PlanetCatfish.com

How do you prevent your pleco from resting under the heater and getting burn spots?

A few options arise:
1 do without a heater
2 put the heater in an internal filter
3 offer the fish more shelter
4 put a jacket around the heater, preventing the fish from touching the heater

I think option 3 is the most important: A pleco - or any other catfish for that matter - will only hide under a heater if there is no other option. Still they need hiding places, in order to feel save and thus happy.

A few stones to make a cave, some PVC tubing - one can use numerous things to provide hiding places. I personally like to use stones, as these provide the tank with a natural look, the contact area of the rocks will give small caves and larger ones - caves are provided in all sizes, while using PVC tubing will only provide holes of the predestined size

Actually, the tank has rocks and caves which extend the total length of the tank. I was thinking that because of his armor, he can't really feel when the heater is getting warm. We get good algae growth on the back wall of the tank which I purposely don't scrape off, so he enjoys munching that. Perhaps he would like a few more vertical type caves since he is a green phantom. I can try leaning some slate against the back glass for him. I'm not even sure which heater he's parking himself under (there's one on either side of our six foot tank) because he's either hiding in a cave on the right side during the day, or cruising around scrubbing the glass and hunk of driftwood during the evening. Could you provide a link for a heater cover?