# Oscar attacks Pleco



## Ralphy The Oscar (Mar 17, 2010)

I recently added a Plecro to my tank to help clean it and just to add a tankmate for my oscar. The pleco tends to hide under a rock i have in the tank but when he comes up to suck on the side of the tank my oscar attacks him, the plecro is close in size to my small oscar. Will they ever co-exist?


----------



## johncl (Mar 10, 2010)

Possibly only time will tell. Give the pleco plenty of places to hide you won't see him much but he'll be allot happier. Plecos are mostly nocturnal anyway.


----------



## Briguy (Aug 10, 2009)

My pleco attacks my cichlids. I have 2 unhappy JD's who just got kicked out of their cave when I temporarily re-homed my pleco and catfish


----------



## Ralphy The Oscar (Mar 17, 2010)

yeah the pleco has places to hide and i will be putting them in a new tank soon so maybe they will adjust better with more space.


----------



## moto_master (Jun 23, 2006)

My plecos get in fights with all my other fish (Oscars and African cichlids). They are tough creatures and hold their own on my fish tank. I only EVER lost one pleco, and it was a very small one that I had just added to my full grown Oscar tank. My female oscar swam right over and ate him whole. I never made that mistake again...
If they're the same size then it should be ok.


----------



## Ralphy The Oscar (Mar 17, 2010)

The pleco seems to hide a lot under a staircase, but sometimes i come back to my room and turn my light on to see the pleco out and about, does this mean my Oscar has accepted him or does this mean the oscar doesnt attack the pleco in the dark?

and im just curious, how long can a pleco go without eating? I know sometimes oscars can go 1+ weeks without eating if they are fussy eaters


----------



## moto_master (Jun 23, 2006)

In my experience, plecos seem to be nocturnal, and oscars seem to sleep at night. So if it's almost pitch black when you have the lights off, then the Oscar may be asleep, and the pleco may be comfortable enough to come out and look for food. If it's not pitch black then it may be a mixture of what we both said.

I hardly ever feed my plecos. They usually get their food from eating the algae off the tank, or eating little scraps that the Oscar misses. Oscars are messy eaters so there are usually plenty of scraps...


----------



## slimjon (Mar 27, 2010)

moto_master said:


> In my experience, plecos seem to be nocturnal...


I agree with this statement.. Most of their activity is during at night... at least for mine.


----------



## mok3t (Nov 28, 2008)

Careful, i had a common pleco spaz out one night and kill a bunch of piranhas. Not a mark on him (Not fresh anyway) and 3 dead red bellies in the morning hehe. Re homed him and he beat up on my buddies gars and arowana. They can be horrible gits when they feel like it.


----------



## Ralphy The Oscar (Mar 17, 2010)

My oscar has established dominance for the most part, they seem to get along now and feeding them before i sleep and turn off lights seems to help him eat.

Thanks for the help


----------

