Malawi Tank With Plecs?

[AmyD]

Hi, im new to catfish and i stumbled onto this forum and was wondering if you guys would be able to help me out?

I already have a 6 by 2 by 2 with community fish and a 5 by 1.5 by 1.5 salty but i have never dipped into plecs due to being told they grow to big and make a mess... All thats changed after seeing my briends cute little plec, He just bought a bristlenose plec but it has white spots and a white strip over its top fin. He informed me that not all plecs grow into the 15+ inch scale and that theres much more! The problem i am having is what kind of plec can i have in a community tank (PH 6.7 and there are some dwarf cichlids in there) and what kind of plec could i have in my newly started Malawi Tank (Ph 7.8 no fish yet).

Can i have a few different types of plec in one tank? Will they be aggressive towards any other fish? Do i need more filtration if i have more than one plec?

Thanks for looking,
Amy

 

[LisaLQ]

There's a whole host of plecs you could have in your community tank I personally wouldn't add any to a malawi tank though, as a. the ph isn't right for them, and b. the malawis would beat the heck out of it.

In my (ahem, well, hubby's) community tank we have a common bn (like your friends - that's normal colouring), two whiptails, and soon to be added probably another bristlenose (Wilf my albino) and my flash plec.

Depends on whether you've got it planted or crammed full of ornaments/bog wood like ours - big plecs cant manouvre round things very well, so things would be shoved about a bit if you got a big plec.

Stick with the middle sizes and any should be fine in a community But although I've heard of people adding bristlenoses to Malawi set ups, I personally wouldn't bother. Synodontis go well in Malawi tanks, apparently

Edited to add - with regards keeping plecs together, some plecs are known not to get along well with others, and some are very peaceful. It depends on what plecs you got, and what filtration you have, as to whether you'd need more - plecs do make tonnes of mess - they're not for those who cant handle regular gravel vacs My recommendation for less waste would be to avoid the panaques, as they eat bogwood and therefore poo sawdust

Have a gander on PlanetCatfish, they have some great info about different types of plecs. Also Plecofanatics have a good forum for asking for ideas

 

[Ferris]

BN Plecs are the only small Plec IMO suited to malawi tanks, they tend to cope very well with the aggression and neccessary water parameters.

As LisaLQ says most of the Synodontis catfish are perfectly suited and are the most common bottom-feeders kept with African cichlids.

 

[nmonks]

My royal plec spent 5 years living in a hard water aquarium with mbuna of various types. She did fine (an angry Panaque is more fish than most mbuna can handle!). Admittedly, she was already a few years old and settled in. I wouldn't try that with a newly imported specimen. With the more difficult L-number catfish, it isn't so much the water chemistry as getting them feeding that'll be the issue. That said, any of the fish sold as "common plecs" should do fine. Get a fair sized specimen that you know is eating properly. Hypostomus plecostomus or Liposarcus multiradiatus would be fine up to pH 8.0. They do well in London tap water, which is pretty close to Lake Malawi water in many ways!

Cheers,

Neale

 

[AmyD]

Thanks alot fokes. Ill have a look at planet catfish too. Ill keep reading about plecs and hopefully i will get one or two soon and get some pics to show

Thanks again