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Could you tell me what types of cold water plec's (if there are any) that i can get in the uk?
I have seen a shop that have some but they look like comon plec's to me and i dont trust the shop anyway.

There are a number of Southern Cone spp (Argentina, Uruguay, etc) that would fit the bill, but they are not exported very frequently. Most Chaetostoma spp will be happy in the lower 70sF. I guess it al depends on how you define "cold."
-Shane

I would like some to go in a cold water tank in my garage as i have moved my tropical fish indoors as heating them in the garage cost a bomb.

I would like some to go in a cold water tank in my garage

Can you give me an idea of the temperature range?
-Shane

Unless there's some form of heating in the garage, I'd expect the water temps to go down to 10'C or below, so around 50'F. Water will obviously not cool down quite as quick as the air, but unless there's a SUBSTANTIAL amount of water, air-temperatures just around freezing will mean water temperatures not significantly higher than that. The year-average temperature here is, apparently, 14'C, or just below 60'F.

I think it's hard to find a pleco in the trade that would find this as it's native temperatures. I saw a thread a while back about the aquarium traders being recommended to not sell "cold water plecos", as it could force an import restriction on these fish - if a pleco can survive in a pond or unheated garage, it could very likely also survive in the wild. I'll edit this post if I can find the thread...

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Mats

The post above covers it all, i am not planning on heating the garage hence me bringing the heated fish indoors. So it will get very cold in there.
I am planning to keep some cold water fish i there but the tank is near a window so i am looking for someting to keep on top of the alge.

what coldwater fish do you plan to have, and how big is the cold water tank?
im sure just some snails will eat algae

Hillstream loach? ... they look like plecs:

http://www.loaches.com/species_pages/be ... ensis.html

I will be planning on having some perch in the tank and i think they will eat them loaches. Also if i do ever come across any cold water cats (bullheads) i'll have them in there as well.

Plus i'ld need a few of them as the tank i think i'll be leaving in there will be a 7' with apx 200g.

Any other suggestions?

As discussed on many other posts, import of ecologically viable non-native species is restricted for a reason.

There is no Loricariid species i know of that will tolerate temps of below 5C for any length of time.

I suggest you stick to native species. Small perch, gudgeon, stone loach, minnows and sticklebacks will make for a great coldwater tank.

Algae can be controlled with ramshorn snails.

Have thought of snails, but they breed like mad.
Will have a look stone loaches though.

I have been in touch with a lfs that sells a plec, what I believe to be common plec, and they said that they would do the job. I know someone that has a common plec in a cold-water tank that is kept indoors and he is fine. But the shop even went as far as saying they would survive in a pond over winter as long as they were acclimatized!

I told him as politely as I could that he was a twat.
Please confirm I was right.

I don't know about availability over there, but we have apple snails here that do a good job of algae control. They also breed above the water line, so you'll be able to spot egg clutches and remove them. There are a lot of different kinds, and I don't know much about them, but I had a few once and they did a nice job.

Not sure on the temp. requirements, but it would be worth looking up.

When I was a lad, I put my common plec in the water butt in the garden. At the end of the summer i tried to find him, but he was gone. I thought he was had died, but he turned up alive and well the next spring.

I left him in there, but he did die the next winter.

They are a very hardy fish, but I don't recommend you do the same.

A note on Perch - they do not like warm (indoors) temp water, and will most likely only eat live-food. One of my friends tried to keep several wild-caught ones, and never succeded keeping them alive for any length of time. You may of course have better luck... They probably do better if you have more than a couple, as they are sorta-shoaling type of fish...

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Mats

i used to have a stunning perch, i kept him in with a pair of jag's, and a large cicla along with a couple of plec's.
He grew to apx 9". I introduced an arowana to the tank that i found out after had a internal infection. It affected all the fish but i only lost the perch.

I am thinking i might put a heater in the tank to keep the chill off.

A friend of mine that collected in Uruguay and Argentina caught at least one Pogonopoma spp. and two Hypostomus species (one of them H. roseopunctatus) from under a thin 1/8" layer of ice.

They exist in the wild, however as Shane mentioned, they are not commonly imported.

can be found occasionally.