I think my bristlenose plec is dead

[G_Sharky]

I think my BN pleco is dead as i havent seen him lately...I even try to look for him when the lights are off with a flashlight but he's nowhere to be found...before when the lights are off he's always feeding on the glass....With all the rocks i don't think I could take him out if he's stock somewhere else....would this cause some ammonia or nitrite spike...Cause i really don't wanna break down the tank again...it will be too stressful for the rest of my fish cause it would take me a couple of hours or more to put the rocks back together cause i'm really picky with the rock design....what do you guys think??

 

[webcat5]

I have a 5.5 inch Bristle Nose and I am surprised how well he can hide, but if yours is deffinatly dead:
1: sorry for your loss
2: you will have to get him/her out of the tank, maybe there is a way of doing it without having to remove every thing.

 

[abstract]

it is also possible he may have jumped out...check all around the tank, and unfortunately you may find him....they can flop/crawl quite a distance so look underneath everything

 

[G_Sharky]

Are you serious lol...I'm not sure if i've ever seen or heard that pleco's could jump....I'll check it right now....

 

[jmaster]

did u find him??

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

Its worth checking under all the rocks even if he's dead you don't want his dead body contaminating the water; although there's still a 50/50 chance he's alive- when i got my first plec 6months ago he didn't come out from under his cave for 2months, i didn't even know if he was alive or not. Thankfully he's more out and about now though but even so he only comes out from under his rock when he's hungry, maybe yours could just be sleeping off a full stomach, no?

 

[BettaMomma]

My friend had her pleco crawl up and onto the top of the filter of her tank.
She almost had a heart attack one day when she came back from a few days away, and saw him up there. What had happened is her cleaning people flipped off the switch that kept the filter and heater running and I guess he just went up for some air. LOL

He could very easily have continued on down the outside of the glass and who knows how the heck long he could have managed out of the water that way, but he was just happily hanging out up there, OUT of the water when she got home. eek!

 

[BettaMomma]

Oh, I just remembered another topic someone had posted on here about his/her raphael - said they took out a little stone bridge/cave thingy and they discovered the raph was still in there - they hadn't seen the thing in 5 years!

So your plec could just be hiding REALLY well from you!!

 

[G_Sharky]

I hope that's the case...cause when i first got him he was just barely an inch and he was about 2.5" when the last time i saw him...I check around my tank and there was no sign of a fish jumping off my tank....I really don't wana mess around with my rocks cause I know that when I break it down i won't be able to put it back the way it look now....I kinda like my setup right now plus i just broke the tank down about a week ago and my clown loaches got ICH after...I guess it stress them out...