Bushy nose pleco

[spAcE mOnkEy]

I went to my LPS the other day and they had some of these. Are bushy nose plecs the same as bristle nose plecs? Well i have a really bad algae problem in two of my tanks. One is a 55 gal, and i cant get any regular plecs for it. I have a senegal bichir in the 55 gal, and plecos suck on the slime coat of these fish. So, i need to know if bushy nose plecs would do this. If not, then i will put one in my 55 gal. I also have a 30 gal tank, with two breeding convicts. One is like a jelly bean or something, it has nearly the same shaped body, and then theres a regular female convict. The male jelly bean thing is like 4 inches, and the convict is 3 inches. They are very aggressive, the male tries to attack me through the glass of the tank. Would these guys kill a bushy nose plec? If the bushy nose plecs cant go in my tanks, is there any algae eater that can go in them?

 

[SirMinion]

Bushynose plecs are the same as bristlenoses, but the term bushynose is often applied to the species with heavier tentacle growth.

There are over 70 species of bristlenose/bushynose (ancistrus) each with differing growths of tentacles ranging from just a few spikes to the medusa (ancistrus ranunculus) which has a face like a wok full of noodles.

 

[spAcE mOnkEy]

Ok thanks for the info SirMinion, but my main question is.... will one be ok in my 55 gallon with a senegal bichir? The other fish are listed in my profile. Im just concerned about the pleco sucking on the bichir's scales.

 

[SirMinion]

Difficult question.
Some plecs develop a taste for fish slime and will indeed suck on bichirs which leads to infection and even death for the bichir.

Others seem to be completely oblivious to the bichirs existance.

We added our large Ornate Bichir to a tank containing a large common plec and a larger ancistrus before we knew about the potential for problems.

To date, there never been any problems with slime-eating and the plecs just ignore the bichir. (touch wood)

 

[spAcE mOnkEy]

Well i do have some drift-wood in the tank. Maybe it would go after that instead. Do you think if things go bad with the plec, i can put it in my breeding tank with the convicts? They are really mean.