Which pleco should I buy?

[teamfargo]

Okay, we are doing a new cichlid tank and I would like to put a pleco in there. The lfs guy was suggesting a gold nugget pleco for 20.00. Well, I find them to be rather attractive and the price is ok. I read that they get to be about 8" which is good. The problem is I heard several people say they are not hardy.


I periodically search the want ads, etc. and will end up with a huge tank one day, but even so, I would like a pleco that gets no larger than say...1 ft in legnth. I would like one in that general price range, fairly hardy and will be ok with cichlids.

TIA!

 

[smithrc]

what do you want it to do?

I guess eat algae?

If so - avoid most of the smaller plecs.

Bristlenoses however will be cheap, small and LOVE algae

 

[teamfargo]

Pretty much I want it to keep my tank clean and not get eaten! I did see a bristle nose and my son really liked him. I read that they get to be 15 cm. which is about 6". Does this sound correct? He is definatley in my price range.

I swear, the lfs drives me crazy sometimes. They said that they got to be huge, so I said no to him and started to think about the 'smaller' gold nugget...(where is the smiley of one smacking the lfs guy upside the head! lol)

Anyone else have suggestions?

 

[Earthgirl]

I love my Bristlenose!

 

[yhbae]

I'm not sure if 6 inch is attainable in an aquarium environment, but I hear they can go up to 4 - 5 inches. Mine is only 3.5 inch, and they spawned already. One of them is in the Malawi tank, and she is doing fine...

 

[smithrc]

somewhere around 4-6 sounds right - it depends on the type of bristle nose really

they all love algae though...

we added 3 of our small fry (now 4 weeks old to our 50gal tonight - they think its christmas - they didn't stop eating for about 3 hours (before the light went out and that was the last we'll so of the 0.5" fry untill they get a bit bigger)

 

[yhbae]

I can confirm that they are really good algae eaters. The tank where they spawned, the glasses are REALLY clean - they really do a good job. I leave the light on 16 hours a day to promote some algae growth, and for now, they are loosing big time to bristlenoses...

Even the 3+ inch ones try to eat algae on leaves that's half their length...