Clown Pleco

[Channti]

Saw some of these guys in a local store. Had the guy working there double-check the ID on them (The staff at this particular store are not allowed to work in the fish room unless they're very familiar with the stock).

Now; I've got a 46 gallon tank. The tank is low-light planted (0.65 watt/gallon) with a sand substrate. I want a pleco of some description for this tank. The tank has no real algae problems, but it does grow a nice amount of the clear-gooey-algae-stuff on the glass which fed my Otocinclus very well. Obviously I supplement the diet with Algae tablets, Shrimp pellets, and blanched zuchinni. Unfortunately, the otocinclus, while effective, were picked on frequently by the other tank inhabitants due to their small size.

Tank occupants:
3 African Butterflyfish. (One will likely be rehomed in the near future)
11 Serpae Tetras
6 Yoyo loaches
(Future Additions)
4 Bolivian Rams

Would a Clown Pleco work with this stocking?
Would a Clown Pleco work on my clear-gooey-algae-on-the-glass?
How social can I expect the Clown to be if I get one? (Will I see it at all during the day time?)

 

[Carlovel1]

Yes, this pleco is compatible.
This is not an algae eater, this is a drift/bog wood and vegetable eater
These are the most shy plecos I've ever seen, like in my LFS , they sell them but ive never seen them as these are always in their cave thingy. These are so lazy honestly, Id recomend some SAE but they are likely to get picked on.
So here is my list of algae eating fish:
Twig/Whiptail Catfish
Common Plecostomus
Bristlenose Plecostomus
Gold Nugget Plecostomus (L18,L177.L81,L85)
Zebra Plecostomus(L173,L46)
Ottocinclus
Siamese Algae Eater
False SAE
Flying Fox
Some Garra species (Garra Pingi)
Molly
American Flagfish

 

[Carlovel1]

Deleted

 

[Channti]

Twig/Whiptail: apparently very susceptible to bullying apparently. And my serpae tetras are very aggressive for Tetras.

Common: too big.

BN Pleco: I can't stnad their appearance.

Gold Nugget: I swear someone told me that these get over 12", therefore unsuitable.

Zebra: I thought Zebras were meat-eaters, not algae eaters.

Otocinclus: Tried these, they were picked on non-stop. They're recovering in a 10 gallon to go into a 15 gallon tank later.

SAE:NOT happening in my tank. I refuse to buy them.

False SAE: Never seen these.

Flying Fox: Would expect same problem as Otocinclus

Garra species: Not available in my area.

Molly: Brackish fish; I won't keep it in freshwater conditions.

American Flagfish: Outrageously expensive in my area

-------------------------------

So I need to either get over my hatred of BN plecos, find an algae eating pleco, (I don't even have an algae problem, just that clear gooey gunk that grows on EVERY tank I own), or find out that Gold Nuggest Pleco's aren't as big as I thought.

 

[Carlovel1]

Twig/Whiptail: apparently very susceptible to bullying apparently. And my serpae tetras are very aggressive for Tetras.

Common: too big.

BN Pleco: I can't stnad their appearance.

Gold Nugget: I swear someone told me that these get over 12", therefore unsuitable.

Zebra: I thought Zebras were meat-eaters, not algae eaters.

Otocinclus: Tried these, they were picked on non-stop. They're recovering in a 10 gallon to go into a 15 gallon tank later.

SAE:NOT happening in my tank. I refuse to buy them.

False SAE: Never seen these.

Flying Fox: Would expect same problem as Otocinclus

Garra species: Not available in my area.

Molly: Brackish fish; I won't keep it in freshwater conditions.

American Flagfish: Outrageously expensive in my area

-------------------------------

So I need to either get over my hatred of BN plecos, find an algae eating pleco, (I don't even have an algae problem, just that clear gooey gunk that grows on EVERY tank I own), or find out that Gold Nuggest Pleco's aren't as big as I thought.

I agree and understand everything except:
Gold Nugget Pleco: Lots of debate going on about their max size my trusty LFS as well as some websites say they go to a max of 8" or 20cm. Some say they go to a max of 14". My opinion is that they will only reach 8" max in aquariums no matter how big, some might even stay smaller. Gold Nuggest over 8 inches are only found in the wild. I've never seen Gold Nuggets bigger than 5 inches

Zebra Pleco: Are omnivores mostly eat meat but will eat a fair bit of algae. Also outragously expensive and rare. In the UK they usually over £200 each, which over $310 in american dollars.

