Pleco Only Tank ?

[flash22]

i picked up another tank yesturday (30 gallon) whats going to be my community tank that will free up my 40 gallon i was thinking along the line of smaller plecos (bn, king tiger, etc) or loaches (think 40 gallons is a bit small for these ??)

Been having a read up with lots of diffrences across the sites what substrate is best sand, gravel or small 3mm dorset shingle or a mix hopefully going to go down the lines of just wood,caves and substrate (like the tanks in pfk August page 65-65)

 

[dane261]

how long is the tank mate if its long you will be able to get a few differant plecs in there but would consider having other fish in there with them



cheers dane

 

[flash22]

the tank is 40" juwel rio 180 it will have an external filter (tetratec ex700) with a inline heater (hydor) when i change things over maybe a few neons/tetras but most of the stock will be plecs (the smaller ones) upto 6-7". seen some big commons today 18"+ monsters i know i dont want them lol

 

[smithrc]

plec only tanks look empty most of the time

even in my shed I got fed up of not seeing anything in the tanks to got some endlers.... I've now got loads of endlers

 

[kinmad4it]

Sorry for the slight hijack but,
what sort of Plecs can get on together? I've been reading up online about my lovely new Golden Nugget and it seems they are very territorial fish with bottom feeders and especially their own kind? Is it just a case of having enough space to give them each their own territory or is it unwise to have 2 of the same type in the same tank regardless of how much room there is?
I doubt my tank, a 30 gallon, would be big enough to house 2 plecs anyway as I really like the look of the Zebra. But I will get a bigger tank when finances allow it.

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

My clown plecos do very well together, i have 7 of them in my main tank, they are absolutely fine together as long as there's enough driftwood and bogwood to go around .

 

[smithrc]

as long as there is plenty of hiding places more that 1 plecs is fine...

We have multiple 30 ish gal tanks with multiple plecs in.

One is our zebra breeding tank with 4 adults a few juveniles and some fry.
another has a group of 5x L129s in
another has a breeding colony of 4x L182's, a pair of common Bristle noses (2"), 4 pitbulls and one dwarf gold spot.

With lots of structured and crevices on teh bottom there should be no problems. (just get some good filtration sorted out )

 

[kinmad4it]

You mention good filtration. I'm guessing my Fluval 3+ isn't sufficient if I want more than the one Plec in there?
Hiding places would also be a problem too. We've got a castle right slap bang in the middle of the tank and it takes up a lot of room, Bruno (our Golden Nugget) has staked his claim to it. Which doesn't leave a lot of room for another reasonably sized hiding place for another Plec. There is a piece of bogwood about 10 to 12 inches long, but would that be enough as it doesn't offer complete hide-away-yness like the castle does.
I reckon my best bet is to wait till we can afford a bigger tank and really plan the decor of it before we even buy anything other than the tank.
Thanks for your helpful advice regardless though

 

[flash22]

i am just seeding a tetratec ex700 along side my juwel internal another 2-4 weeks and the internal is going. so a bit more room too. Once my other tank is up and running i plan to re-aqua-scape the 180 (got some slate today) and put a bit more rock in so load of caves and hiding places thinking of having some loaches in there aswell. angels are a possibility too (got to research them tho)