Foot long watermelon Pleco tankmate ok?

[Vancouver_98683]

[video=youtube;VyAzSRLf4cY]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VyAzSRLf4cY[/video]

Just got a large l-330 watermelon Pleco. If provided with driftwood, sinking gold pellets, and algae wafers. Will it be ok with polys ranging from 8"-22"? Understand slime coat sucking is a risk. Any here with experiences with a large panaque w/polys ? Here's a video during acclimating. What are your experiences? Thanks.

 

[Hoplo]

Never had a problem keeping other large royal pleco's with my poly's, I make sure I feed lots of vege's.

 

[framcosco]

It's my humble opinion that it depends on the individual pleco..... with 30 plus plecos in one of my tanks, i have been "experimenting" by adding 2 bichirs......... of all the 30 plus plecos, only a medium sized L91 panaque has ever sucked on my bichirs.... once the panaque was taken out, no more problems whatsoever..... now mind you that I do have several panaques in the tank.

In conclusion, lol..... give it a try and just keep a close eye.... with driftwood, it should be fine. Best of luck!!

 

[shookONES]

I keep Pseudacanthicus plecos and tried them with my bichers at one point. I didn't have any issues with sucking on slime coats, but man did they fight over territory.

 

[Dr.B]

Plecos seem to be very misunderstood by polypterus keepers. While plecos can suck on bichirs slimecoat, like frank said it depends on the individual and also this behavior usually starts to happen once the plecos become deprived of what they need to be feed. So if you keep your pleco full with the proper nutrients you should be fine, assuming you don't have one that will try and do it regardless.

 

[Vancouver_98683]

Thank u all for the useful feedbacks. Never owned a large Pleco before.

Agreed with the territorial tendencies as mentioned. It's been less than 24 hours and not fond of sharing it's own space by a driftwood piece.

Same rules apply with flagtails as well. There's a 15" feng feng in my setup. I've had for less than 2 years. Feed well, keep an eye out, and it shouldn't be an issue. Of course, it's depends on the fish.

 

[RLHam3]

I would agree that it would depend on the individual, but would add that certain plecos such as ancistrus and Panaque are predisposed to be more or less "aggressive" towards polys. I would say that one of the biggest factors here is the amount of cover(territory) the fish have available to them.

I have kept my panaques with my polys for 5 years without incident in my planted tanks.




(PS- that looks like a nice male)