Butterfly Pleco

[PrairieSunflower]

I am considering getting a few different kinds of fish for my tank in another month (currently having some tank troubles and trying to wean my guppies off salt first! )

I was in a pet shop I don't tend to usually go to and spotted some odd fish in the goldfish tanks... which turned out to be butterfly plecos... which I was quite sure don't belong in a coldwater tank! I've come home and been reading about them but can't find the answers to all the questions I have.

Will a butterfly pleco get along with guppies? Will it eat their fry? As I did read they occasionally eat meaty foods and tend to be nocturnal eaters. Also, could they survive in my tank if I don't successfully wean my guppies off salt (though, I think I might be facing a population wipeout and fear that tank may need starting over with )

 

[N0body Of The Goat]

"Butterfly Pleco" is a truely horrible common name used for various "hillstream loach" species... Yes, these fish are loaches and not catfish!

Typically they are Beaufortia kweichowensis, but sometimes other similar shaped loaches are given this horrid name by wholesalers and then fish stores. They are sub-tropical fish that need very specialist conditions, ~20-22C with masses (20-30x true turnover of water per hour will suit them well) of current including lots of water rippling. They feed in the wild on "aufwuchs" (tiny organisms that inhabit algae), so they are omnivores with a meaty tendency, just like the Central American Chaetostoma spp. ("Rubbernose Plecs" of which there are ~40 types and counting, mainly just assigned L-numbers for now).

 

[Liam50]

there is a type of butterfly plec if you're talking about the l052 i've had one in my time but was killed when i was a novice and kept it with an oscar. i believe they like soft water but here is a good bit of information http/www.planetcatfish.com/catelog/species.php?species_id=983 beautiful plec and hope to keep again one day.

 

[PrairieSunflower]

Sounds like that wouldn't suit me then.

When I saw wasn't quite like that picture... it was like the stripes were a lot smaller and there was a lot more black... also it was like the texture rippled over its body.