# My suckerfish is eating on my snail!



## Fishnoob34 (Feb 19, 2011)

Hi everyone!

I'm very new to the aquarium community, I have a 2.5 gallon tank with a betta fish who my 4 year old lovingly named Lucy. We also have a 25 gallon tank with a few different fish, 4 tetras, a mystery snail (named Turbo), and a recently acquired suckerfish. I joined the forum because I'm concerned about the suckerfish's behavior towards the snail. After looking online, I believe he is a small pleco of somesort. He kind of looks like a Bristlenosed Catfish, without all the bristles on the nose; he's leapord color and a little under 2 inches long. 

Anyway, I just added him to the tank and he was ok the first few days, but he seems to be feeding on my snail's shell now, and (for lack of a better term) bullying him. I was really concerned this morning when I saw this, so I removed the sucker to a separate container until I can figure it out. Is he just eating algea off the snail's shell, or should I be worried about the snails health? Thanks!


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## susankat (Nov 15, 2008)

Probably cleaning the algae off the shell. Where did you get the pleco at? If it was like a walmart, petco or petsmart most likely a common and will get to big for your tank.


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## Fishnoob34 (Feb 19, 2011)

Well, I put them back together and It seems that they go through stages. My pleco still latches on to the snail every now and then, and gets a bit nippy with him, which the snail obviously doesn't like. Also, I've notice that it seems like the pleco bugs him more when there isn't much algae in the tank for him to eat. As long as I keep dropping in an algae wafer every few days, he seems like he'll behave himself. 

I'm hoping it will improve over time once my pleco gets used to his tank mates. I really don't want anything to happen to my snail.


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## James0816 (Jun 19, 2009)

The plec won't eat the snail. But...he will work over every surface in the tank which just happens to include the snail shell. ;o)


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