Hey, I don't know if this is the right place to post this but I am having a problem with my young pleco. He is only like three inches long, he is very healthy and he eats well. He is currently in a QT tank, I only got him recently, with good water params and he gets an algae tablet at night. However, he seems to be EXTREMELY light sensitive! I turn on my tank lights when I get home from school and leave them on for like 6 hours-ish but whenever I turn on the light in his tank he turns pale yellow and clamps his fins. He has lots of hiding spots, plants, rock structures, drift wood, but even when he is away from the light he is all pale and sickly looking. He also starts to get red patches on his dorsal fin when I leave the light on for more than an hour or two. I use a 12W incandescent aquarium clear light bulb. Is that too strong? For now I am just leaving the light off all the time, (He is totally healthy and happy when the light is off), but I want to move him to a bigger tank soon and the lights have to be on in that tank.

Any thoughts? Thanks !

they are mostly noctternal so they like the dark. but i don't know much about them.
hey can u get a pic of the tank???

Also can you post your exact water params? This may help more to pinpoint a problem.

Ammonia: 0
NitrAte: 20 - ish
Nitrite: 0
pH: 7.8

I wish I could get good pics of the tank but I can't seem to get the lighting to show up right on my digital camera so you can't really see him at all. There is just a whisper filter in there but, as I said, he should be moving to a bigger tank with two biowheel filters and bubble wand pretty soon!

Thanx!

Also, he changes color rapidly. Like within a few minutes of turning on the tank light he gets pale. As soon as I turn the light off, he gets his color back and gets totally active and happy again. He is even active during the day if the light is off!

That is really odd! Params look good to me. I hope someone can help you more. Good luck!

Maybe it just turns lighter because it's environment gets lighter? It also sounds like the constant on and off of lights just spooks it.

Is the plec a common plec or is it somthing special? Some plecs are nocturnal but others are not. There are so many L numbers with different needs you might not have exactly what you thought lol.

I have a few fish that are jumpy with lights, Ive added some tall plants and some floating plants to subdue the light in the tank in areas, Ive found this to help them quite a lot. Clamped fins could be a problem though keep an eye on him.

Wow! Everyone replies so fast - I this forum! Well, the tank I bought my plec from was labeled as simply Pleco so I asumed common. However he looks more like a sailfin pleco, it is just too hard to tell with Plecos from pet stores. Anyways, he only clamps his fins after the light has been on for like 30 mins or so but normally his fins are up in the "I'm happy and healthy" position! He has lots of stuff to hide behind and underneath in his tank but he still gets upset with the light. He is weird because he rests in the morning and while I am at school but he seems to get up pretty early for a nocturnal animal! He is super active throughout most of the late afternoon/evening and all through the night. When he is up he eats - and poops - like a maniac! I just want him to be able to go in the big tank but I don't think my other community fish would like it dark 24/7 for him!

Thanks again for replies!

Do you turn the light on after the sun has come up and its already nice and bright in the room? Do you have brightly colored gravel? Some of my fish spook easilly, so I don't turn my light on til its naturally bright in my room, and I keep dark gravel so it is not so glaring for them.

Hi I was just wondering how big the main tank is? Common plecs usually need a 6 foot tank to be comfy, 4 foot minimum. They will usually grow to around 16 inches (1 and a half foot) and as they grow older will become very teritorial towards other bottom dwellers especialy large ones if you have any other plecs or things like synos or big loaches?

When you transfer them to the main tank you may find that they will take their own teritory like a cave or a rock and hang around that, this would help alot with the stress as if they were in their cave it would mean that they wouldnt be out all the time at lights on and so might not get so stressed. You might find that in the company of other fish they migh calm down as well.

An other thing ive thought of could be giving them a varied diet to settle them in? Plecs love cucumber! I weight it down to a rock with a food tie thing and its just the skin in less than a day. Plecs will eat letuice and other greens as well. If you can get a sinking freeze dry food for the bottom it might help as well.

Kissy - I always turn the light on in the afternoon after it is already light out, I figured he would hate it if I just flicked on the light first thing in the morning, (I would hate that!) The gravel in there is like... natural color...??? I don't really know how to describe it. It is like small, natural river rocks that are in red/orange/brown tones. Would that be too light? I'm not sure, I could spring for darker gravel if that is what is spooking him.

im-trying - The main tank is 65 gallons with lots of hiding places like driftwood, fake plants, and rock caves. There are no other botton dwellers, just a pair of dwarf gouramis, (they are suprisingly peaceful! And sooooo cute! ) and some schools of black skirt, black phanton, and penguin tetras. I didn't know how big plecos could get when I first bought him so I was going to put him in with goldfish , thank god I came here and did my research! So now he is going in the 65. I think that is an alright size for him???

Oh, I definitely want to try giving him cucumber! Will it get the water gross if he doesn't eat all of it and it sits overnight?

I used to have that natural gravel but the first few months I did not have a light so when I did put a light in, my fish really freaked out. I switched to black gravel soon after and they calmed down and their colors showed better. That is my experience.

The gravel in the main tank is darker so hopefully he will like that better!

It should be fine i think if he is the only bottom dweller and if you give him the cucumber in the morning and take it out before you go to bed thats what I do.

They grow quite rapidly for the first 6-7 inches then slow down for a while but they will make at least a foot

Thanks! He's moving to the big tank soon so hopefully he will do better in there.

I know some plecos can change their coloring to match their mood. When my common was happy or defensive he would flare out all his fins and his orange coloring between the dark spots got much darker/brighter.

OOOO! That makes sense. I noticed that he will flare his fins and get really orange in between his spots when he is swimming around at night. Hopefully he will be happier in the big tank and won't get pale as much.