placostamus fish

Question
My neighbor just got a placostamus fish now she has two of them , I wanted to learn more about them, how big will they grow, do they get along with other fish, what to feed them?

Answer
Hi Darlene
Well, it depends what kind of pleco she got.  There's a hundreds of thousands of them out there!  I never really got too into it, but they assign plecos an L number to distinguish exactly which variety it is, to me it's just a very confusing species :)  I"ll post a really good site at the bottom here for you to look over, has most of the species out there with all their info, and you'll see what i mean lol.  Here's some of the more common varieties you'll see at the pet store, or at least what I've seen anyway, which isn't much of a variety compared to what's actually out there. I just have not very good pet stores around with no variety to them....

The one usually called the "common" pleco:
http://www.fishprofiles.com/files/profiles/411.htm

These poor guys are usually the ones people buy and stick in a 10 gallon tank.  They have the potential to grow 18+ inches.  If you have any small mom and pop type of pet stores around, you can usually find a common pleco they've taken in, and I've seen some that were just monstrous, and well over that 18 inch mark.  I have 2 of them, one rotates out into my small pond spring-fall.  They're both over a foot long.  Now, when he's in the pond, I let the algae go in the tank he resides in inside.  He will clear out all the algae in the tank within 24 hours.....So, all plecos should have their diet supplemented.  I use a veggie clip, and put romaine lettuce, green leaf lettuce, spinach, zucchini, and cucumbers on it(but don't let it sit too long, it'll funk up the water), also algae wafers and shrimp pellets.  Now, some varieties will have different requirements, I believe it's the bristlenose pleco needs driftwood to nibble on in the tank.  So, it's important to know what you have so you can feed it appropriately.  

A bristlenose:
http://www.fishprofiles.com/files/profiles/250.htm
They stay in the 4-6 inch range, much better suited for a smaller tank.  

A gold nugget, I"ve only seen these twice:
http://www.fishprofiles.com/files/profiles/618.htm

And a rubber lip pleco, no photo of that one, but it stays small as well, in the 4-6 inch range.

Generally plecos are peaceful, and will get along well in most tanks.  I have heard stories of them sucking the slime coats off of other fish in the tank though.  But, usually that's because their diet isn't being supplemented, and the poor guys are just hungry.  I've never had that issue happen in the 8-9 years I"ve been keeping fish, and I've had my plecos all that time.  


And, here's that link to that site I mentioned.  They have a forum and a picture gallery, and all the info you could ever want to know about them :)  If you're asking because you want to get one, hats off to you for doing the research before hand as well!  

http://www.plecofanatics.com/

Hope that helps and good luck!

Christy