Im starting to get a little worried ill have to seperate my pleco and o.
the o has now taken two chunks out of my plec's fin. I know its natural for them to get beat up. But if this continues should i seperate them??

I wouldn't go as far as to say it is natural for them to get beat up. In the wild, they probably would avoid each other. If the Oscar continues to pick on the Plec, you'd be better off finding a new home for it.

How big is your time? Aggression problems can often flareup if the tank isn't that big. The bigger the tank, the more chance they have of getting away from each other, they can't do this in a small environment so aggression is sometimes made worse by this situation.

How big is your O?
and how big is your plec?

Yes im in the middle of finding a bigger tank. hoping to find a 100 gal. And my o is bout 7-8 inch and my plec bout 6 1/2 inch

I am not a great lover of plecos. The majority of one sold in the fish stores are just too big for most people's tanks.if anything is going to turn your water to crap, it's one of these creatures. Anyway, that's just my opinion, lots of people like them.

Koffy wrote:


personally i like plecos but they become really big but it's a great fish.
i had a pleco that was about 12 inches. because they are night active they can be a problem. at night he created chaos in the tank. my o's paniced and i was forced to sell him.

smikeb wrote:
[quote]Koffy wrote:


This is a very good point that not many people realise. Plecos are nocturnal and will be active at night. Most other fish are not and will sleep when the lights go out. A large pleco will cause a lot of disturbance at night and has even been known to cause ulcers by sucking on the side of fish.

Really, the larger Plecos need around 100 gallons just to themselves, so really you should think twice about getting one if you haven't got a very big tank.

Well ive been trying a few different things. the waters fine. just tested a day ago. I changed my feeding and water changes (time and amount). I will be getting a bigger tank at the end of the month. and i think that the major problem was that he's bored. my plec seems to come out and play??? i use that lighty, he's alot more active during the day than the other one i have in my other tank. I dunno. everything seems to be better now. NO fights anyway.

And im thinking of couple of zebra cat's instead. May have to setup my angelfish tank for those guys though.

Thanks for all the help.