BN plecos really mean during feeding time...

[kieran01pd2016]

Yesterday I noticed increased aggression from one of my two bristle nose plecos during feeding time in my community tank.

Usually it's very peaceful at all other times, but when the pellets start dropping, MAN is the BN mean. There's 2 of them in the tank (180L with plenty of plant coverage) and one of them is fine, but the other one runs around charging all the cardinals, rummy nose, a pair of breeding rams, and a handful of corys.

The aggressive BN had always been a little aggressive with food, but yesterday I noticed a lot more chasing and literal THRASHING. Most of the fish get out of the way but they come back for bites and then get chased away again.

I do usually feed them once a day and I feel like they're getting plenty of food. A mix of flakes/pellets for the mid-level fish and algae wafers/sinking pellets for the bottom feeders (strangely enough, the plecos go HAM for the sinking pellets and the corys love the algae wafers )

Does anyone have any tips on how to reduce the aggression? I'll most likely try to move the aggressive BN to a new tank once I can afford to set up another one, but for now I need to try to keep the peace.

 

[Ceez]

Theres a few things you can do.

1) rearrange your tank. Literally move everything and totally redesign it. This has worked for me numerous times with angels and plecos.

2) make sure you have enough caves for all the plecos to have their own homes. I've noticed a few times when my plecos won't choose a home and they're forced to stay out all the time they will become aggressive to anything near them. If you have enough caves and they won't choose one you don't have the right cave for them.

3) in extreme cases you can use a breeder box for small plecos like your bristle nose. I have a golden nugget that ive had to do this with. He's literally 3.5" and goes after my watermelon pleco who's about 10-11". I left him in the breeder box for around 12hrs and he changed his tune after that.

Sometimes there's nothing you can do, some fish are just inherently aggressive and go all agro on anything in their site. I've mostly experienced this with angel fish but it's not uncommon for other fish as well. I've traded fish with the my local lfs in the past to get rid of problem fish. Sucks but you can't always fix their problem

 

[kieran01pd2016]

Theres a few things you can do.

1) rearrange your tank. Literally move everything and totally redesign it. This has worked for me numerous times with angels and plecos.

2) make sure you have enough caves for all the plecos to have their own homes. I've noticed a few times when my plecos won't choose a home and they're forced to stay out all the time they will become aggressive to anything near them. If you have enough caves and they won't choose one you don't have the right cave for them.

3) in extreme cases you can use a breeder box for small plecos like your bristle nose. I have a golden nugget that ive had to do this with. He's literally 3.5" and goes after my watermelon pleco who's about 10-11". I left him in the breeder box for around 12hrs and he changed his tune after that.

Sometimes there's nothing you can do, some fish are just inherently aggressive and go all agro on anything in their site. I've mostly experienced this with angel fish but it's not uncommon for other fish as well. I've traded fish with the my local lfs in the past to get rid of problem fish. Sucks but you can't always fix their problem

Rearranging would be really hard... It's heavily planted and that would uproot everything. Plus the last time I did a little rescape it ended up spiking my ammonia as I moved the substrate too much.

Cave wise, I feel like there's plenty of hiding spaced + driftwood for him to hide in. It's not really territorial as much as just food aggression.

I could try a little time out box catching him to get into the breeder would probably be the hardest part lol.

As for LFS, do they usually trade in fish? I'm quite new to the hobby. I wouldn't mind doing that but I would assume that LFS wouldn't want to take fish from another tank and try to resell them - I may be wrong though.

 

[MaloK]

The only way I found, is that you make sure that he is 1st fed and is apart of the rest of the "group" when it happens.

And also making sure that he is well occupied for a moment (mouth really full). This could help give a break to the others.

