Turtle/pleco?

[Conner]

shouldnt be an issue. ive kept plecos in with some of my old painteds. never had an issue.

this is going to sound bad but at least they are cheap if it does get eaten

I didn't even pay for him, a friend of mine rescued them from someone else who was shutting down their tank and was just going to toss him in the yard . I took him with the intentions of trading him into the lfs, but never got around to it. I don't dislike him, I just don't really find him that interesting.

 

[AFRO-thunder]

I would be careful with plecos and turtles. I have decided to get rid of my plecos because if the turtles have shell rot, the pleco will feed on the soft tissue and the wounds won't heal. It took me some time to recognize what was going on when I had a gibba turtle with necrosis that wouldn't heal until I came into the turtle room at night and saw the pleco harassing the turtle. That was the point when I decided to get rid of them.

 

[-DC-]

it would be fine, I kept a pleco in with 3 RES without any problem, i also have one in a tank with my dwarf caiman, 2 maps, and a RES. As long as the pleco isnt bite sized lol, which you stated it isn’t,

as for the pleco and shell rot thing, if you take care of turtles they don’t get soft spots on there shells, and a pleco wouldn’t be feeding on any healthy active turtle an this isn’t a problem so that isn’t a very good argument, in the situation you described the pleco isn’t the problem, the owner is...

 

[AFRO-thunder]

Dc: I don't mean to offend you, but how long do you keep turtles?
Turtles can get shell rot for various reasons. Freshly imported specimens often show bad cases. Sometimes turtles try to hide somewhere so hard they scrape off some pieces of their outer shell layers and sometimes there is just no reason even if they have the perfect setup. I even saw turtles in the wild having shell rot and old healed spots. In a 20+ year long life, a turtle is very likely to experience shell rot from time to time.

Back to topic: I am not saying that the plecos will CAUSE shell rot, they just can make it worse.

 

[-DC-]

to answer your first question... about 15-20 years... yes lots of thing can cause shell rot/soft spots, but there is ALWAYS a reason,anyone who thinks they have turtles developing shell “for no reason” is wrong, and needs to take the time to figure out the cause


poor husbandry, bacterial infections, poor diet, pollutants in the water supply, lack of adequate basking areas/ lack of proper lighting/UV are a few examples,

If you have some sort of setup that allows a turtle to dig in so hard or so often that it causes physical damage then that's a problem as well. But it's not shell rot and if that happens then use common sense and then remove whatever the turtle is hurting itself on... I'm sure WC specimens can also be exposed to all these causes as well... so very likely could have shell rot,

I'm not targeting you or how you care for your animals, I’m just saying in that scenario isn’t a good example, a pleco won’t harm a healthy turtle… if your keeping sick turtles, then in reality you should remove them from there current environment and get them into a simple and clean setup to recover, and in the mean time figure out the cause of the rot/damage and correct it

 

[turtlesrock]

its absolutly fine to keep a pleco with a turtle as long as the pleco is at least half as long as the turtle

 

[fishfreak2009]

I'd go for it, except my turtle kills anything and everything including his dock, fingers, elbows, and ping pong balls.

 

[Vicious_Fish]

I would be careful with plecos and turtles. I have decided to get rid of my plecos because if the turtles have shell rot, the pleco will feed on the soft tissue and the wounds won't heal. It took me some time to recognize what was going on when I had a gibba turtle with necrosis that wouldn't heal until I came into the turtle room at night and saw the pleco harassing the turtle. That was the point when I decided to get rid of them.

What species of pleco? Common plecos really lack the ability to rasp hard enough to hurt a turtles shell (unless it's a soft spot) but members of the Panaque genus who mainly feed on rotting wood can do a number on a turtle's shell if they desire to. But If you keep a pleco well fed they are amost never a problem.

 

[-DC-]

you have to take both species into consideration, stick any pleco no matter how big in with an alligator snapper and it'll be toast lol. or a pleco who has a VERY strong rasping ability with a soft shell species might also get problems, but for the mot part you'll be fine

 

[Vicious_Fish]

I would advise to never keep plecos with Soft Shell species or inactive turtles like Gator Snappers, Mata Matas, etc...

I think a lot of people buy plecos for "Algae Eating" or to clean up the scraps left by a turtle. That can be ok I guess but most species barely touch algae or grow out of eating it once they reach larger sizes. They have to eat just like any other species so keeping them well fed with a varied diet particular to that species is a must. Also what goes in must come out and plecos are notorious for being poop machines. They also add a significant degree of bioload in the tank which means more water changes and better filtration. Just keep this stuff in mind if you think of adding one to a tank.