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Right now I've got a "common" pleco in my 60 gallon tank. I know he'll eventually(or soon, he's growing fast!) outgrow it. I was planning on getting a huge tank(at least 125 gal.) for him and a couple of cichlids that I had, but that plan isn't going to be able to happen, so I'm keeping the 60, yet don't want to cram my plec in it.

So my question. Can anybody recomend a pleco(I dunno, would rather have one of them, I like them ) that would stay small enough for that tank. Preferably a larg-ish variety though since it would be sharing a tank with an oscar. And also preferably one that isn't too costly...

edit: oops, also forgot to add... Right now mine is getting leftovers from my oscar's dinner(meat and veggies mixed) spinach, algae wafers and shrimp pellets. So if I could find one that eats at least the meat and veggie portion it'd be best, though I can also adapt what I'm feeding for it too.

What are you going to do with the common? If you are going to keep it in the 60 gallon I don't know if I would add any more "largish" plecos. Tracy

Oops, I guess that'd help a bit, huh. I'm planning on giving this one to one of the local fish shops. They're very good and make totally sure that people know how large the fish in the store get before they allow someone to buy them, so I know s/he'll go to a good home.

In his place in the tank I'd like something, as said, a bit smaller. Something that likely won't be cramped in a 60 gallon tank. Probably need to end up looking for something that stays around 10" right? As I also mentioned briefly, I would just need something that stays small, yet would be large enough to not become oscar food... The only varieties I've seen around here are Panaque maccus, Chaetostoma cf. thomsoni(or as the local petsmart calls them "chaetostoma thomasii" copied it directly from their display at the store), the regular labled "commons", sailfins and what the cat-e-log calls the common bristlenose catfish. So either something that stays too small or something that grows to close to or over 2' long....

Some sort of larger Peckoltia spp., for example or would be one choice. They are good omnivores, so will be happy eating "crumbs" of the Oscar table, as well as some vegetable food. Not very good at eating algae...

Is it a requirement that it also eats algae? In that case a in the Cochliodon group would be a better choice - they need wood tho'.

Obviously, you'd probably have to special order or mail-order this fish, if the selection you have is what you've just listed and nothing else...

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Mats

To be honest I haven't ever seen more than a few dots of algae in the tank, other than when I had brown algae when it was first set up, so that would not matter. Also the guy who runs one of the pet stores in town usually has a good list of fish that he can order, which is why I was looking around. Then again if my plec does happen to be one that can be kept in my 60 I'll keep him. Other than that I'll see what the others are like availability-wise.

As for the selection, I dunno what else is ever around, that is just what I have personally seen, there may be a bit more out there.