Plec and goldfish

[auditt]

Hi,
I have two goldfish and a apple snail in a 60 ltr tank.
I have recently aquired a plec to help keep the tank clean.
My two usually friendly fish have turned into two bullies and will not leave this poor plec alone.
The plec has plenty of places to hid, under bog wood and in plants, but my two fish seek him out and disturb him.
They are eating his sinking pellets as well as their own food.I hardly ever see the plec out and about in the tank!
Are my two gold fish just doing what comes naturally and eating everything in sight and is the plec naturally shy...Will the plec get a hold of it's self and start to eat the sinking pellets before the goldfish get to them and will there be enough for the plec to eat if the goldfish continue to eat it's food?

Thanks in advance.......................audiTT.

[B00]

Hello, i'm not sure how wise it is keeping the plec with the goldfish is after reading this.....

Plecos just love to suck on ailing goldfish, discus, and other fat bodied fish. Avoid adding them together. There is one pet store near me that has about 20 tanks of fancy goldfish. Every tank has a small plecostomus and at any time, half of them are sucking on a goldfish. The employees apparently believe that any damage overshadows their algae cleaning abilities (in other words, they are too lazy to clean off the algae and do not care about the goldfish). My pleco probably killed the two rosy barbs with him even though he was 9 inches long and they were only about 1.5 inches long. Before that he harmed my goldfish.

[hammerman]

Ignore the above....plecs are generally non aggressive scavengers and will eat dead fish. I have loads of different plecs in with small tetras and they're fine and i've never seen the problem in 30 years of keeping trop fish

I personally don't like the idea of keeping plecs in a coldwater tank. They are tropical fish which will tolerate cooler water temps if they have to.....they don't particularly like it though

[clair3934]

butterfly plec's are cold water fish is this what you have?
I have never seen a plec attack a living fish either only ever seen them eat dead ones don't worry about them getting enough food the pellets tend to break down quickly so they will find something

[drestie]

We have also had plecos for years with angels, discus, and all sorts of barbs and tetras. The plecos are shy in general, and often stay hidden during the day. I only see them out at night when the lights are off. We have a bunch of stones piled up with spaces between for them to hide out in.
Have a look at the pleco's fins and tail - if they look intact, then I would say the goldfish probably aren't doing too much damage. But if you are really concerned about it, I am sure the fish store will take him back or exchange him for something else.
As for the food, our plecos never get to eat their sinking pellets - the angels and loaches love them and eat them immediately! If you are worried that he isn't getting enough to eat, you can tie lettuce to a rock with a rubber band, and drop it in for him. Frozen brine shrimp is also great because it falls between the gravel so they have time to get at it!
Good luck :)