Starting an L number collection....

[Fawke]

Hi there,

I would like nothing more than to start collecting (and possibly breeding some) L Number Pleco's.......
Most of which are beautiful catfish IMO....

My question is, how do you house all these fish? I know most pleco's produce massive amounts of waste and i would be very interested in ppl who do collect them (i know there are quite a few - looking at ppls sigs), to find out where they put all these fish??

IE - to they all share one big tank (what size? terratorial probs? breeding?) or do you have a tank per species (again sizes? and probs?)

I just want to build a picture on how ppl house vast amounts of plecos
I realise this will vary from species to species but any experiences of ppl who are doing this are much appreciated...

Thanx

 

[Paul_MTS]

At the moment there al in 1 3ft tank with lots of hiding places.

I'll have a 4ft tank aorund christmas which i can then stuff full of L numbers aswell.

Basically you put as many plecs as you can get a way with in 1 tank!!

 

[smithrc]

not neccecerily true i'm affraid...

our 5 L129's have their own tank as they are very teritorial towards other plecs.

they were living with the L134 and L075 but had to be seperated.

now they are in a species tank (apart from the mid swimmers) they only protect their hiding holes. before they would just chase the other for the fun of it

The 2 in our 4ft tank are potentially the biggest we have - getting to 12 - 18" they are both soft and even shave the same cave to hide in and at the moment they are also sharing with 3 growing bristle noses (1.5") (they need to go to the shop soon)

It all depends on the species you want and the room they have.
A larger bottom is better that height if your looking for new tanks

also if you are lookinng to breed them (hopefully our L129's will get it together) they will do a lot better in a species tank - the fry stand a lot better chance of not getting eaten if they are only with their own species... other meateating plecs may take the opertunity if they are not their own.

 

[Paul_MTS]

Yeh that can be problem, so far all of mine have got along fine and I'm only picking the smaller species that will get to about 6 inch max, I may go for the bigger L numbers when I have a large tank apart from my 4ft when it arrives.

 

[smithrc]

exactly... we only have 2 large plecs... the rest are all small (upto 6" max)

 

[Da_Oz]

Alot of Pl*cos will fight with ones of the own kind. The best way to lower this is to get a tank full when small. If they grow up toghter they will more peaceful with each other. But again all tanks are different what works for one may not work for you.

 

[SirMinion]

We're careful which species we mix, and we always make sure there are more caves and crevices than there are fish and tons of bogwood.

We also have extra filtration with both an internal HOB filter and an external canister filter on the tanks providing crystal water and a decent current (plecs love a current)
We have sand substrate, which means the poop is visible and is easily vaccuumed off the surface, rather than dropping down between the stones in gravel.

And then we have lots of airstones & air diffusers to keep the O2 saturation high. (plecs need lots of oxygen)

 

[Fawke]

Great!! Thanks for the advice and tips.....
Very informative for somebody wanting to specialise in Plecs.....

 

[ryan]

I keep several different species together, L204, L066, L183, L190 and L177. You do have to watch which species you mix as some can be more terriotorial than others, you also have to compare each species needs, some will want more current, less light, different parameters and so on. As SirMinion said it helps to make sure there are more caves and crevices and plenty of bogwood, this will help each L-Number to find its spot. Watching the parameters is important and make sure there is plenty of filtration, an external canister is very helpful.

 

[Fawke]

With regards to filtration.....

I was thinking an external cannister with maybe another external wet+dry, or just 2 externals...... maybe one with a powerhead......

Is there any advantage in have internals? or would 2 externals suffice

Thanks again

 

[Paul_MTS]

if your going to have 2 externals forget the internals, you'll have plenty of filtration in there, plus ytou'll beable to pack the tank full with more bogwood without an internal.

so far it seems to be only my clown plec and L174 Jaguar hemiancistrus that have claimed there very own hide away the rest just seem to go any were.

and since i removed the sail fin plec i had i haven't seen any shoves!!