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ok.. so Im sitting here watching the fish swim around in the tank.. everyone looks happy... and out of NOWHERE... comes Shopvac (my little ABN)swimming straight UP like a rocket.. and then I see him do a spiral down, unmoving... and landed on his side on a piece of slate..


So I scream.. hubby comes running in.. I tell him Shopvac is dead!! he runs over and starts to open the lid and Shopvac turns on his tummy... and lay there a little bit.. then started going around a radius scraping the rock and eventually over the side and is now sucking upside down under the same rock..

WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT? Maybe he knocked himself out on the lid???

Did he see a cory do one of their gulps of air and think OH I guess I need to do that too???

Anyone ever see this??

Gina

Plecs including B/N can take air from the surface like corys and on occasion do lie on their backs but this is generally under a rock or leaf not in the middle on nowhere. I don't like the sound of the spiralling down from the surface. Have you tested the nitrates?

In any situation like this it will not do any harm to do a good partial water change and add in an additional airstone. Then measure nitrate and nitrite. A current pic of the tank will never hurt either

Well, ok.. the picture I have listed is a current picture..

The Nitrites are 0 and Nitrates are 15ppm.

I honestly think he went too fast, lept out of the water and knocked himself unconscious on the lid of the tank, which would explain the slow spiral down to the bottom.. the stunned laying on his side for a few seconds.. him righting himself, then spending the rest of the night stuck by his mouth underneath said rock upside down.. (nursing a banger of a headache if I had to guess)..

No other fish are gasping for air... Everyone is behaving normally. This tank has been very stable for a long time..

I dunno.. silly fish syndrome maybe?

Gina

I have had fish do exactly what you are saying you think he has done.

Plecos in perfect water take a hit of fresh air once in awhile.
But what you describe sounds like it may have panicked at some time recently and taken a hard rap to it's head. This can end up causing brief confusion to death.
Not very common among these smaller domesticated Plecos, though.

It sounds like yours got spooked by something or other. I've had a pleco do this once before also. It snapped out of it at a slower rate, but eventually it was fine. Doesn't sound like it completely cracked its 'skull'. I hope your fish heals alright whatever the reason.

well, he's sort of ok.. he's not out exploring as much as he used to, but he's seems otherwise fine... no red hemmoraging on his head that I can see.. and being albino, it would be easy, I would think..

Wish I knew what spooked him though.. he was on the right side of the tank which is near a wall, so it wasn't anything going past.. maybe one of the angels (who, my god, seem continually hungry) tried to take a nibble and startled him.. maybe while he was sleeping? I dunno.. never seen anything like it..


Goofy fish.. may have to change his name from Shopvac to Doofus...

Gina

well Shopvac seems to have recovered from whatever it was...

he's eating his zucchini and cleaning tank walls and rocks again..

yay (stupid fish)!

Gina