Non-shy pleco for 300 gallon?

[Omrit]

I am curious about plecos, I was wondering if anyone had a suggestion for an interesting or pretty pleco for my tank? I have some (soon to be) large fish like a fire eel, ornate bichir, and chocolate cichlid so the pleco would need to be above 6 inches when adult.

I have some spotted medusa plecos and am tired of the shyness. They are stunning, but the only time I see them is when I move stuff in their tank around. I frequently forget I even have them, and I have several! I once had them in a bare tank and still could not find them, they actually stuck themselves to the seam at the top. That is how determined to hide they are.


The L14 sunshine pleco looks awesome and I hear is not shy? L600 spotted cactus pleco really catch my eye, but I hear it is another shy one. The royal plecos at the LFS never seem shy either, but unsure how they will act in my tank. I think currently the L14 is my top choice, but I am not a pleco expert especially not these larger species.

 

[SilverArowanaBoi]

I think you should go for Royal Plecos; those things are beautiful! You could also do Rhino plecos...common plecos. And if you want a pleco around the 5-6 inch mark, a blue or green phantom (my favorites). I owned a green phantom for a while and it could always be seen, whether sitting on top of rocks or glass. It was a beautiful but messy little thing.

 

[justink]

any cactus pleco should be a good pick

 

[Omrit]

I think you should go for Royal Plecos; those things are beautiful! You could also do Rhino plecos...common plecos. And if you want a pleco around the 5-6 inch mark, a blue or green phantom (my favorites). I owned a green phantom for a while and it could always be seen, whether sitting on top of rocks or glass. It was a beautiful but messy little thing.

Common and rhino plecos are a lot of bio-load for a dull fish so definitely not those.

I like the phantoms, but I heard they were not hardy? My LFS complains they die shortly after arriving which gave me pause.

 

[bkfamus]

L14, L95, L137, L200 (Hi Fin), L128, L177 are some of the plecos I have that are usually out.. All require mature tank..

 

[SilverArowanaBoi]

Common and rhino plecos are a lot of bio-load for a dull fish so definitely not those.

I like the phantoms, but I heard they were not hardy? My LFS complains they die shortly after arriving which gave me pause.

I don't believe that is true about the phantoms, it is probably the store, not the fish. As I mentioned above, I had a green phantom, and it survived many of my worst mistakes. It finally died after a really bad mistake, but it survived for a long time before that.

 

[phreeflow]

Common and rhino plecos are a lot of bio-load for a dull fish so definitely not those.

I like the phantoms, but I heard they were not hardy? My LFS complains they die shortly after arriving which gave me pause.

Green Phantoms are almost bulletproof. Avoid Gold Nuggets…they don’t ever last long. As for large plecos that are active, most of the cactus do fine. My favorite are L14…they are always out and about