I have always liked plecos and wanted to start a bit of a collection but was wondering why plecos require such large tanks when they rarely swim so I was wondering if it would be possible to keep some in individual tanks which they will be able to fully move turn around in so for example a bristlenose pleco get to 8 inches max so I would do a 10x10x10 (the height would be the same on all of the tanks) which would be about 5 gallons when they are ment to have 20 gallons but I was wondering if it was heavily filtered and had no other fish inside would it be alright for a pleco collection
Pleco collection
- Thread starter Plecostmus 1234
- Start date
Also each tank will contain a bit of driftwood for them to use and they will get fed algae wafers and courgette regularly probably a piece each day
P Plecostmus 1234
it’s not only about the space they require to move about, they produce a lot of waste for a fish. And most people don’t want tojust keep plecos as they are fairly inactive.
for bn plecos, I personally keep 6 adults and a number of babies in a 33g tank along with breeding guppies.
this tank requires a lot of maintenance, the poop and mlum that builds up in a relatively short amount of time is astronomical. See-my picture, this tank had a water changes yesterday of 90% and the poop is quite built up already. I may be doing another water change on it today if 90% while I’m doing my other tanks.
A pleco collection takes up space that’s for sure!
once you start moving into fancier plecos it gets even more complicated and addictive. You need to prevent hybrids of a lot of species. And they take up even more space.
Thats why I was thinking of making it 1 larger tank with dividers because then it would be easier to clean and would also be quicker and would stop hybrids also I'm not to bothered by the fish and i would be fine with 2 or 3 alright looking fish at the most but would the tank sizes work with string filtration and weekly cleaning
I don’t think your 10x10x10 tank will work very well for your collection. unless you can find dwarf bn plecos. They might be able to live in that size tank.
your idea of a larger tank divided would be a good route for multiple species. You could use egg crate as dividers which would allow water flow through the entire tank. Just have to make sure you buy 3 inch plecos so they cannot fit through the divider holes
If I were to do a big tank with dividers how much space would each pleco need could you give me ideas for a couple of pleco please
This, 100% this. Of course, I think you could also work with other fish/organisms that process pleco waste (shrimp come to mind), to help reduce the bioload more, but from what I understand, plecos're gonna create a large amount of waste. You could probably modify it a bit more by making a sump to hold the biological filtration and going barebottom, so the waste either gets washed into something that you can easily replace (like polyfilter/filter floss), or wash (like a filter sock) to help with water quality.
One thing I'd like to add: look into Repashy Morning Wood and Repashy Soilent Green. I haven't used those with plecos, but otos love soilent green.
Aside from shrimp? Probably snails tbh. Copepods and other microfauna like gammarus might also work on it, but I don't have experience with those.
