PlanetCatfish.com

hi there,

just wondering if i could fit a common albino plec to this set up.

am about to get a 6 foot tank made for my 2 gibbies, 2 joselimaianus (20 cm each max), one gold nugget (20 cm again) and newly acquired peppermint (about 15 cm max). probably have a siamese fighter with females as surface fish (only).

i know the gibbies can grow to about 45 cm. will have lots of rock caves and driftwood etc. saw a lovely albino plec (one of those chocolate/washed out coloured ones, and common plecs should grow to only about 30 cm according to planet catfish.

do you think i could add it to this tank? it's just that they look more active in the tank than gibbies, i saw an adult one and it was swimming around during the day. maybe because i have lots of lovely hiding places.

do you think common plecs are more active cf gibbies? could i add it to the tank or is it too many big fish?

Ok, so the common answer to "how many fish can I put into a tank" is "It depends".

First of all, a 6 foot LONG tank is all well and good, but a 6 fot tank can be anything from just under two foot wide to just about anything under 6 foot [if it was more than 6 foot, you'd use that number as the length, eh?].

A fish that grows to 45cm will not do well in a 2 foot wide tank, as it's not goint to have space to turn around very well, right?

The other parameters are so much depending on the total load on the filtration system. If you have good, well-established, filtration, then you can load up quite a few. But if your filtration isn't up to the job, a single of these large ones will be too much... Best way is to start with a few of them (after you've got the tank cycled wtih some small/cheap fish), and keep checks on the water quality, and as long as there is good margin, you can add more of them.

As to "being out in the open", you will find that some fish are more out in the open than others, but it's more individuals than species that make a difference here (just like some people walk into a pub and talk to anyone who's there, whilst someone else will stare at their glass if they don't know the person next to them...).

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Mats