Help me with a 55 gallon pleco please

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
Thanks guys! Now I'm leaning towards the blue or green phantoms....not sure which would look better. I'm going to see if my LFS could order either of them. Probably not- they will probably say "oh you just need a clown/bushynose/otto/. So I'll probably have to have one shipped. And I hate paying shipping for 1 fish!!!!!! Okay i'm done ranting.

The phantoms are very pretty though! I think either would compliment my Angels.
 
I can personally vouch for L201s and L204s being good for this type of a tank. I keep one of each in a SA community tank with 13 pristella tetras, 2 rams, 5 SA bumblebees, 4 banjo cats, and 2 BNs. Both are great - and available through a mfk vendor. The 204s are a bit more affordable.
 
ahodge84;3285042; said:
I can personally vouch for L201s and L204s being good for this type of a tank. I keep one of each in a SA community tank with 13 pristella tetras, 2 rams, 5 SA bumblebees, 4 banjo cats, and 2 BNs. Both are great - and available through a mfk vendor. The 204s are a bit more affordable.
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Do you have live plants?
 
Yea, the herbivore Plecs will eat plants or uproot them. I didn't realize you had plants, or I didn't read close enough. Another thing to consider is temperature. The Green/Blue Phantoms like cool fast moving water. If you're going to heat your Angel tank that might not make them very happy. There's quite a few Plecs that can take warm water, Angels low temp range is 77 deg so you could compromise, too.
 
My tank temperature is and will stay at 76 degrees. Many people raise it for breeding, but I am not planning on breeding.

So here are the revised expectations:

Interesting, good-sized, attractive, non plant-attacking and not a hider.

I guess it doesn't have to eat algae. As long as it will hang on the tank, lol. I use my algae scrubby fastidiously anyways.
 
And this, my friend, is how Plec Fever starts. 1st you think it'd be nice to have a Plec to clean tank algae and before you know it you've got a 6' Plec Only tank that you dote over, watch for hours and do water changes 3 times a week on because you can't stand your precious Plecs having to live with poo in the bottom of their tanks lol. That's what happened to me anyway :grinno:
Yours is the perfect tank for a Plec that's a carnivore, lucky you. The temp is perfect for almost all Plecs. Let me go look on PlanetCatfish.com and see what's there.....that's the best part of getting a new one is getting to look all over PlanetCatfish for the perfect kind :-)
Edit: I used the word 'perfect' 3 times in that last sentence! I guess Freud would say that's summons up how I feel about Plecs.
 
TwistedPenguin;3285178; said:
And this, my friend, is how Plec Fever starts. 1st you think it'd be nice to have a Plec to clean tank algae and before you know it you've got a 6' Plec Only tank that you dote over, watch for hours and do water changes 3 times a week on because you can't stand your precious Plecs having to live with poo in the bottom of their tanks lol. That's what happened to me anyway :grinno:
Yours is the perfect tank for a Plec that's a carnivore, lucky you. The temp is perfect for almost all Plecs. Let me go look on PlanetCatfish.com and see what's there.....that's the best part of getting a new one is getting to look all over PlanetCatfish for the perfect kind :-)
Edit: I used the word 'perfect' 3 times in that last sentence! I guess Freud would say that's summons up how I feel about Plecs.
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Oh thank you! I have a hard time navigating Planetcatfish
 
I have 4 different kinds of carnivorous plecos, and none of them hang on the glass. For the most part they hide during the day, and come out to feed at night. Some are less shy than others (my L-014 for example) but an L-14 will eventually outgrow a 55g).
 
BPags52;3286008; said:
I have 4 different kinds of carnivorous plecos, and none of them hang on the glass. For the most part they hide during the day, and come out to feed at night. Some are less shy than others (my L-014 for example) but an L-14 will eventually outgrow a 55g).
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I agree. If you can live with the shyness I would suggest an L-007, vampire pleco. Stays around 9" and looks real good. You will see them come out more when they reach larger sizes. At that size it could uproot your plants though. The chocolate zebra (L-270) or leopard frog(L-134) would be other top choices IMO. Both stay under 5" and (someone correct me if I'm wrong) neither should bother your plants.
 
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