Pleco addiction moves from garage into the house

[Recumbent]

It's one thing to have boring pleco grow out or breeding tanks in the garage, but quite another thing to have one of your show tanks in the house get boring (or so my wife says). This is a custom redwood 180G setup complete with a 4" slab of redwood under the tank. It used to be a African cichlid tank and now it has 8 L114 that are still about a year away from possible breeding. Most of the time only a little poop floating is the only action in the tank. They do come out to feed and fight but the wife wants more action and color. I may break down and put a dozen raninbows in it, but I'm fine with it like it is. She sees an empty tank. I see future baby L114s.

Have you had a similar problem? Or friends that think your not keeping fish, just soaking driftwood?

Also I keep 2 tanks with just the (boring) fish she likes in them.

 

[ElectricBlueSeanBurch]

I used to have 2 pleco only tanks (75&55) and my friends would always ask when I was going to put fish in my tanks. Little did they know there was hundreds of dollars in fish hiding all day. I loved them more than any other tanks I have owned.

 

[in2cichlids]

I would not change a thing! Especially with the chance of them breeding half way soon. Your tank is awesome just the way it is.

 

[plecoking2010]

Yes I have over thirty plecos in an 150 gallon tank and my wife says it is nothing but boring. But I love the way happy my tank is

 

[JML1997]

That's some killer wood!

 

[Allan01230]

When i kept L114's I had 4 adults in a 125 I kept 6 Roseline sharks and 2 filament barbs in there. That tank had all kind of movement. My male L-114 ended up killing 2 females and mangaling the smaller male. I gave him to a member on here about a year ago. The sharks and the barbs kept a lot of movement in that tank so no smart ax remarks from non -fish freinds. LOL

 

[Linus_Cello]

Where did you get the tank from? It's very nice wood panelling, etc.
Some dithers may make your wife happy. I have a 75g w/ 3 L114 and 1 L7; the tank is heavily planted (no problems yet with the plecos tearing up the plants). Dithers are Congo tetras, diamond tetras, and assorted dwarf SA cichilds.

 

[L600]

When i kept L114's I had 4 adults in a 125 I kept 6 Roseline sharks and 2 filament barbs in there. That tank had all kind of movement. My male L-114 ended up killing 2 females and mangaling the smaller male. I gave him to a member on here about a year ago. The sharks and the barbs kept a lot of movement in that tank so no smart ax remarks from non -fish freinds. LOL

And that L114 (technically L600, but I won't nitpick ) is still doing great, although that tank is moving all my driftwood around at night.
I would recommend clown loaches, I mean clown loaches are some of the most active fish...although if your L114 breed I would be worry about the clowns eating the eggs. Electric blue rams seem like a great tankmate. They're small and yet I THINK they wouldn't eat the L114 fries.

 

[Recumbent]

I bought the tank from the guy who made it himself. The huge redwood slab didn't work out for his fireplace so he built a tank stand out of it.

I don't want anything in the tank that will disturb the L114 from breeding so anything like CL are out. Even rainbows are a little big but they stay mainly at the top. If they don't work I'm getting 200 cardinals in soon for more dithers so I could put 100 in this tank.

 

[Linus_Cello]

Pencilfish and hatchet fish stay at the top, and hopefully they shouldn't eat any eggs. Apisto breeders often use pencilfish as dithers (supposedly the pencilfish don't eat apisto eggs, though there is video of them snacking on eggs).