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I've never had a tank big enough for Plecos (had "nano" set ups for about 6-7 years now) and may be getting a 27-30 ish US gallon tank on Saturday (for free, my favourite). Still need to go and examine it though.

What Pleco suggestions would you make for this? I will be basing the set up around the Pleco and don't want anything that gets bigger than 6" and NOT the common Bristlenose - I want something a bit more eye catching, love spotty ones like the Starlight Bristlenose or maybe stripy instead. I know I'll be limited which is why I'm turning to you guys!

As the tank is a blank canvas I can shape the decor around whichever fish I end up with. I will be interested in keeping something else colourful and shoaling in there, but what that ends up being will depend on the Pleco!

So what do you recommend? What should I avoid?

I live in St Albans, so fairly alkalineish tap water, not super soft. Got good access to lots of good Pleco suppliers, including Wildwoods.

So fire away!

I am a fan of Ancistrus, so I will start with suggesting some of those. ;)

really nice, small fish
beautiful, small Bristlenose. The nicest of the starlight BNs, imo. Like most of the "starlight" BN it would appreciate soft, acidic water. A bit shy, though.
or rather, the yellow form of the common BN that is sold as L144.
Ancistrus sp. "superred", another nice color form of the common BN.

If you're more into smaller fish I'd suggest

Hypancistrus would be OK in your tank, but they're not really "eye catchers" since usually all you will see is the tail sticking out of the cave.

Most Peckoltia are a bit big for your tank, imho.
should work.

[Mod edit: Fix L134 -> compta name --Mats]

maybe or ?

What about or ?

Some of the suggestions might require quite specific set-ups but even

I don't know why many people say Hypans are so shy. My L201's will sit with their heads staring out of the cave, not the tails . Anyways, he stated he likes spotty plecos, and I would suggest the

Thank you guys! I'll look into all of these, anyone got personal experiences with any of these?

P.s I'm a she not a he!

catxx wrote:Thank you guys! I'll look into all of these, anyone got personal experiences with any of these?

P.s I'm a she not a he!

Sorry about that.. I have experience with the L10A's listed under sunfish's post. They are notorious egg stealers... my electric blue rams have yet to have a good spawn due to them, so they are going to be going soon. I love my L201's as they are the most comical to watch. If your looking for an easy to breed hypan that is "spotty" then the L201 group would be a good one to look into,.

There are PLENTY of plecos that match most of your criteria.

MA in St. Albans have some (or possibly ). They also have several other nice plecos.

And of course, wild-woods would have a large number of very nice fish - they had some , but at least the ones I saw were perhaps on the upper range of your max size, along with many other nice fish.

I wouldn't go for in hard water like what you'd have in your tap. They do best in very soft water and low pH.

--
Mats

From my suggestions I have kept L10A, "L144", L107. And L400, which is why I discarded Hyancistrus.

L10A are easy to keep, will reproduce (a lot), but unless you want to there's no problem with huge numbers of young, as none will survive in the tank. My Apistogramma were able to defend their cave against them. Biggest problem here is getting pure bred specimens.

"L144" is as easy to keep as the common brown color form. Commonly available (and afordable).

L107 are not so easy. Plus, they're rather shy (and nocturnal), so you won't actually get to see too much of these beautiful fish.

I have kept the previously recommended you could keep a group of these in your tank, they could spawn and raise young all in the confines of a tank this size. They have all the attitude of their larger cousins and look great.
My water conditions do not sound all that different than yours with these fish only preferring clean clear oxygen rich water. It took a little while but once they began spawning it became a regular occurrence.

Birger