Plecos
- Thread starter Xingu piranha 2022
- Start date
Ohh I don’t have a concern I know it won’t last but for now I have a good glass cleaner
I have 2 questions about your tank/setup
1. How large is the tank, is it deep or does it have bottom space?
2. Do you intend to get bottom dwellers such as Bichirs or other catfish for example?
I don't want to sound like I'm fearmongering but common plecos get massive and stop eating algae when they grow larger. And they almost always start slime coat sucking if they aren't being fed correctly, what are you feeding it right now? Tank setup can affect this as generally plecos do good in tanks with bottom space rather than depth. I have personally had incidents with common plecos, which are surprisingly aggressive and more often than not, they turn on large fish and just latch themselves on to suck the slime coat off.
All of my tanks are structured around a plecos ??? they are quite addictive
I am not sure what you are looking for, but yes I do have plecos in my tank.
I don't really think most plecos are great fish for utility or for viewing. I have never kept any of the real fancy ones so maybe one of them would change my mind. but I have had a lot of the under 30$ species. The only pleco I have really enjoyed as well as feeling it was useful is a bristle nose pleco. I have an albino male that I think is both cool to look at, as well as good for cleaning the rocks I used to have to remove to clean myself.
If the tankmates won't eat them the amano shrimp I find do the best job out of anything. Otto catfish seem to work well for some people as well ,but mine were not interested in the rocks I wanted cleaned.
I have tried Nerite snails, but I find the eggs to be a plague. Vittina semiconica the "Red Onion Snail" is the kind I had, and they covered my tank in concrete eggs that were difficult to remove. As far as cleaning the tank goes they did do a pretty good job.
I would never recommend anyone keep a larger pleco if utility is what they want. That is a foot long+ high bio-load catfish which will do a lot more tank dirtying than it will ever do cleaning. Of course if you like the pleco for other reasons there is nothing wrong with having one, but the reality is your tank will be cleaner if you skip the large pleco.
Another reality about algae is you can just leave the tanks light off for a few days if you want to get rid of it.
I don't really think most plecos are great fish for utility or for viewing. I have never kept any of the real fancy ones so maybe one of them would change my mind. but I have had a lot of the under 30$ species. The only pleco I have really enjoyed as well as feeling it was useful is a bristle nose pleco. I have an albino male that I think is both cool to look at, as well as good for cleaning the rocks I used to have to remove to clean myself.
If the tankmates won't eat them the amano shrimp I find do the best job out of anything. Otto catfish seem to work well for some people as well ,but mine were not interested in the rocks I wanted cleaned.
I have tried Nerite snails, but I find the eggs to be a plague. Vittina semiconica the "Red Onion Snail" is the kind I had, and they covered my tank in concrete eggs that were difficult to remove. As far as cleaning the tank goes they did do a pretty good job.
I would never recommend anyone keep a larger pleco if utility is what they want. That is a foot long+ high bio-load catfish which will do a lot more tank dirtying than it will ever do cleaning. Of course if you like the pleco for other reasons there is nothing wrong with having one, but the reality is your tank will be cleaner if you skip the large pleco.
Another reality about algae is you can just leave the tanks light off for a few days if you want to get rid of it.
