Pleco thinks hes a Goldfish...or theres a problem

[jessfish]

I have been having water problems for a while (i get cloudy water for days after a water change & this seems to happen weekly!)
but this week my tank has been cloudy to a point that i have never seen before!!
I was going to leave it since i think the cause is the filter not being big enough to handle the load of pleco & goldfish...

yesterday (in the horribly cloudy water) my pleco started doing something odd...that i can only discribe as acting like a goldfish.

he swims around, goes up and down the lenght of the tank, waits at the bottom looking at me then does it all over again...& he does this for HOURS!

I did a water change last night because i thought the quality might be stressing him out causing this behaviour...but he's still doing it (the water is still pretty cloudy)

this is day two of this behaviour - hes eating normal & looks fine - it is only this extreme activity (in day light & when people are near the tank) that is a concern to me...

Should i be worried?
is this actually normal & i have just never seen it before?
Should i do another 10% water change tonight or leave it?

OR could this be completely unrelated to the water & could this behaviour instead be his size? he has just reached 8 inches which is a lot bigger than i thought he would get before i was able to upgrade the tank...
Could he be trying to get some activity the only way he is physically able to?

details:
tank 46gal
5 little goldfish
1 sailfin pleco

[Pleco380]

He'll outgrow that tank quickly. You should move him ASAP before his growth gets stunted. What are the water parameters? How big WC's do you do and how often? Plecos tend to be lazy so something must be bothering him. What filter do you have?

[jessfish]

im not sure of the water perameters other than the ammonia - which is fine - i wasnt able to get a test kit today & have to wait until tomorrow...

i have an eheim 2213 - which is proving to not have the ability to handle the load of the fish & a lot of particles end up floating around for days after a water change, i added a new sponge to it today to help catch some of the debris - im hoping that helps the water

my pleco is usually a little active, but spends most of the day hiding in the cave or eating.

i can only guess that his behaviour is his way of telling me something is bugging him im just having a problem finding out what that could be...

do you think it would help if i did another water change tonight? I did one last night (20-25%) & on sat (20%).

I do a 20% water change every week & clean the filter when it needs it.

I dont want to do too many water changes - im worried that might make things worse?

[Pleco380]

Find a day that works best for weekly WC's. I always do WC's on Sundays. I have a community tank with 2 young clown plecos and do 50% WC's weekly. I'd say wait until the next WC day and do a 50% WC. But before you do anything, test the water. When you replaced a sponge, you made sure you kept some BB right?

[jessfish]

Oh ya when i replaced the sponge i didnt touch anything else in the filter so i don't think i disrupted the benificial bacteria at all

thanks for the advice & i do the same thing i usually do water changes on sunday or monday, i'll test water tomorrow & not change anymore until sunday

is the 20% weekly water change i do enough with a 46gal tank? i have been wondering about this lately & have heard that other people do a bigger change with messy/large fish - Im wondering if i am just not getting enough of the debris & poop out every week...

[Pleco380]

Do you siphon the gravel? You have messy fish so IMO 20% weekly WC's isn't enough.

[jessfish]

i have sand so i really just skim across the top & only run my hands through about once a month to let out any air bubbles or decay

i used to have gravel but changed over to sand bc my goldfish were really picking at the rocks & they are all diff sizes - i didnt want any swollowing th gravel...although i didnt have as many problems with the water then lol!

what would you recommend for water changes?
I do the smaller change mostly because i thought that 10-20% a week was good for all tanks - which im starting to think is not the case - bigger tank bigger water change seems to be a better idea?

[Pleco380]

Bigger bioload, bigger WC. Every tank is different for the size of WC needed.

[jessfish]

thanks for the adivice - i think next thing is starting bigger water changes & getting the bigger filter as soon as i can.

[rokx]

!
Reminds me of my BGK, I was really worried about the hell was going on XD
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iFVNtgJhisQ

[jessfish]

omg thats cute! & ya i bet u were worried at first too...today so far my pleco (Peru) is just stuck to the glass waiting for food - not dancing/swimming around like ha has been...but the water is slooooowwwly improving so i think hes doing better if he was bothered by the water
I took a video of it but have no idea where i would post it other than youtube...
maybe i'll post it later today