Mixing Plecos

Matt30 · Post by **Matt30** » 21 Dec 2010, 21:49

Hi dose anyone know if it would be ok to put x2 L018s both 4 inches in a 400L aquarium with x2 big common plecos and parrots.The L018 would have there own caves to hide in.

Any help would be appreciated cheers

MatsP · Post by **MatsP** » 21 Dec 2010, 21:59

I moved this to the pleco section...

Mixing plecos in general can be a bit touchy, and given that Gold nuggets aren't exactly the easiest to keep, I'd advice against this. Common plecos are greedy fish, and gold nuggets tend to starve in aquariums. That's not a good combination...

And I suspect that your Parrot cichlids won't be entirely happy to have a temperature above 28'C, which is what the gold nuggets would like...

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Mats

Matt30 · Post by **Matt30** » 21 Dec 2010, 22:40

Ok cheers for the advice mate.
The Parrots are not mine but my mates as is the 400L tank.
I tryed to sell the L018s but no Joy and the shop I bought them from
said they would take them off my hands but would not give me any money back
as they ordered them in especially for me but the fella told me they only
grow to 6inches max.
Then I did my homework and found out how big they realy get !
I just have not got room for an aquarium that big
Guess this is my fault and now I will lose £120 which I paid for them both !
I have no choice im picking up x4 L046 in 2 days.
You live and learn

MatsP · Post by **MatsP** » 21 Dec 2010, 22:56

They may well get big, but it will take a long time - they are not fast growing. And given a sufficient amount of vegetable diet, you probably could keep them in a tank with - at least those won't eat too much vegetable food.

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Mats

Matt30 · Post by **Matt30** » 21 Dec 2010, 23:07

I would love to keep them all together but I only have a 125L aquarium
and theres no way the wife will let me get anything bigger.
Im guessing it would be cruel to keep them all together forever in
such a small aquarium.
I only have until tomorrow to make a decision so what should I
do give them back to the shop or keep them ?

MatsP · Post by **MatsP** » 21 Dec 2010, 23:22

What I was trying to say is that Baryancistrus do not grow quickly, so you would have quite a bit of time to decide what to do with them.

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Mats

Matt30 · Post by **Matt30** » 21 Dec 2010, 23:31

Ok cheers for all your help mate

jeremy242 · Post by **jeremy242** » 22 Dec 2010, 21:53

I have kept a few bary's together at the same time in the same tank just make sure that there is plenty of hiding spots and plenty of food, and make sure that you spread the food out over the whole tank.

macvsog23 · Post by **macvsog23** » 30 Dec 2010, 13:02

Sadly the comment "own cave" is a bit misleading
The cave will be owned by the fastest and most able to kill other fish that wants it. Nature has 3 rules the 1st is to mate a cave for any Pleco is a place to mate and if it’s the best place he must fight for it or be redundant.

Fights over caves are one of the main reasons for damage in Plecos.

I use caves that are exactly the same and I add 3 or 4 over the amount of fish.

Just remember we humans are the only thing that has made killing a crime for the rest of nature to not kill is the crime.

MatsP · Post by **MatsP** » 30 Dec 2010, 15:57

In a way I agree with macsvog, but I also disagree with it - here's why:
In nature, there is usually plenty of space to escape into. It's only in a tank that fish are forced to share the same space whether they like it or not. In nature, the "looser" of a fight over the best cave will most likely just "wander off" to find a good cave elsewhere. Obviously, at some point the population would saturate all available caves. In a tank, the fish has to live in the confines of the glass walls - so it will need to find a suitable cave within those walls. If there isn't many enough caves to go around, then you can indeed get fatalities. I believe this is extremely rare in nature, unless the population is very large and enclosed by natural obstacles (e.g. waterfalls or dams).

And yes, supplying more caves than there are fish will help alleviate this problem.

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Mats

2wheelsx2 · Post by **2wheelsx2** » 30 Dec 2010, 17:38

This might be spinning it off topic a bit, but can the same not be achieved (if one were not interested in breeding) by providing NO caves? No suitable caves means no spawning drive? Couldn't we achieve this with a tank of sand and all wood, for instance? It's been something suggested to me, but not a method I've tried.

MatsP · Post by **MatsP** » 30 Dec 2010, 17:42

2wheelsx2 wrote:This might be spinning it off topic a bit, but can the same not be achieved (if one were not interested in breeding) by providing NO caves? No suitable caves means no spawning drive? Couldn't we achieve this with a tank of sand and all wood, for instance? It's been something suggested to me, but not a method I've tried.

Only works if the fish can't build a cave anyways, e.g. by digging sand out from under some par of the wood, stone, etc.

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Mats

2wheelsx2 · Post by **2wheelsx2** » 30 Dec 2010, 17:54

MatsP wrote:
Only works if the fish can't build a cave anyways, e.g. by digging sand out from under some par of the wood, stone, etc.

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Mats

True I never thought of that. Guess it would have to be bare-bottomed too, which isn't the best way to go IMO.

macvsog23 · Post by **macvsog23** » 30 Dec 2010, 18:38

MatsP wrote:In a way I agree with macsvog, but I also disagree with it - here's why:
In nature, there is usually plenty of space to escape into. It's only in a tank that fish are forced to share the same space whether they like it or not. In nature, the "looser" of a fight over the best cave will most likely just "wander off" to find a good cave elsewhere. Obviously, at some point the population would saturate all available caves. In a tank, the fish has to live in the confines of the glass walls - so it will need to find a suitable cave within those walls. If there isn't many enough caves to go around, then you can indeed get fatalities. I believe this is extremely rare in nature, unless the population is very large and enclosed by natural obstacles (e.g. waterfalls or dams).

And yes, supplying more caves than there are fish will help alleviate this problem.

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Mats

hi yes my point if the fish can run away it may suvive rarly will nature allow death over just a small item
My point was on caves in tanks sorry did not make that plain

macvsog23 · Post by **macvsog23** » 30 Dec 2010, 18:40

MatsP wrote:
2wheelsx2 wrote:This might be spinning it off topic a bit, but can the same not be achieved (if one were not interested in breeding) by providing NO caves? No suitable caves means no spawning drive? Couldn't we achieve this with a tank of sand and all wood, for instance? It's been something suggested to me, but not a method I've tried.
Only works if the fish can't build a cave anyways, e.g. by digging sand out from under some par of the wood, stone, etc.

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Mats

Sadly no fish canl have " no spawning drive" it is law no 1 after kill or die.

ever seen a male human with no spawning drive?

2wheelsx2 · Post by **2wheelsx2** » 30 Dec 2010, 23:35

macvsog23 wrote: ever seen a male human with no spawning drive?

Yes, those are the ones with the "alternative lifestyles" if you know what I mean.

Mixing Plecos

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