 

[kiko]

I would probably move the caves around
as for feeding...try this...
freeze dried bloodworms just a few...almost everyone will eat this...
hikari micro pellets for cardinals/rummynose and the pellets you're using for the plecos/cories
I wouldn't trade a pleco simply because it defends its turf. If anything, that's the one pleco I'd for sure keep.
Because when it comes time for breeding, that's for sure a male that will hunt females down
Pics would be nice but just in case...some hard objects like stones or whatever the cories can hide under or inside...cholla wood is nice for this
as for feeding algae wafers to the plecos...they can eat whatever algae off the tank
I use these for my plecos:

Amazon.ca

Amazon.ca

and frozen bloodworms once a week
freeze dried bloodworms for the fish that swim around the tank....and the micropellets for rasboras, neon tetras even cories will eat them too
the carnivore pellets I only feed 1 pellet per day so 1 bag for sure will last a VERY long time...no need to get that big of a bag
but for sure all the bottom feeders...plecos, hillstream loaches, cories, neon tetras, rasboras will eat those bug bite ones so make sure to feed those fish first before the pellets
I keep only 2 types of plecos...L46 (zebra plecos) and L144 (short-fin blue-eyed lemon BN)

 

[Jamie D.]

I feed my community tank small amounts twice daily, and the plecos (I have two - a clown pleco and a leopard frog pleco) grab some little things then, but specifically for the plecos, I wait until after the lights go out just before I'm heading to bed, and I drop some sinking wafers in just for them, right by their individual caves. Since it's dark in the tank and the room (I turn the room lights off right after) and everyone else is pretty sedate, the plecos don't have much (if any) competition for food, and my leopard frog pleco especially waits for his pellets to drop and grabs them right up to take back to his cave.

Might be something to try...see if your bristlenose getting his food when there isn't so much general chaos helps him calm down a bit during community feeding time?

 

[kieran01pd2016]

I feed my community tank small amounts twice daily, and the plecos (I have two - a clown pleco and a leopard frog pleco) grab some little things then, but specifically for the plecos, I wait until after the lights go out just before I'm heading to bed, and I drop some sinking wafers in just for them, right by their individual caves. Since it's dark in the tank and the room (I turn the room lights off right after) and everyone else is pretty sedate, the plecos don't have much (if any) competition for food, and my leopard frog pleco especially waits for his pellets to drop and grabs them right up to take back to his cave.

Might be something to try...see if your bristlenose getting his food when there isn't so much general chaos helps him calm down a bit during community feeding time?

I'll definetly give that a shot. I think having the other fish sleeping could help reduce the overall frenzy that happens at feeding time.

 

[GaryE]

Another old trick is the simplest. Three different feeding spots. An aggressive fish can't be everywhere at once.

Plus - is there any evidence of injuries to tankmates?

 

[DoubleDutch]

Yesterday I noticed increased aggression from one of my two bristle nose plecos during feeding time in my community tank.

Usually it's very peaceful at all other times, but when the pellets start dropping, MAN is the BN mean. There's 2 of them in the tank (180L with plenty of plant coverage) and one of them is fine, but the other one runs around charging all the cardinals, rummy nose, a pair of breeding rams, and a handful of corys.

The aggressive BN had always been a little aggressive with food, but yesterday I noticed a lot more chasing and literal THRASHING. Most of the fish get out of the way but they come back for bites and then get chased away again.

I do usually feed them once a day and I feel like they're getting plenty of food. A mix of flakes/pellets for the mid-level fish and algae wafers/sinking pellets for the bottom feeders (strangely enough, the plecos go HAM for the sinking pellets and the corys love the algae wafers )

Does anyone have any tips on how to reduce the aggression? I'll most likely try to move the aggressive BN to a new tank once I can afford to set up another one, but for now I need to try to keep the peace.

Sounds like they are hungry. Leave cumcumber, sweet pepper, brussels sprouts or something. Also remember they are omnivores that's why they gi for the pellets.

 

[kieran01pd2016]

Another old trick is the simplest. Three different feeding spots. An aggressive fish can't be everywhere at once.

Plus - is there any evidence of injuries to tankmates?

No evidence of injuries... Last few days I've been dropping a pellet right in front of him so that while he has his mouth full, the others get fed and that seems to do the job to minimize the aggression