Substrate Change? And Missing Pleco

[egore81]

So... I up sized my tank and got a 165 litre second hand tank from eBay. When I went to pick it up the guy hadn't told me it was full of fish already (mixture which I am not happy with the numbers of each species) anyway one of them I believe is a peppered cory ( some say its bronze but not convinced). The substrate is gravel and from what I know it is extremely difficult for them to get pellets etc from gravel and it does look like it is struggling a bit because if his whiskers. Would it be best to do a substrate change? What substrate would be best? I know this will mess the cycle up a little, will it be ok for the fish to change it?
On another not I have a baby bristle nose Pleco and have not seen him for 4 days. Can they bury themselves in the gravel? I have moved everything and cannot see him. I have all community fish so should not have been eaten and cannot see that he has gone up any pipes etc.
Thanks

 

[BerryAttack]

you can switch to sand, the cories like that the best. I have mine with medium soft gravel, nothing sharp while the others in the other tank are with small gravel, also not sharp. When the gravel is sharp that is when they have issues.
if you post a picture of the cory we can help identify it.
also if you already have cycled media in the filter, changing the gravel shouldn't do much, just make sure that when adding in new water you have already treated it so the chlorine doesn't affect the media.
is there any fish that can eat the pleco? could have jumped out? never heard of them burying under the gravel.

 

[egore81]

Thanks for the reply. Cannot add the photos as it says it's too big. I took all decor out the tank earlier to try and find the BNP when doing a water change but still could not find it. I have no idea where it went. I don't think anything would have eaten it. Got various tetras, Cory's and harlequin rasbora that's it. Only thing I can think is he has gone up the tube to the pump but I'm sure he was too big to go up there and can't see anything. It's really bugging me though. Think I might change it to sand

 

[WhiskeyHands]

As he's talking about substrate change, how would you go changing in with fish in the tank?

 

[Tropical_Dave]

WhiskeyHands its best to remove the fish while changing the substrate, i would put them in a large enough bucket with tank water and hang the filter in the bucket if possible, or just put the tube in if useing an external. then remove all the water and gravel etc, if using aquarium sand from your pet store its usualy ok to go straight in but if its play sand, make sure it is thoroughly washed first to get the dust and finer particles out or the tank will be cloudy as hell. it takes a while to wash, a long while, and even when it looks clean enough it will probably cloud up a little bit, but will settle soon enough
hope this helps, im open to any corrections or suggestions if anyone does it differently

 

[WhiskeyHands]

WhiskeyHands its best to remove the fish while changing the substrate, i would put them in a large enough bucket with tank water and hang the filter in the bucket if possible, or just put the tube in if useing an external. then remove all the water and gravel etc, if using aquarium sand from your pet store its usualy ok to go straight in but if its play sand, make sure it is thoroughly washed first to get the dust and finer particles out or the tank will be cloudy as hell. it takes a while to wash, a long while, and even when it looks clean enough it will probably cloud up a little bit, but will settle soon enough

hope this helps, im open to any corrections or suggestions if anyone does it differently

 

Thank you, i'll definitively be looking into aquarium sand!