What Kind Of Pleco Should I Get?

[starscream]

I have a 55 gal tank and I'm looking to get a couple plecos I need a few plecos that will make sure my tank stays clean. I want one that wiLl get big but not too big I'm looking for one that will get like 8 or 9 inches or so I'm thinking about getting a few bristle nose. Is that a good choice? I had 2 sailfin plecos but one of them died idk if it was just a bad litter or are sailfins just not very hardy?

Thanks for the help

 

[Baccus]

Bristle noses are great and do get pretty big up around 15cm and some of the long fin types are stunning. Mostly in Australia in almost any pet / aquarium shop you can get normal BN's and normal coloured or albino long fin varieties and their price is always coming down, but with two large males kept in seperate tanks and 4 or 5 breeding females I really don''t have the room especially when they all decide to breed. Peppermints also look fantastic and I'd love a pair but again tank space and the sheer cost of them stops me. And if you have planted tank be prepared for when the BN's are big them displacing any plants not firmly rooted into the substrate (along with any light substrate) with just a sweep of their powerful tails.

 

[starscream]

I'm looking into breeding them later on. I think I might go with BN's

 

[simonas]

dont forget that plecs tend to add more waste to the tank than some other fish and getting one to keep it clean is doomed to failure. In my experience they don;t really eat algae off the glass and that has to be managed by you. They all require direct feeding in the tank otherwise they will starve which is I believe the most common cause of failure of plecs in home aquaria.

Bns are lovely fish. More active than most plecs so you have the benefit of seeing them, cheap easily available and although I haven;t bred them I believe they are easy enough to breed

How about L134's. They meet your criteria are beautiful, people breed them regularly so if you look hard enough you may find some for sale. Same as L260 for that matter

I also love Royal Sturisoma beautiful plecs and again easily bred and you can often find the young for sale at a reasonable price

 

[starscream]

Those are very beautiful plecos. How big do those two get? And one more question is there a list or something for all the Lxxx, cuz I always have to go to google to see what the numbers are.

 

[simonas]

I always use plecoplanet I think it is called and it has a list of all the L's or its called cat e log or planet catfish or something like that

 

[starscream]

Thanks that helps me out a lot!!

 

[simonas]

seriously? did you find it?

now I;m on home pc with favourites on its planet catfish and theres an e log of all the different L nos

 

[starscream]

i found it at this link.... http/www.plecoplanet.com/forum/articles.php that has the whole list of them, there like 1000000000000 pages tho is there really that many plecos out there? i knew there was quite a few but i didnt know they needed there own list..