Questions About A Common Pleco

[*Fishkies*]

I have been reading about my common pleco more and more. And I was wondering what exactly I could use to either make a cave for him or to buy. I saw there was one post on here about slate caves. But I was wondering what other materials I could use to make one.
I am also wondering what would be the best substrate for a common pleco? Thanks in advance for helping me out with these few questions.

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

I made my common and sailfin pleco caves out of large peices of driftwood/bogwood/mopani wood stacked on top of each other, its also good as they can easily be taken apart and re-stacked on top of each to make larger or different shaped caves and things etc and also look good with the more natural look of my tanks .

I prefer fine sand substrate with my pleco's as common and sailfin plecos are very big waste producers, particularly as they grow their poops get massive- gravel traps waste in it very easily which is annoying since the plecs practically poop into it, with sand its much easier to keep clean as the poop doesn't mix in with it but rather just sits on top of it so its much easier for it to be sucked up into the filters or cleaned way etc- so i would recommend sand substrate for plecos .

 

[mlawson]

Just a few rocks or bogwood would make a good hiding place.I find my common plecs prefer small sized round gravel or smooth sand, although they aren't that fussy.

Cheers,

Mike

 

[Castellop123]

.

Cheers...

 

[LisaLQ]

Yep - same as everyone else, I have caves in my tank but neither of my commons are interested in them, they prefer the dark patches under the piled up bogwood

Mine are on small gravel at the moment, but am considering changing to sand - downside being it's harder to syphon off without getting tonnes of sand out with it. But I think I'm going to change anyway as I'm sure they'd prefer it.

 

[*Fishkies*]

What exactly is bogwood? Where would be a place to find it? Like a petstore or something like that?

 

[LisaLQ]

Yep, your LFS will have some no doubt, failing that you can always find it on Ebay Plecs need bogwood to eat, some more than others

There's a couple of different types, the softer normal bogwood and harder mopani wood. Either will do, but they do prefer the regular stuff.

 

[*Fishkies*]

Thanks guys for the response! Little did I know I had slate in my backyard. So i'll be cleaning that up and hopefully be using that.

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

Thanks guys for the response! Little did I know I had slate in my backyard. So i'll be cleaning that up and hopefully be using that.

Make sure it doesn't have any metal ore/rust on it as that is bad for fish tanks.

 

[*Fishkies*]

nope it's perfectly clean. I'm gonna wash it a few more times though, the next step is getting it to 3 pieces only and not 20...haha!

 

[*Fishkies*]

Well the slate idea kinda fell through so now i'm out looking for more slate. I can't find any of the two wood types around here. Humpf.