was niping at two of m fish. he nibbled pieces of there fins off. should I try a rubberlip?

btw happy late new year

I would get rid of the little brat ASAP!! As for maybe getting a rubberlip, I don'y know. I'm haven't done much research on plecos but I seem to remember being told that they are more placid than the bristlenoses.

Alot of people have kept bristle's with goldies and have not had any problems what-so -ever.There are always exceptions to the rules though. I would keep an eye on him,and if he continues to be a nuisence,(sp?),then you may want to consider removing him all together.Good luck!

all you need is a bigger tank. thats what i believe. my goldfishies and pleco live happily together. they dont bother each other whatsoever. why not try for a common? my common is soo peaceful. oh and do you have at least two caves for the pleco? it needs two or more caves.

Hi Keisha.

I have an idea that maybe there are some other underlying problems here.

What do you feed it? Veggies? Do you feed food specifically for it at every meal? Do you stick around to make sure it gets it?

Is there any driftwood available for it? (some say it's necessary)

Are there large enough hiding places for it where goldies wont be able to disturb it?

Does it have a regular lighting schedule?

Are the goldfish that were nibbled on bottom sitters? Are they very round or plump to where they have a hard time swimming?

I think you can see where I'm going with this. A malnourished pleco, no matter what variety, will take advantage of a sick or slow swimming goldfish to get nourishment.

One of the best way to find out if your pleco is well fed or not is to look at their heads jus behind their eyes. There are two ridges of bone there that has fat or muscle in between them. If that area seems to sink in a bit, your pleco needs more food. If it is a very even roundedness all around that area, it is getting the nutrition it needs.

What does yours look like?

Post back soon.

my plecos swim and attaches itself almost toward the surface of the tank sometimes.

ive also heard driftwood is necessary. but never experienced it myself. another thing is, try to distract the goldfish for the pleco to eat. goldfish will always be pigs when eating and can take away the pleco's food.

Raith, hate to be a brat but Common plecos are really not recommended to be kept with goldfish. They get humongous and as they get older they get a taste for goldfishs slime coat. Their are exceptions to the rule, which is hopefully what you have.

I have a bristlenose with my goldfish and hes a complete doll, hangs out in the cave all day and my fish don't bother him, its like they know its his cave lol, I also have snails and he doesn't bother with them either, what I found that seems to help is last week I hung a slice of cucumber in the tank with a veggie clip cause I wasn't sure if he was getting enough to eat as well as the snails, have piggie goldfish. especially one of them, anyway, the fish put a dent into it and when I got up the next morning the whole inside of the slice was missing, so someone had a meal last night! I figured I would do that about once a week, this week we are going to try an apple... good luck and hope this helps
my bristlenose cleaned my tank of all algae his first night home, so thought if theres not much around I would stick a veggie or fruit in there about once a week, otherwise I don't want him to become lazy and depend on real food and not do his job of cleaning

I've never had a bristlenose bother ANY of my fish (short of smacking them with its tail if they pick on it), and I've had 5 so far... my goldies and bristle will share zuchanni and other veggies no problem at all.

Are you sure its a bristlenose? Did you actually see the pleco nipping at them or are you guessing it was him?

there are other reasons but this is most likely : plecos are just down-right grumpypants who get agitated when any funny looking orange fat guy comes swimming along and starts testing you to see if your food, wouldn't you be grumpy ? Plecos need their own hiding places and LOTS of shaded hidey spots mine gets verrry grumpy when disturbed. :duck

no problem. my pleco dont have that problem, at least not yet. hes twice the size of the goldfishes.