Pleco Friendly Crustaceans?

[plecostomus-mad]

Are there any pleco friendly crustaceans such as crabs, etc that are ok with plecos?

since having 8 out of 12 danios pass away for unknown reasons i have decided to just have my 4 plecos which are.....2 x clown plecos at 3-4 inches, an adult female bn at 5-5.5 inches and a very beautiful smaller spotted golden nugget pleco at nearly 6 inches. other fish are 4 x zebra danios, which i half expect to die and 3 peppered corys/catfish. im going to up the corys by 4 with some julii corydoras and that will pretty much be it apart from some crustaceans.

Mark

 

[three-fingers]

Pretty much everything apart from large Macrobrachium species...

Only crabs you could really get without having a big land area would would be Thai micro crabs, but those guys would just get lost in the tank and possibly even eaten.

Avoid red claw crabs and fiddler crabs.

If you lowered the water level (no problem for catfish anyway), and add a large "turtle dock" or two as a land area (you could DIY something easily enough), and have some bogwood or rocks as ladders leading up to it. Then you could get some vampire crabs or similar semi-aquatic fully freshwater crabs. You could plant the bogwood/rocks with Java fern/Anubias sp. both above and below the water for a natural paludarium effect. Other aquatic plants would have a chance to grow above the water level too, which always looks good.

Filter shrimp like bamboo shrimp are a good option, but remember they will need extra direct feeding of powdered flake food or proper invert food to avoid them just starving over months.

The usual Amano, cherry shrimp etc are fine.

You could even go for Aegla sp..

Dwarf crayfish would be an option, but if your in the UK you cant have any crayfish.


Though it should be noted, that if you cant keep zebra danios alive, inverts are a bad idea. Zebra danios are essentially bulletproof, and inverts in general are more sensitive than fish to water conditions.

 

[plecostomus-mad]

Pretty much everything apart from large Macrobrachium species...

Only crabs you could really get without having a big land area would would be Thai micro crabs, but those guys would just get lost in the tank and possibly even eaten.

Avoid red claw crabs and fiddler crabs.

If you lowered the water level (no problem for catfish anyway), and add a large "turtle dock" or two as a land area (you could DIY something easily enough), and have some bogwood or rocks as ladders leading up to it. Then you could get some vampire crabs or similar semi-aquatic fully freshwater crabs. You could plant the bogwood/rocks with Java fern/Anubias sp. both above and below the water for a natural paludarium effect. Other aquatic plants would have a chance to grow above the water level too, which always looks good.

Filter shrimp like bamboo shrimp are a good option, but remember they will need extra direct feeding of powdered flake food or proper invert food to avoid them just starving over months.

The usual Amano, cherry shrimp etc are fine.

You could even go for Aegla sp..

Dwarf crayfish would be an option, but if your in the UK you cant have any crayfish.


Though it should be noted, that if you cant keep zebra danios alive, inverts are a bad idea. Zebra danios are essentially bulletproof, and inverts in general are more sensitive than fish to water conditions.

thank you for a detailed answer.

its not a fact of i cant keep danios alive.....i had 2 x clown plecos from youngsters which are now 3-4inches long.... and even had neons through a fish in cycle, i lost one. i think they had a problem or 2 before i got them, i cant be sure of this so cant say either way.i just acquired some plants and the danios have been dying of rapidly since.

 

[Thecloud]

I can vouch for the fact a Marble Crayfish will not eat any other living fish especially plecs, even small shrimp are fine around these guys, but pretty much every other species of crayfish will destroy most of your tank, eat all of your fish and pester your plecs till they die of stress. Mind you the marble cray will still nibble at your plants if you have slow growing plants expect them to eventually get eaten.

Plus with marble crays you have the bonus of them being able to clone themselves every 60 days you get 200-300 babies from them!

 

[three-fingers]

Though unfortunately they aren't an option to plecostomus-mad, being illegal in the UK. Tbh I think they should be illegal all over Europe, being cold-tolerant carriers of the crayfish plague that reproduce photogenically. Nobody even knows really what they are, or if they exist in nature.

 

[plecostomus-mad]

I can vouch for the fact a Marble Crayfish will not eat any other living fish especially plecs, even small shrimp are fine around these guys, but pretty much every other species of crayfish will destroy most of your tank, eat all of your fish and pester your plecs till they die of stress. Mind you the marble cray will still nibble at your plants if you have slow growing plants expect them to eventually get eaten.

Plus with marble crays you have the bonus of them being able to clone themselves every 60 days you get 200-300 babies from them!

Three-fingers above said that if im in the uk, which i am, i can keep crays.is it law?( answered whilst i was putting up a reply.lol )and the plants have pretty much been taken out. some looked rather deadish or starting to go that way. some where ok so i left them in a bucket with water and water treatment overnight and may put some back in.they are slow growing so i need non plant eaters really.