you from what I see from my 9 Plecos in my 240, my big Common female 18" runs the tank, will beat the crap out of my 9-10" Oscars, they will not put up with crap, I have seen one of my Oscars run across the tank with the pleco in full chase and didn't stop till it ***** slap the oscar, yet on the other hand it can be very protective of the smaller plecos in the tank. Even my 17" RTC will not mess with it, keeping it well feed mine will quiet happily mow through 1 whole zucchini, a full pleco is a happy pleco. but in most cases unless annoyed by others usually they pretty passive, remember plecos also require protein in their diet as well that could be why it's going after the other food, algae and veggies don't cut it with larger plecos, or you may have ended up with one that was picked on by Cichlids in the past, I have one Gold spotted sailfin that is only 7" and is the toughest SOB you ever saw, I put it when it was 3-4" in my African tank and it got the snot kicked out of it, after a healing it for 4 months it's growth is stunted but it still takes on the larger fish in the tank, they have great memories and it will now and again go after any fin nipper in the tank even if it wasn't being done to it.