Pick The Pleco!

[Chuka1212]

My newly discovered LFS has quite the selection, and I can only pick one for my softwater, 30 gallon Amazon tank. I am interested in the most active and hardy species. Feel free to tell me why your choice is the best. (Note: all of the plecos I am considering are between 3 and 4 inches, and within four or five months I will be transferring everyting to a 55 gallon setup)

This is my first time buying a fish over $10 so I want to make a good choice.

 

[Davo86]

I'd definitely go for the queen arabesque, IMO they are much more striking than the others,
although it would also depend on the exact specimens available to you,

 

[Chuka1212]

I'd definitely go for the queen arabesque, IMO they are much more striking than the others,
although it would also depend on the exact specimens available to you,

All four are available to me at my LFS... I just can't decide between them all! I was also partial to the Queen... I just wonder if they are hardy and active? It would suck to get him and never see him again.

 

[simonas]

I love plecs and they are all great looking fish. I migt buy a snowball myself cos there £14 at my lfs at moment but the blue phantom for me. very striking fish the order would be blue phantom, gold nugget, snowball and the queen abaresque

 

[Luketendo]

Don't count on any being active, most plecos are wild caught because they refuse to breed. This means they like hiding a lot and can disappear for months.

My lfs has a few exotic plecs in at the moment like Queen Arabesque's and King Tigers but it's very hard to get a good look since they are always below the tiny piece of wood they have with them.

 

[Maxta]

Queen Arabesque or Blue Phantom.

 

[three-fingers]

Blue phantom looks awesome, I've never seen one in shops, so I'd personally go with that .

 

[PlecMama]

Ah now while the Snowballs are lovely and easy to keep - don't expect to ever see it. Our two are always in caves, we angled the caves to face front just so we can occasionally look in and get our moneys worth. Also in the caves (somewhere) are our lovely raphaels and somewhere else, under the sand, are our Banjo cats (still going strong Bloo!) - I have a whole tank that I never see. I shoved some marbled hatchets in there to give it some life.

Half the fun of owning these pretty plecs is the quiet contentment of knowing you have them. You never see them.

My big boys and girls are out all the time flying around the 6ft, looking beautiful (kinda hard to miss a foot long fish though).

 

[Chuka1212]

Half the fun of owning these pretty plecs is the quiet contentment of knowing you have them. You never see them.

Dang, that is what I was afraid of... I guess I knew they would be hiding most of the time, but just hoped one might be pretty active.

 

[dane261]

blue phantom




cheers Dane

 

[indigoj]

If you want a 'visible' plec then you can't go wrong with a bristle nose! Also of my 'fancy' plecs the one I see most is my Flash, he is bold and boisterous. If you want a fish you can see it could be worth waiting and seeing if you can order something particular.

Out of the 4 you state? I'd go for whichever is smallest adult size and try to get a group of them so maybe the Snowballs or Queen Arabesque?

 

[rabbut]

I have three L66, that are active and under 4inch. Out during the day, and similar to the queen abarisc (spelling). Both the L66 and queen abarisque are hardy and stunning fish IMO, and I am also partial to the blue phantoms and snowballs.Look even better in-the-flesh once settled too. I am not shure if the L66 are an amazonia species though.... The Gold nugget pleco can be both hardy and flimsy, depending on the L number. Their usual temprament also vary, depending on which one you get. I know of two different gold nuggets with different requirement, so you may whish to post the exact L number of the ones in the shop if you opt for them, so that you can be better adivsed.

HTH
rabbut