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Pleco help

Kayne

Member
Joined
12 Jul 2014
Messages
42
Hi All,

Just looking for some advice here as I think I already know the answer but I want to do the right thing.

A family member has a plec (no idea of species but one of the commonly sold ones from a LFS - not a bristlenose I know that much)
sadly it needs to be re-homed as she is now unable to look after her tank and it is one of only 3 fish left in the tank which is barely running and full of brown muck.

I've been asked if I can take it as I have a larger tank than she does anyway. My tank runs at room temp all year round (heater is on 18c) as its temperate. I'm fairly certain this would be too low for any of the plec species. My tank is planted and definitely has some algae present.

My dad who also has a tank and runs his tank at tropical temperatures has been asked as well. My concern with his tank is that its only been set up a very short while and has virtually no algae and his level of maintenance etc is worse than mine. He is very much of the mindset "but the waters lovely and clear it must be fine" Also has no live plants in this tank.

Any advice would be much appreciated so that this plec can be properly looked after.
 
You can feed the pleco veggies ( cucumber, zuchinni, carrots etc etc) just stick a piece on a fork and leave it, often pleco's will need some wood to munch on too. I would go for dad's tank.
Just be careful;l they can damage plants too, especially when fed poorly, or dislocate them with burrowing/hiding behaviour.
 
Thanks Edvet that was the direction I was heading as I knew my temps are too low unless we get a summer like last year when the tank ended up full tropical throughout the summer - although that was in our old house where the conservatory caused the whole house to heat up to stupid levels.
 
“Common” plecos tend to be the sort that grow to 45cm + (and if kept in a suitably large tank with appropriate food, it doesn’t really take that long ... if pleco is several years old though, the “stunting” may hold)
Unless one of these tanks is truly big enough, encourage finding a longterm home
 
I never enjoyed keeping plecos because sooner or later they would devour the plants. They also poop tonnes. So I would actually agree with Edvet.
I wouldn't risk keeping them below 20 degrees Celsius either. I found this article, which states:
From CABI (2015):
“Hypostomus sp. are found living in areas where waters reach 32°C (Barletta et al., 2000).
Hypostomus sp. are tolerant of cooler temperatures (16°C) though at 13°C they exhibit a
distinctive reddening of fins due to cold stress (Grier, 1980; Hoover et al., 2014). In controlled
laboratory experiments Shafland and Pestrak (1982) determined that a Hypostomus spp. reduced
feeding at 20.5°C, stopped feeding at 18.7°C and died at 11.2°C. Hoover et al. (2014) suggested
a lower lethal temperature of 12-14°C, which was supported by the absence of low temperature
‘winter kills’ above 15°C at Galveston Bay, Texas (Robinson and Culbertson, 2005) and the
presence of winter kills at Hillsborough River at 10-12°C (Hoover et al., 2014).”
 
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