Plecos that stay small??

[plaadook]

Hi all,
I started with a spotted sailfin pleco in my 29, he was beautiful and did an amazing job of keeping the tank clean! But of course within 3 months he outgrew the tank an I recently found him a nice new home. I bought 3 otos to replace him( will get a few more)but they just don't do the same job of keeping the tank spotless like the pleco did. I know about bristlenose but are there other species that stay small enough for a tank this size? I apologize if this is redundant. Thanks!!

[Julie]

There's a really neat feature on this website. Go to the L number in the Cat-e-log, and click on one, for example, L-02. The size is 3.9 inches. If that's the size you want, click on the *show others smae size*, and you'll come up with 92 hits. Click on *nearer* and you'll end up with 167 hits. Peruse to your hearts content!

Of course many of those won't be available, but that's one way to broaden your scope of what has been discovered!!

[UncaToddly]

Your situation is much like ours was. My Stepson had a 20g in his room and we bought a small Sailfin as well. Eventually he was around 8" or so and was just putting out SO much waste for that tank. About a year ago we got a 55g for the sole reason that he needed to be moved and my stepson just wasn't taking care of the tank (18 y/o). Eventually, while he wasn't too large for the tank, he was very out of scale for the tank full of community fish like guppies, tetras (congo, diamond, cardinal, glolight) and such. Via Craigslist he found a wonderful home in a 125g with adult Clown Loaches

But then the question became the same as yours, with the requirement that they be algae eaters but not be REALLY small. The L168 and L052 Butterfly/Flounder Pleco seemed to be a fit but the problem was finding them. I ran into a few L052 but kinda had my heart set on the L168. Eventually I found a wholesaler who was willing to sell them to me provided I met the minimum order.

We have had them a little over a week and little by little they are becoming less shy and spending time on the glass and in view.

It seems that most of the species that stay small seem to either be more carnivorous or are more of wood eaters which is fine, just not what we were looking for in a pleco. The various Bushynose (Ancistrus sp.) seem to stay small and fit the mostly veggie thing as well from what I have read.

Real small, maybe look at those of the Otocinclus genus. I am hoping to eventually get some Zebra Oto's Otocinclus cocama for our smaller tank (29g) once the Butterfly Plecos are out of it.

Which side of the mountains are you in here in Washington?

[plaadook]

Thanks for your replies! I'll check out that search feature Julie.

I'm in Bellingham Unca. Where are you? Will you be gong to the GSAS auction tomorrow? Maybe see ya there??
Thanks again!

[Barbie]

Chaetostoma species will also stay small and really clean, but they'd be happiest in cooler water. There are a good number of Ancistrus species out there and some like Ancistrus claro stay quite small. If the bristles creep you out, you can always just get a female ;). If you have trouble finding any, yell, I usually have 4 or 5 varieties with fry at all times.

Barbie

[racoll]

Parotocinclus jumbo

is another alternative. Small, active and will be more efficient cleaners than

Otocinclus

, as they are a bit larger.

Although I may get banished from the forum for saying this, but you could look at a small Garra (not a catfish!) such as the panda garra, Garra flavatra (do a search on google).

These are beautiful, always active, easy to keep, and spend all day cleaning the tank. They require slightly cooler, well oxygenated water.

Bear in mind that if your tank is filthy, or algae is out of control, then think about addressing the root cause of the algae.

[Richard B]

Racoll - that's a good point about the Garra - even though it's not a cat - we are trying to help a fellow hobbyist with the best info & options available

[MatsP]

And for any purpose, you can always use the cat-elog search function: http://www.planetcatfish.com/catelog/search.php

It allows you to select what you want from:
* Family
* Genus
* Distribution
* Size
* Temperature

So you can for example select fish in the family or Loricariidae, that grow to a size of, say, 100mm (or 4" if you prefer, just select inches instead of mm in the drop down box next to the measure). [2]
Then put in the temperature of your tank as both max and min [1]
If you only want fish from the (say) river Xingu, then you select that in the "Distribution" [and click "no tributaries" if you ONLY want Xingu, and none of the rivers that flow into Xingu].

There are literally hundreds of fish that will "fit" nicely in a 29g tank.

[1] This one is the tricky one, as it works "back to front" - the bigger temperature gap, the fewer fish you get, whilst the size will give "more for a bigger gap". This is because the temperature is saying "it must tolerate temperatures down to min and up to max, and of course, if you select 16 to 32 degrees, there aren't that many fish that are OK by that.
[2] Since the database still has a few fish with "no size", it's a good trick to enter some size in the min size as well, so that those with no size are "removed" from the results.

--
Mats

[plaadook]

Thanks Mats, I hadn't found that search window.Thanks all for suggestions. The Panda garra look really interesting but I haven't yet seen them available. I'm working an a small rivertank for hillstreams, they may fit well there? Something to keep an eye out for.
I went to a local aquarium society auction Saturday and picked up 5 baby(1/2 in)bristlenose and they seem to be happy and scouring away! If they continue to do well I'll grow them out a bit and spread them my tanks.

[racoll]

I'm working an a small rivertank for hillstreams, they may fit well there?

Yes definitely. A few of these plus danionins, erethistids or mountain sisorids would be a nice tank.