Pleco addition and ID
Pleco addition and ID
Well I have decided i want to add a Pleco to My 55. There is one at My LFS i really Like. It is a grey background With Speckles of lighter grey. It looks exactly Like a blue fin thresher Plec but it doesnt have the forked tail. I want either this one or a Common. Would a common be Ok in a 55. I have a Jd,sev, festivum, Gourami, And the cats in My sig except for the Cories.
Catfish I have- 3 Pim Pictus
-1 spotted Raphael
-2 Green cories and 1 albino Pygmy Cory
-1 spotted Raphael
-2 Green cories and 1 albino Pygmy Cory
-
MatsP
- Posts: 21038
- Joined: 06 Oct 2004, 13:58
- My articles: 4
- My images: 28
- My cats species list: 117 (i:33, k:0)
- My aquaria list: 10 (i:8)
- My BLogs: 4 (i:0, p:164)
- Spotted: 187
- Location 1: North of Cambridge
- Location 2: England.
A common pleco is not suitable in a 55g tank. You need something like 200g to take the fully grown common pleco, as they grow to about 18".
There are many nice pleco's that will go well in your tank, buy you want a large specimen if your Jack Dempsey (that is what you meant by JD, right?) isn't very small.
Bristlenose pleco is one that grows to a size of about 5-6" fully grown. If you get one that is about 75% of the JD size or bigger, you should be OK.
[Of course, if I remember right, the JD will outgrow your tank too, but I could have that wrong. I think they reach about a foot long, and your 55g tank is probably only about a foot wide and a good foot high with a length of about 4 foot. That's too small for any fish that grows much over 6".]
--
Mats
There are many nice pleco's that will go well in your tank, buy you want a large specimen if your Jack Dempsey (that is what you meant by JD, right?) isn't very small.
Bristlenose pleco is one that grows to a size of about 5-6" fully grown. If you get one that is about 75% of the JD size or bigger, you should be OK.
[Of course, if I remember right, the JD will outgrow your tank too, but I could have that wrong. I think they reach about a foot long, and your 55g tank is probably only about a foot wide and a good foot high with a length of about 4 foot. That's too small for any fish that grows much over 6".]
--
Mats
well My 55 is 4' long by 13" back by 20" high. JD's get to 10" and i am pretty sure it will do fine in my tank. Mine is 2" right now. I am just asking if there is anything Bigger and more interesting than a bristlenose that i could get. Dont thresher Plecs get to like 7"?
Catfish I have- 3 Pim Pictus
-1 spotted Raphael
-2 Green cories and 1 albino Pygmy Cory
-1 spotted Raphael
-2 Green cories and 1 albino Pygmy Cory
-
MatsP
- Posts: 21038
- Joined: 06 Oct 2004, 13:58
- My articles: 4
- My images: 28
- My cats species list: 117 (i:33, k:0)
- My aquaria list: 10 (i:8)
- My BLogs: 4 (i:0, p:164)
- Spotted: 187
- Location 1: North of Cambridge
- Location 2: England.
So a 10" fish in a 13" wide tank... Not a lot of space for that fish. But at 2" it's fine, so you probably got a year or two to before it becomes a real problem...
The cat-eLog entry for indicates 6.8", so it would not be overly large in your tank. I didn't talk about this fish, because I have no more knowledge than what I can read in the clog, so I can't talk about it from my own experience.
My suggestion of a bristlenose was more to go as a choice instead of the common pleco. I think the bristlenose with it's light spots on a dark body is quite nice, but that's a personal taste thing. They are also quite active and good at eating algae.
There are plenty of other pleco's that grow to about 5-7" in length, and it would take me all day to go through all the entries in the Cat-eLog to find which ones are not too large for you. It's a much better idea that YOU look at the ones that please you in their appearance, and sort out which ones are too small, too big and come up with a list of which ones are in your taste and size-range, and then reduce that list by what your LFS can supply. Obviously, if you want it to eat algae aside from being pretty, that would require more careful selection. Avoid Hypancistrus, Baryancistrus, Peckoltia and Panaque's if you're after good algae eating capability.
I'm not saying that you can't get a thresher pleco if that's what you want. It's probably a good choice, but watch out for the quite low temperature range given in the cat-eLog, 21-23'C. I only found one reference for JD's temp range, which says 25-29'C, higher than the thresher likes... Obviously a degree or two above the "apropriate" will not matter that much, but if your tank is at the upper range of the JD's temp range, then you should try finding something with a higher tolerance to temperature. fishbase.org says that it lives in water temps from 22-30'C, so from that it seems like your JD should be fine at the temps of the Thresher...
--
Mats
The cat-eLog entry for indicates 6.8", so it would not be overly large in your tank. I didn't talk about this fish, because I have no more knowledge than what I can read in the clog, so I can't talk about it from my own experience.
My suggestion of a bristlenose was more to go as a choice instead of the common pleco. I think the bristlenose with it's light spots on a dark body is quite nice, but that's a personal taste thing. They are also quite active and good at eating algae.
There are plenty of other pleco's that grow to about 5-7" in length, and it would take me all day to go through all the entries in the Cat-eLog to find which ones are not too large for you. It's a much better idea that YOU look at the ones that please you in their appearance, and sort out which ones are too small, too big and come up with a list of which ones are in your taste and size-range, and then reduce that list by what your LFS can supply. Obviously, if you want it to eat algae aside from being pretty, that would require more careful selection. Avoid Hypancistrus, Baryancistrus, Peckoltia and Panaque's if you're after good algae eating capability.
I'm not saying that you can't get a thresher pleco if that's what you want. It's probably a good choice, but watch out for the quite low temperature range given in the cat-eLog, 21-23'C. I only found one reference for JD's temp range, which says 25-29'C, higher than the thresher likes... Obviously a degree or two above the "apropriate" will not matter that much, but if your tank is at the upper range of the JD's temp range, then you should try finding something with a higher tolerance to temperature. fishbase.org says that it lives in water temps from 22-30'C, so from that it seems like your JD should be fine at the temps of the Thresher...
--
Mats