Few Questions

[_]im]

Hi I had 3 questions, I would have posted them seperately but I didnt want to swamp the board.

First, I have a common pleco, is it true that they grow to the size of your tank, I have a 10gallon and I am concerned its going to get way to big.

Second, I have a high nitrate level at the moment, between water changes and my natural plants they are coming down. My question is how long before I expect high ammonia, or is this cycling deal a one time thing, once you do it once the tank is maintained? Or does the ammonia nitrtie nitrate cycle start up again? Kind of a vague question, but in general should I prepare for another set of ammonia spikes?

Thirdly, I have a one gallon tank with 3 guppies in it, 2 females and 1 male. I had removed the male from my other 10 gallon tank because he was irritating the other fish (mollies) so I put him in with some females thinking that was the problem. BUT now he seems to be irritating the female guppies, biting at them and chasing them around. Is my fish mental or is this typical behavoir between the two sexes?

Thanks for any help

 

[cation]

1. The pleco should not be in a 10 gallon. They get WAY too big.

2. Do you mean you've already had ammonia and nitrites? If so, your tank is cycled, and unless you add too many fish at one time, or don't keep up on your water changes, you shouldn't see ammonia or nitrite. Get those nitrates to an acceptable level (I prefer under 20, but YMMV - for example, some people's tap water comes out with high nitrates.

3. Typical behaviour. However, the 1g is too small and will increase aggression.

 

[snowyangel]

A common pleco will easily grow out of a 10 gallon in time, but it will also get stunted(not a good thing) in growth. Non the less, it will still grow too big for the tank. Smaller plecos that would be better are wide mouthed and clown plecos, they grow to about 5 inches.
Nitrate is the end product of the cycling process. Cycling should only happen once in a tank, but it can happen again if you some how interupt the balance, for example:
-over feeding or over stocking with fish: the excess waste turns into deadily ammonia which will be too much for your present bacteria to convert. So away you go starting the whole process over again.
-over cleaning your tank: If your accidentally clean your filter media in non dechlorinated water, or do too many large water changes and remove too much bacteria, you'll lose that beneficial bacteria to help keep ammonia levels down.
-not cleaning enough for your tank: if you plan to not do water changes for over a month, or your water changes are very minimal(say only 5% every 2 weeks) poo and other waste will quickly create ammonia.

As for your guppy ques, males will harass females until they're pregnant then they'll move on to the next nonpregnant female, hence why live bearers are called "millions fish". Males will do anythign to attract a female attention weither its nipping at her, chasing her, or flaring their fins for display. I prefer the ratio to be 1 male for every 3 females to keep stress down. Or keep your sexes seperate and have an all male tank. Getting a bigger tnak would be advised since they will produce fry quickly.

 

[_]im]

Thanks for all the advice, I appreciate it. I will give the pleco to my friend who has a larger tank, and the water changes I'll keep up with, last thing I want to do is have to deal with more cycling!

 

[_]im]

One other thing, how long would it take for a common pleco to reach that size? I cannot transport him for a month, so would it be alright until then?

Thanks again

 

[David]

He'll be fine. It takes most fish quite a while (several months) to fully mature.

 

[snowyangel]

One month is fine. I've heard plecos will grow 1-2 inches per year, but it probably varies per species too.

 

[_]im]

so.....I could keep it for a while then, I dont have any clown pleco around here, its about an hours drive to get one where I live out in the sticks. Maybe I'll hold on to it for a while if its not going to grow to fast, although I dont want to stunt it to much in growth as thats not good for it.

thanks again