Plecos in Malawi aquariums

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angeltc

angeltc

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Aug 24, 2008
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So I have my 90 gallon in our 18 foot high family room. There are windows almost all along the wall that the sun shines through for most of the day. Naturally my tank gets tons of algae. It looks like someone took a green/yelliowish highlighter and colored in the back of the tank.
So I was wondering if I could keep a pleco in there to keep the algae down. The pH is around 8.0-8.3. I had a regular old common pleco in my 65 gallon community tank and it made muchos poopos, so are there any smaller plecos in there. I'm thinking maybe a bristlenose. How big do gold nuggets get?
 
para in my experience are the best plecos hardy and love wood and algae ph might shorten their life span tho
 
Well there's no wood but there's plenty of algae
 
The regular plecos will be just fine, I have Plecos in all of my 31 tanks and I have all African Cichlids including a couple South American.

I too have 92 Oceanic Corner Tank with a couple of huge plecos. They'll be fine. If you get fancy Plecos or bristle nose ones they are more delicate,I'm talking about the regular South American ones that grow large. Ya know!

Good Luck,

Richard

By the way, the sun is awesome for the coloration. Good show!
 
iv got plecos and brislenoses in my african tanks and both seem to be fine
 
I have 2 plecos now...one was in a flowerhorn tank and it did pretty well.

one was in an african tank for about almost 1yr now...2 weeks ago, i noticed his eyes were missing. pretty disturbing to see but it's alive and kicking...took it out of the african cichlids tank though.
 
MoFish78;2845072; said:
I have 2 plecos now...one was in a flowerhorn tank and it did pretty well.

one was in an african tank for about almost 1yr now...2 weeks ago, i noticed his eyes were missing. pretty disturbing to see but it's alive and kicking...took it out of the african cichlids tank though.
Click to expand...

the plec in my malawi tank is kinda an opposite story i took it out of one of my other tanks because i got up one mornin and my bichirs had bit a chunk out of its back, you could amost see his bones, so i put him with my malawi's and hes getting along fine they barely notice hes ther
 
I have a gold nugget and medusa pleco in my mbuna tank however they aren't the best algae cleaners; IMO opinion Rubbernose Plecos, Pit Bull Plecos (note the plural - you'll need more than one of these guys to keep up with the algae) or 1 Rhino pleco.

I have a tank near a window and that rhinos a beast feasting on algae.
 
i keep a common pleco in my 180 gallon of mixed mbuna. he seems to do fine, he hides all day, and comes out when i rubberband veggies to rocks for him. he doesnt seem afraid of my africans, and if they pick on him he will flare up that back ridge and wiggle-that does the trick.

just fyi, i have heard that as plecos get older they dont really eat green algae in the tanks-i dont know if thats true? maybe someone here can tell us- but my pleco relies on my feeding him veggies and algae wafers (at night after i turn off the lights so the fish dont steal them first).

he eats zucchini, yellow squash-LOVES cauliflower.. and eats cucumber. just slice them all up, freeze them and rubberband to a little rock and sink it in the tank.

also, my ph level and gh level are pretty high- he doesnt seem to be affected.
 
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