Algae Eater

[jbarbaresi]

We have 4 or 5 chocolate ,rhino plecos or what ever they might be called ai wish I knew their latin name but they work great will have tank so clean you will have to feed them don't know why stores don't seem to carry them pius they don;t get super big. Go to your lfs and see if they will order some in we talked our Big Als into getting some and they were gone in no time best thing is they eat algae even when full grown unlike common pleco and they look cool.

rhino plecos are pterygoplichthys scrophus and there is no L number assigned to the species. if you have 4 or 5 of them i hope you have a fairly large tank because they grow to be about 10-12" each, and while they will continue to feed on algae as they get older even the largest tank will not produce enough to feed just one of them, let alone 4 to 5, a diet of exclusively algae. you will eventually have to drop in fresh veggies like zucchini and they will also need protein in their diet like sinking pellets to remain healthy. this is the case with most plecos which is why they are not recommended simply to keep algae under control.

stick with a single bristle nose or rubber lip if your only concern is algae as they do not grow very big and will do a good job of cleaning your glass, but they will still need supplementation in their diet like any other fish.