Flying Fox: These not peaceful fish, are teritorial and will defend them selves against aggressive fish. Should be considered

Molly: These are not true Brackish fish, these are freshwater fish that thrive with a little salt and a high pH

American Flagfish: Very cheap in the UK, around £3/Under $5.00

Also I forgot to add the Butterfly Goodeid to my list. These love algae.

 

[Channti]

Twig/Whiptail: apparently very susceptible to bullying apparently. And my serpae tetras are very aggressive for Tetras.

Common: too big.

BN Pleco: I can't stnad their appearance.

Gold Nugget: I swear someone told me that these get over 12", therefore unsuitable.

Zebra: I thought Zebras were meat-eaters, not algae eaters.

Otocinclus: Tried these, they were picked on non-stop. They're recovering in a 10 gallon to go into a 15 gallon tank later.

SAE:NOT happening in my tank. I refuse to buy them.

False SAE: Never seen these.

Flying Fox: Would expect same problem as Otocinclus

Garra species: Not available in my area.

Molly: Brackish fish; I won't keep it in freshwater conditions.

American Flagfish: Outrageously expensive in my area

-------------------------------

So I need to either get over my hatred of BN plecos, find an algae eating pleco, (I don't even have an algae problem, just that clear gooey gunk that grows on EVERY tank I own), or find out that Gold Nuggest Pleco's aren't as big as I thought.

I agree and understand everything except:
Gold Nugget Pleco: Lots of debate going on about their max size my trusty LFS as well as some websites say they go to a max of 8" or 20cm. Some say they go to a max of 14". My opinion is that they will only reach 8" max in aquariums no matter how big, some might even stay smaller. Gold Nuggest over 8 inches are only found in the wild. I've never seen Gold Nuggets bigger than 5 inches

Zebra Pleco: Are omnivores mostly eat meat but will eat a fair bit of algae. Also outragously expensive and rare. In the UK they usually over £200 each, which over $310 in american dollars.

Flying Fox: These not peaceful fish, are teritorial and will defend them selves against aggressive fish. Should be considered

Molly: These are not true Brackish fish, these are freshwater fish that thrive with a little salt and a high pH

American Flagfish: Very cheap in the UK, around £3/Under $5.00

Also I forgot to add the Butterfly Goodeid to my list. These love algae.

Yeah; I'm Canadian. And unfortunately Canadian Borders are awful. Means massive differences in price between us and the USA.

Flying foxes are great, but they're pretty small in comparison to the scale of fish in the tank. I want something larger (and easier to spot in the tank). I'm gonna start calling around and trying to find myself a Golden Nugget Pleco. If it outgrows my tank, I'll just rehome it.

Thanks.!

 

[Carlovel1]

Its OK, if you do buy a gold nug plec, you could buy it like a coconut shell or a slate cave for it to retreat and to use it as its teritory. And it might also be a good idea to buy another one of the loaches!
Post pics!

 

[Channti]

hahaha yoyo loach number 7 has been in the store for 2 weeks waiting to be picked up. But I don't want to bring him home in the crazy hot (30C + humidity=40C) weather. Not fair to a fish to travel 2 hours in that. Waiting for a cooler day to pick him up.

I'm planning to grab some more driftwood pieces to make a couple more hidey-holes at the back. There's quite a few tunnels built into my current two chunks of driftwood that the loaches are making good use of, and two massive caves as well as plenty of ground cover for the loaches provided by small crypt daughter plants I'm growing out. With the number of plants that there will be in a couple days, there'll be plenty of space for a Plec and the loaches to hide.

My loaches are posted on another thread here somewhere.... when I manage to buy a pleco (finding one will be the tough part!) I'll post pictures.

 

[JenCliBee]

Twig/Whiptail: apparently very susceptible to bullying apparently. And my serpae tetras are very aggressive for Tetras.

Common: too big.

BN Pleco: I can't stnad their appearance.

Gold Nugget: I swear someone told me that these get over 12", therefore unsuitable.

Zebra: I thought Zebras were meat-eaters, not algae eaters.

Otocinclus: Tried these, they were picked on non-stop. They're recovering in a 10 gallon to go into a 15 gallon tank later.

SAE:NOT happening in my tank. I refuse to buy them.

False SAE: Never seen these.

