PlanetCatfish.com

First of all, hello, all!

I'm new to not only this forum but also brand new to pleco-keeping...but certainly not new to keeping fresh water fish. I got a call from a friend yesterday, because they had discovered a dis-used pond in their rental property. Apparently, their tenants skipped out some weeks ago (according to the mail that has been left uncollected,) but left a large pond full of mollies, swordtails, guppies and plecos (5 of them, all under about 3 inches in length.) No, they did not have permission to keep a pond, or other animals, for that matter, but it seems that they did, anyway! Long story short is that they have now skipped, leaving my friend to do something about the pond full of fish in varying states of health (the pond filter has given out who-knows-how-long-ago and conditions rapidly declined, leading to many deaths.) I took in a load of the live-bearers (which I have experience with) and 2 of the plecos. I have no idea about plecos or their diets, so am hoping the folks here can help me ID their species and help to advise me on their care, so I can get them back to full health, ready for re-homing.
Pleco 1 Pleco2 (v shy) Then my friend came to me this morning, because he thought the pleco he'd taken had died during the night. Turns out he was just sleeping! He woke to see the pleco upside down, under the coconut shell, but with his mouth poking up out of the little hole in the top of the shell! He seems to like them; he's now disappeared into one of the coconut shells I have. He's far less shy, comes out whenever I put out food for the guppies, so I'm feeding them cucumber and courgette as we speak. He's probably v hungry. No difficulty ID-ing this one though! He's a dragon-fin/three beacons pleco, according to my friend.

Pleco 3
The two remaining plecos that have gone to another person are two zebra plecos and are smaller than all the others. Can I get an estimate on how big the dragon-fin and the zebra plecos will grow, please? What should each of them be fed?
Size will be no problem, as I have many connections to people with ponds. And where I am living (Singapore) we have year-long heat; only 2 seasons; hot and monsoon!
I also thought the colour on the Dragon fin pleco looked patchy; do you think that this might improve, once he's not so stressed?

Many thanks in advance and If I manage to get better photos of the elusive pleco 2, I will post them.

Jules

Am I able to add video clips here or a link to them? I managed to get some, a short while ago!

My thoughts: 1-2 Hypancistrus Black % white, possibly L333?, 3 L91.

Pleco 1 (the shy one) : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O5hdWjTKd08
Pleco 1 again: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6TRFGavNFC8
Pleco 1 on left and 2 on right: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HOxNXAfTgIw
Again pleco 1 on left and 2 on right. 2 seems to be more bolshy!: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q7TQBihX_Xg
Assorted live bearers, some looking in quite bad shape.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bSPz_IONk0A
As soon as I can identify the plecos, I can figure out what medicines I can use in the tank. Don't want to risk it, yet. If you have any ideas, pls let me know! Thanks very much, in advance!
Jules

Hi Jules82,

Your pleco #2 is definitely a , but it's difficult to give you a better ID with the pics and videos you have so far. There are several black and white lined plecos that are very similar. The only detail I can make out is that the black and white lines appear to be broken along their length, so it reminds me of , but I would not trust that ID.

Cheers, Eric

Just like Eric said, #1 and #1 are Hypancistrus. L400 and L399 came to my mind, too, when I saw them. But getting a reliable ID on these might be tough.

But with regards to any treatments or medicine, foods etc. these will just behave like any kind of hypancistrus. Make sure to have good aeration in your tank, especially during treatment. They will eat pretty much all pleco wafers, but they will prefer the more meaty (fish/invertebrate/insect) based ones over plant matter. The need warmer waters, like 27-30°C.

You might not want to use copper (CU) based medicines, but not sure if it is really a problem for Plecos... or more of a myth.

Thank you! That advice was all very helpful. Mine seem to love veggies and most of the pleco wafers I got for them, so I just alternate which ones I use. The guppies also seems to be eating better (Hikari Fancy Guppy seems to be a favourite!) so even since yesterday I have seen their colours becoming brighter and their energy is also better. After a stop for meds and extra air-stones and tubing in the morning, I will be starting treating them with an anti-parasite, maybe tetracycline or API's Fin & Body Cure. Camallanus worms seem to be very common in most of the pond-living guppies I have seen here. These also have white, stringy looking poop, sometimes, so I'd rather play it safe and deworm them. In the past, I've used a brand called Baxter's, but my current bottle is massively out of date, so I'll need to replace it. I was also thinking of maybe raising the gH of my water, as it is only 2 or 3gH (about 50-60 ppm) out of the tap, so that it would eventually be above 150ppm. Has anyone had any experience using Seachem's Equilibrium? Or Fresh trace? My Kh is actually 24, I think because of some coral chips I have in the tank. Would this safe and will it be enough to buffer my pH (7.5), while I am raising my gH? All of them seem happy, so far, but it is far better than the pond that they were previously living in.