Plec Tank Stocking Advice

[LisaLQ]

Recently aquired a Rio 300 for my plec collection, they're only babies at the moment, and only three of them and they're currently in my hubby's 6ft community tank. I have a rusty (L077), black eyed gold ancistrus (L144) and a common BN. Tank is going to be fairly minimalist - black background, big chunk of bogwood, couple of hiding places, couple of plants, fine pea gravel.

I was wondering what other plecs folks could recommend. Although I am sorely tempted by a royal, I dont think it's necessarily a good idea as a. they get massive (all be it very slowly over many years) and b. they require a different diet, and poo tonnes - and the plan was to keep it fairly low maintenance, well - as low maintenance as a plec tank can be! I dont want anything massive, no commons, gibbies or the like. I am fairly restricted to mail order (Trimar) and LFS (one in my town is naff) as I'm on crutches permanently and cant walk for far, or travel far (and am limited to public transport as I dont/cant drive). There are apparently a couple of decent FS in Leeds, but I've not been painfree enough to manage going over yet.

Also, what middle/higher level fish can you recommend? My plan was to nick two of my hubby's angels or our Rainbow cichlid, but they all prefer a planted tank - and his is heavily planted, and they're used to it - so dont know if it would be a bit cruel? I love botia (I have clown loaches but they'd get too big for my tank), and synos, and am tempted to stick to those kinds of fish, but I'm fairly new to fishkeeping, and dont know what fish are compatible to choose from - so maybe they're not even an option? I dont want loads of different types either, as I want it to look really classy (if that's possible in my house!).

I dont have millions of squidlies to spend, as I'm on disability benefits, but I could, at a push, go up to £20 for a plec (not inc. postage) I'm not 100% keen on little fish like tetras (although congos and diamonds are nice from the pics I've seen), but I do love cichlids - but they'd have to be fairly small and friendly, and not mess machines. Saying that, I'm not overfussed on having cichlids in this tank, as I want to keep the main attraction as the plecs. Fish would have to be happy in open water, as planting is going to be very minimal.

Any suggestions? There's no rush to make a choice, just like to plan in advance, and it keeps me from being bored stupid stuck in with the kids

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

If i were you i'd keep the pleco's to a minimum, i would probably take some of the plec's from some of your other tanks and put them in the new one, but if the current plecos are still little one's i would wait a bit until they grow up a bit more before adding more than one new pleco so competicion for food isn't too great while they are little .
This is just what i would personally do, although it isn't totally nesarsary or anything.
As for middle or top dwelling fish, what sorts of size fish and type of fish are you interested in? As far as i am aware angels or rainbow cichlids would be great in a tank like that, but they could limit what other types of fish you can put in the tank if you want more variety of species as they are not the most peaceful of fish out there.

 

[LisaLQ]

Thanks for the advice. Hubby says he has now decided he wants the Rio 300, so I'm getting the 6ft tank they're currently in. So that'll be three tiny plecs, a few (3) clown loaches (will get too big for Rio 300) and maybe a couple extra of his community fish (perhaps the 5 albino cories).

Most of the plants are being moved over tonight, so it's going to start moving along now. He's leaving me some plants too, so my minimalist idea's out of the window, but it does mean I could keep the rainbow cichlid then. No idea who's going where though really *lol* I'd prefer not to have a big mish mash of different kinds of fish, but we'll see how it goes.