Common Pleco Questions

[EkizUCLA]

I went to the LFS the other day in hopes of finding otos. All they had was common plecos. I bought one, but I plan on upgrading to a 55 gallon tank in december. Anyway, I have couple of questions. First, I noticed that he is missing half of his fin near his head. Will this grow back? Also, how often should I feed him an algae wafer, and what do I do if he doesn't eat them. I currently have 5 harlequin rasboras and 4 head and tail light tetras in my tank. Thaks.

 

[smithrc]

Wow... If you were looking for otos, you couldn't have got a more opposite fish

The common plecs grow to about 18" (even too big for a 55gal)

however... back to the questions.

It's fin may not grow back as it sounds like a big gristle/bone structure its missing... Can it still raise its top fin?

as for food - if hes' small 1" he'll eat a bit (1/4) of a wafer ever day or so...

as he gets bigger you'll need to up that.

He'll clean the tank nicely too - untill he gets bigger (8"+) when he'll start to get lazy and need less energy.