Sucking Catfish?

Question

Whe have a sucking catfish, who attacks the otehr goldfish in my tank?

The tank is 4 foot long, so it shouldn't be a size issue. Why is he doing this?

This fish IS NOT a plecto, like others have said, he is most definetly a Sucking Catfish its scientific name is; Gyrinocheilus aymonieri. (got to www.thetropicaltank.co.uk/.../algeat1.jpg
for a photo)

Answer 1

By "Sucking Catfish", I assume you mean Plecostomus (Pleco) or Algae Eater (which is not actually a Catfish)? This isn't uncommon... Plecos and Algae Eaters are notorious for eating a lot of algae when they are juveniles, and as they mature, deciding to latch onto slow moving fish and dining on their mucus membrane. The best thing to do would be getting rid of the Pleco or Algae Eater... it will only get worse... Feel free to email me if you have any question.

Soop Nazi

EDIT: By removing the slime coat, the fish (or chemicals) leaves the fish (or frog) EXTREMELY open to infection, which usually leads to death (either by bacterial or viral infection or stress).

EDIT 2: Gyrinocheilus aymonieri is not a Catfish at all, but a Cyprinid (commonly called Chinese Algae Eater with the albino variety being the Gold Algae Eater, also known as a Gold Sucking Loach, which is also incorrect as they are not in the genus Cobitidae). It is even more notorious for aggression than Plecos. You will definitely have to separate it... Feel free to contact me if you have any questions.

Answer 2

Golden Sucking Catfish

Answer 3

This is probably a Pleco. He is trying to suck the slimy coat from your fishes scales. This coat of slime is a vital shield of protection against disease and will most likely lead to death.

Answer 4

he wants to suck on the slime coat, mine used to do this to my frog before i bought something to put in the water that removes the slime coat

Answer 5

he wants to suck on its slime coat. this is not a comman problem wth any fish but those that are laterally compressed (flat) but it can still happen sometimes.