Flying Fox: Would expect same problem as Otocinclus

Garra species: Not available in my area.

Molly: Brackish fish; I won't keep it in freshwater conditions.

American Flagfish: Outrageously expensive in my area

-------------------------------

So I need to either get over my hatred of BN plecos, find an algae eating pleco, (I don't even have an algae problem, just that clear gooey gunk that grows on EVERY tank I own), or find out that Gold Nuggest Pleco's aren't as big as I thought.

I agree and understand everything except:
Gold Nugget Pleco: Lots of debate going on about their max size my trusty LFS as well as some websites say they go to a max of 8" or 20cm. Some say they go to a max of 14". My opinion is that they will only reach 8" max in aquariums no matter how big, some might even stay smaller. Gold Nuggest over 8 inches are only found in the wild. I've never seen Gold Nuggets bigger than 5 inches

Majority of GN's if not all will be wild caught, they are extremely hard to bred in aquarium environment and only a handful of successful reports are around, so the theory of wild caught get bigger is a bit redundant considering all the ones in your LFS will be wild caught. They wont max out at 8 inches, there are various species of GN with the L81 been considered the smallest of them all, even this is a 11 inch+ fish. The reason there arnt that many around that are huge is becasue they tend to perish quite easily and the fact they are renowned for been extremely slow growing. Have a look on some dedicated plec forums and you will see just how big these fish can get.

Zebra Pleco: Are omnivores mostly eat meat but will eat a fair bit of algae. Also outragously expensive and rare. In the UK they usually over £200 each, which over $310 in american dollars.

There a carnivorous species, they very rarely eat algae, infact they dont touch anything in general apart from a meat high protein based food. There will be some that say there's eat cucumber and some other veg but ive found they tend not to do this all that often. These fish are far from rare, there just an expensive fish. Juveniles can be picked up for as little as £50 it's only when sexed adults and adults in general come along they tend to be that little more expensive.

To the op regarding clowns, they will be compatible as mentioned but dont expect to see them much, one of the most elusive plecs ive ever kept and you will very rarely see it/them.

Dependant on what you want the only real algae eaters that are good would be bristlenose and pitbulls, pitbulls do like to be in groups so a few might work best, they only stay small but very cute little things, other possibility is a bulldog/rubberlip, nice plecs, not the greatest algae eater in the world but better than nothing.

The best algae cleaner is a sponge and your hand, this way you know it's been done correctly and makes you feed the plec a much better varied diet rather than algae based.

 

[Channti]

Twig/Whiptail: apparently very susceptible to bullying apparently. And my serpae tetras are very aggressive for Tetras.

Common: too big.

BN Pleco: I can't stnad their appearance.

Gold Nugget: I swear someone told me that these get over 12", therefore unsuitable.

Zebra: I thought Zebras were meat-eaters, not algae eaters.

Otocinclus: Tried these, they were picked on non-stop. They're recovering in a 10 gallon to go into a 15 gallon tank later.

SAE:NOT happening in my tank. I refuse to buy them.

False SAE: Never seen these.

Flying Fox: Would expect same problem as Otocinclus

Garra species: Not available in my area.

Molly: Brackish fish; I won't keep it in freshwater conditions.

American Flagfish: Outrageously expensive in my area

-------------------------------

So I need to either get over my hatred of BN plecos, find an algae eating pleco, (I don't even have an algae problem, just that clear gooey gunk that grows on EVERY tank I own), or find out that Gold Nuggest Pleco's aren't as big as I thought.

I agree and understand everything except:
Gold Nugget Pleco: Lots of debate going on about their max size my trusty LFS as well as some websites say they go to a max of 8" or 20cm. Some say they go to a max of 14". My opinion is that they will only reach 8" max in aquariums no matter how big, some might even stay smaller. Gold Nuggest over 8 inches are only found in the wild. I've never seen Gold Nuggets bigger than 5 inches

Majority of GN's if not all will be wild caught, they are extremely hard to bred in aquarium environment and only a handful of successful reports are around, so the theory of wild caught get bigger is a bit redundant considering all the ones in your LFS will be wild caught. They wont max out at 8 inches, there are various species of GN with the L81 been considered the smallest of them all, even this is a 11 inch+ fish. The reason there arnt that many around that are huge is becasue they tend to perish quite easily and the fact they are renowned for been extremely slow growing. Have a look on some dedicated plec forums and you will see just how big these fish can get.

