Shovelnose freaked when my old L. pardalis died (pic)

[biomechmonster]

This is something I'm wondering about. I apologize if L. pardalis is an old name but I haven't been on Planet Catfish in a while.

My 19+ YO L. pardalis passed away today. My husband discovered her when he arrived home from work and began cleaning the 180-gallon aquarium.

He also noticed our lima shovelnose freaking out. The lima is actually pretty laid back (for a lima) and it's not normal for her (just an assigned gender here!) to flip out. My husband was not actually cleaning the tank at the time. The lima was also hovering right over the body of the L. pardalis.

See the pic below. I'm not sure what to make of this. I have seen the same species of fish "mourning" each other (ie, one oscar laying down next to the body of a deceased oscar) but never different species. Honestly I also never thought the lima was that bright to start with, but don't tell her that.

I've had the lima since she was around 3" and upon purchase almost six years ago, I kept her in a 10-gallon for a couple months to ensure she could eat worms and etc before transferring her to a tank with the L. pardalis. They have been in aquariums together ever since.

[biomechmonster]

Oh and yes, I am very sad about the passing of this pleco. I got her when I was 10 years old and named her "Pizza"! She is the pleco that made me fall in love with catfish...and larger fish in general.

[MatsP]

Sorry for your loss.

--
Mats

[biomechmonster]

Thank you. Have you heard of catfish behaving this way before?

[andywoolloo]

that is so sad, I almost cried looking at that picture.

I am sorry for both of your fish. ((hugs)) are you going to get him a replacement buddy? And your pardalis was 20 yrs old!! Congratulations!! Well done!! ((clapping)) Mine is almost a year old, at the end of summer I think.

[biomechmonster]

Yeah it's a sad pic isn't it? I think the lima liked the pardalis so much because she was pretty laid back. There are three other plecos in the tank--a mature G. gibbiceps, a younger albino G. gibbiceps and a younger G. scrophus, but those three are much more bull-headed than the pardalis was so the lima stays away.

We would really love to have another lima but I'm not sure how to obtain one. We've tried doing what I did with the lima--purchasing juveniles and keeping them in a 10-gallon aquarium until they catch on to eating worms, etc. But one lima never caught onto eating worms and another did but once transferred to the big tank, didn't do very well.

Any ideas??