good substitute for pleco?

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
6 years isn't really that long though, for a fish that can live into it's teens. How large is the pleco? Should be aproaching at least 10" by now. Ask your uncle what specific gravity he has his tank at. I bet it's really low. What other fish are in there?
 
ok ill ask later after he gets out of work...the pleco i would say is like 11-12 inches...ill ask later about the gravity and the other fishes he got in their are 4 Archer fishes,7Fiddler crabs,and a 3 loaches that im not sure about the name but they are pretty small like 3" but are not the clown loaches.3 Muddskippers,and some sort of goby and a few chromides.He said to me that he's gunna get a 180 gallon later like in Febuary for them all
 
I've seen alot of 'oldschool fish experts' consider a tank loaded up with water softener salt a 'Brackish' tank, when in actuality the only true brackish tank is made with marine salt.

Plecos come from the Amazon where the water is very low in dissolved solids. Adding Marine Salt to an aquarium will increase the amount of dissolved solids in the water by 100 fold. Read up on Osmosis, see why this is bad for the fish. Plecos can only have this burden on their osmoregulatory system for so long before they will eventually succumb to secondary health issues or death.

Loaches would almost die immediately if put into a brackish tank, being scaleless and much less tolerable to pH and solids with their osmosis system. I can almost bet that he isn't using Marine salt and has no idea what his specific gravity is..


Mollies and 'Cobalt Blue Gobys' are the best algae eaters for a brackish tank.. also might find some brackish snails, but they don't do much.
 
oh ok ill let my uncle know about this so he can make a change up to the freshwater fishes to be in freshwater and brackish be in brackish
 
Miles;1371140; said:
I've seen alot of 'oldschool fish experts' consider a tank loaded up with water softener salt a 'Brackish' tank, when in actuality the only true brackish tank is made with marine salt.

Plecos come from the Amazon where the water is very low in dissolved solids. Adding Marine Salt to an aquarium will increase the amount of dissolved solids in the water by 100 fold. Read up on Osmosis, see why this is bad for the fish. Plecos can only have this burden on their osmoregulatory system for so long before they will eventually succumb to secondary health issues or death.
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Yup, the plecos I've seen plecos kept in brackish water swell up really big and develop huge boils as they can not pass excess water because their osmosis regulatory organs can not function properly.
 
oh so it is a major problem for plecos of any sort to be in brackish waters....ok thats good to know.
 
Which is why I said, I bet if there is salt in there, it's really a small amount.
 
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