Zebra Pleco: Are omnivores mostly eat meat but will eat a fair bit of algae. Also outragously expensive and rare. In the UK they usually over £200 each, which over $310 in american dollars.

There a carnivorous species, they very rarely eat algae, infact they dont touch anything in general apart from a meat high protein based food. There will be some that say there's eat cucumber and some other veg but ive found they tend not to do this all that often. These fish are far from rare, there just an expensive fish. Juveniles can be picked up for as little as £50 it's only when sexed adults and adults in general come along they tend to be that little more expensive.

To the op regarding clowns, they will be compatible as mentioned but dont expect to see them much, one of the most elusive plecs ive ever kept and you will very rarely see it/them.

Dependant on what you want the only real algae eaters that are good would be bristlenose and pitbulls, pitbulls do like to be in groups so a few might work best, they only stay small but very cute little things, other possibility is a bulldog/rubberlip, nice plecs, not the greatest algae eater in the world but better than nothing.

The best algae cleaner is a sponge and your hand, this way you know it's been done correctly and makes you feed the plec a much better varied diet rather than algae based.

I want a pleco not for algae, but because I've always wanted to keep one and didn't have a tank large enough. I already feed the tank a very varied diet (live crickets, floating cichlid pellets, flake food, blanched cucumber, shrimp pellets, algae tabs). Algae would NOT be the plecos main source of food. The algae just would have been a plus.

I know how to care for them. The problem is finding one that will fit my stocking, tank size, and social preferences. If there isn't one, I'll get over it. But with a tank this size, I'd love to keep one.

So the clown is antisocial. What's a social pleco that won't be bullied, may eat a little algae, and will work in my tank stocking and tank size?

 

[kizno1]

What are the dimensions of the tank?
Flash plec
leopard plec
chocolate zebra plec
will all work not sure how active they are but most are likely to hide most of the time in the day unless theres food about.

 

[Channti]

Tank size:
20" high
36" long
16.25" wide

 

[JenCliBee]

I want a pleco not for algae, but because I've always wanted to keep one and didn't have a tank large enough. I already feed the tank a very varied diet (live crickets, floating cichlid pellets, flake food, blanched cucumber, shrimp pellets, algae tabs). Algae would NOT be the plecos main source of food. The algae just would have been a plus.

I think you misunderstood what i was trying to say but hey never mind lol.

I know how to care for them. The problem is finding one that will fit my stocking, tank size, and social preferences. If there isn't one, I'll get over it. But with a tank this size, I'd love to keep one.

Again misunderstanding what i was saying, i never said you didn't know how to care for one just purely giving what would be suitable and what the plecs actually require.

So the clown is antisocial. What's a social pleco that won't be bullied, may eat a little algae, and will work in my tank stocking and tank size?

There are a huge bunch of plecs which would be suitable, firstly if a good varied diet is offered any plec no matter how much it eats algae wont do a good job if any job at all, the slimy stuff you mentioned i would be very surprised if any plec would eat it, plecs tend to like brown/green algae.

It's not just the tank mates which are a consideration, the requirements of the fish ie decor (wood), diet, omnivorous, carnivorous etc and also tank temperature. Some of the obvious nicer looking plecs like hypan species like high temps and will thrive in them, lower temps would suit but not ideal. There are plenty of other species which would be suitable for lower end temp tanks... bristlenose is one (there are alot of species which could be chosen), others would be L134, L002, L15, L239 amongst various others. The reason i cant answer your question to the extent of what you've asked is becasue there's simply so many to chose from. Most plecs are social again so it's hard to give you a plec for your tastes.

Ho#ave a look on planet catfish at a few species and see what takes your fancy and then post what you like here and we could go from there with a much better idea on what your looking for

Forgot to mention, most plecs are antisocial, there are select few which do tend to be out more often than others, most common would probably be female common bristlenose but as you've mentioned you not keen lol, cant say i blame you but there as ive mentioned so many different patterned and coloured ones i think you would be surprised how nice some of them can be. Take a look ate L183, L59 or maybe L182, all nice species of BN but the final decision really is upto you

 

[Carlovel1]

What are the dimensions of the tank?
Flash plec
leopard plec
chocolate zebra plec
will all work not sure how active they are but most are likely to hide most of the time in the day unless theres food about.

Leopard Plecos get huge right?