AGH! My turtle ate the plecostomus!

[Columbia]

$6 down the drain... ugh.. that dang turtle.

[Lefta Dissenter]

1. Maybe that's to make up for

my plecostomus eating my daughter's 'bubble' goldfish! :cry:

Now we have one plecostomus alone in a 27-gallon tank. He's only about 1 1/2 inches long, but I'm afraid to get any other fish, for fear they'll be killed, too! :( Maybe I need a turtle.......

[Columbia]

3. You can send your pleco to me

And I'll be sure to introduce him to my turtle. This is the 3rd one he's eaten! One of them lasted for several months so I was hoping this one would too. Oh well.

[jmowreader]

13. Are you sure the goldfish wasn't already dead?

Plecos will eat dead fish, but generally won't kill them (except for panaques killing piranhas; many piranhas subsist by eating fish fins. This naturally pisses off the panaque, which is completely encased in bony armor. A few hard hits from the panaque solves this problem.

[Lefta Dissenter]

16. Yes, unfortunately,

He just dogged and dogged that fish, and we couldn't catch either one to either rescue the goldfish or re-locate the pleco. Pick, pick, pick, pick... what a little snot! The only way I'd be able to catch him is to virtually drain the tank down to a couple of inches.

[ZenLefty]

2. I had an eel that ate almost every roomate he ever had.

First went the angel fish and gourami. Then the small shark. Then the oscar. I tried a lobster, figuring it was armor plated, but no. Eel just buried himself under the rocks and waited for the lobster to step near and then YANK - one leg missing. Repeat procedure for each leg and you have a defenseless lobster.

He pulled snails out of the shell, too.

I finally got him a big catfish, almost as big as him. They lived together for years.

Ex-wife got mad at me one day and killed them both. @#&$!^!!

[Columbia]

5. I'll remember not to get an eel

Or any more turtles for that matter. I just want a nice, balanced, symbiotic tank...

[radwriter0555]

4. You didn't know about them toitles eating their room-mates, eh?

Hate it when that happens.

[Columbia]

6. I did

But I was hoping that he'd change his ways... I was wrong...

[Lizz612]

9. My sister's ate all the snails

We dumped about 2 dozen little snails in the tank, thinking, "hey they'll help keep things clean!" Within a week there were no snails, not a one. For his meat needs he gets bait minnows, any nasty bugs caught in the house and those big grubs from the garden.

[blindpig]

7. don't tell my turtles!

they'll get pissed, all they get are $2 a dozen minnows.

[geniph]

8. Get a bigger pleco next time

would have taken a frigging loggerhead to eat my big fellow, Duke, by the end of his life. I had him for at least 10 years, and he got to be over a foot long. He never bothered any of my tetras or dwarf clawed frogs, either.

[Columbia]

10. I've been searching for one

But all I can find are medium ones about 3" long or so. I'd probably need one that is 6-8" to survive. Are there any online giant pleco stores that ship to California?

[geniph]

11. This place sells 7-8" ones

http://store.yahoo.com/fish2u/scpx.html

[Columbia]

14. Wow, what an awesome store!

The only problem is that shipping may cost upwards of $30-35. I'm not sure getting a pleco for $40+ would really be worth it. Thanks for the site though!

[jmowreader]

12. Grow your own!

If you have a 30-gallon aquarium as a hospital tank, get a pleco, put him in there, and leave zucchini in with him all the time. He'll be huge in no time.

Alternate means: Put an ad in the paper looking for one. Most of the people who buy these cute innocent-looking little fish don't realize they'll grow to 12" in a year and a half if you feed them. Also call the local Petsmart--the one in Fayetteville gets a foot-long pleco every once in a while from someone who didn't realize how big they get and doesn't have the room or the money to install a large tank. They go quick to people who buy 125-gallon aquariums for Oscars and need big plecos now.

Fun fact about plecos: They are the only fish that can live with piranhas; the armor on a loricariid is so strong a piranha can't bite through it. Panaques can't be put in with piranha; panaques can kill piranhas by ramming them.

[Columbia]

15. Good idea

Thanks for the advice!

How long do you think it will take a 3" one will grow to grow to 6"+?

[Hand]

17. Insh'Allah... nt

[Columbia]

18. God-willing?

Don't really think that is appropriate for the topic.