Royal or Common

[Mr Pleco]

Yeah, he grows pretty slowly alright, I got him at about 2 inches when my Asian Redtail Catfish was about 3". Now the ARTC is about 10" and like I said the pleco is about 3-3.5". But, they still get along great.

Living in denial..........

 

[Anna]

My Common Pleco is 15" and is cleaning the tank most of the time (he is not hungry! He is very well fed.). He cleans the glass, ornaments and plants. I didn't buy the Pleco to clean the tank, he just does.

 

[??SLEEPY??]

My Common Pleco is 15" and is cleaning the tank most of the time (he is not hungry! He is very well fed.). He cleans the glass, ornaments and plants. I didn't buy the Pleco to clean the tank, he just does.

How long did you have it??

 

[davo]

If you get one that does then you are lucky. But I don't why anyone would think it was a good idea to put a pleco in a piranha tank, unless they didn't like the pleco.
Plecos are not algea eaters. They are just fish, that if anything are part of the problem, not the solution to algea control. I admit it is nice thinking a fish will do all the work for me, but that's just living in a dream world. Get an algae scraper.

 

[Anna]

I got him 2 1/2 years ago. He grew from 2 1/2" to 12" in the first year and then grew more slowly after that. He is the only Pleco in with peaceful community fish.

 

[??SLEEPY??]

In one year!!!!

 

[Ianab]

If they are well fed and have plenty of space they can grow 1" per month

So Anna must have been feeding hers pretty well

I find my 6-8" plecs still do a pretty good job keeping the glass clean in their tanks, but one of them probably eats more fish food than the rest of my fish combined. I expect they will get lazier as the get bigger / older.

Cheers

Ian

 

[wataugachicken]

Maybe I just got lucky, I have a common pleco, just a brown cheapy and I move him from tank to tank when the algae gets bad. He cleaned a filthy 20g in 2-3 days. Then I just move him to the next. He's probably 3-3.5 inches long and hasn't grown a lot in the 5-6 months that I've had him, but he has plenty of access to all kinds of food, including vegetables, but algae seems to be what he prefers. He even pushes the 3-4.5 inch piranha's I have around to go wherever he wants in their tank.

sure it's not a female bristlenose that mistakenly wandered into the common pleco tank? it would make a lot more sense as far as size and cleaning ability. if you're not really familiar with plecs it would be easy to make that mistake, as a lot of female bn's don't get any bristles at all.

 

[_Sushi_]

Wataugachicken, Nice siggy, that Sushi must be a card!! XD

I like our pleco, but the ONLY reason he's in with my piranha is because that was the only tank -at the time- that had a carnivorous fish in it. I did this so that he could get the meat he needs, along with his veggies. I never get algae in my piranha tank, so getting a fish to clean it seems a bit redundant. And just in case I may get it at some point, I put a snail in there.

I would move him in with my Clown Knife, but I don't want the CK to eat him, or I could put him in with my goldies, but I never put any meat in that tank, since it'll just rot, and I really don't want him sucking on my golds.

 

[wataugachicken]