Pleccy query

[Angela]

Hi All,

I recently change my tank 20 gallon tank to a 56 Gallon one for my "not so
little" brood.

I have perfect water balance now for the first time in a year+ as the fish
(10) have a lot more space that my previous 2ft one.
This tank is 48 x 24 x 24.

Now comes the problem. I rescued a Pleccy. It is a tropical one. 18 months
old and 10" long. Lovely specimen. Might be a "Zuccini" or a "Zebra" one.
Can't see it that clearly through it preferring to hide:-)
I never heated my tank before, but in order to keep the goldfish happy and
the pleccy comfortable
I invested in a thermostat and have the tank at a steady 76F now with no
water quality problems. pH 7.2 and negligible Nitrates. I feed it Algae
wafers, blanched lettuce and blanched cucumber. I feed it at night when the
tank is in darkness. It has its wee"slate hut" and loads of silk plants to
hide in. I am doing my best for it and my other fish, but I need advice.

My problem is I don't know anything about pleccies except that they are
scavengers and off the catfish family??? is that true??

Can someone tell me if :
The temperature is OK?
The diet is OK?
and basically if it is possible to keep a pleccy like this with my scaly
pals. I was told it is but I would appreciate your comments.

I am a big softy when it comes to answering a plea for help with fish and
this one did need rescuing, but was in with tropical fish originally. My
mixed fancy goldfish seem quite happy about it being there, and their
behaviour is as normal, although I lost a Calico this morning I just bought
on Monday. I reckon that was travel stress though. It never seemed right
after I got it home. OK, no wisecracks on my driving:-))

Hope you can help me. Great advice in the past - Glad I found your group.

Cheers Angela

[GothicWombat]

hello and congrats on the upgrade.

well first thing's first, i don't think you have a zebra because those
are very expensive and don't get to as big as yours is, it's possible
you have a zuccini but i think you probably have a gibby as gibby's are
very commen.

the diet sounds good and the temp prob is ok too

yes they are catfish but be careful about the term scavengers as many
people tend to take that as they eat all the fish poop so they don't
need to feed them which isn't true.

prob the best site out there for catfish info is planetcatfish.com below
is a link to their page about the gibby pl*co, they also have pages on
just about every other catfish species there is so if you don't think
it's a gibby you can try your hand at classifying it although many
species look very similar.

http://www.planetcatfish.com/catelog/loricari/pterygop/148_f.php



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[Angela]

Thanks GothicWombat,
It is reassuring to know that I am doing the right things. Also I appreciate
you saying what kind of pleccy it might be. Actually it is quite endearing
and seems to be fine with my other fish.
What I do find though is the Algae flakes end up being eaten by the
goldfish, but the Pleccy is getting plenty of blanched green stuff anyway,
and so far so good.
I checked out the Planetcatfish site but it came up that it couldn't be
found. I'll keep trying though - Thanks again - Regards, Angela
"GothicWombat" -DONTEMAIL> wrote in message
...
> hello and congrats on the upgrade.
>
> well first thing's first, i don't think you have a zebra because those
> are very expensive and don't get to as big as yours is, it's possible
> you have a zuccini but i think you probably have a gibby as gibby's are
> very commen.
>
> the diet sounds good and the temp prob is ok too
>
> yes they are catfish but be careful about the term scavengers as many
> people tend to take that as they eat all the fish poop so they don't
> need to feed them which isn't true.
>
> prob the best site out there for catfish info is planetcatfish.com below
> is a link to their page about the gibby pl*co, they also have pages on
> just about every other catfish species there is so if you don't think
> it's a gibby you can try your hand at classifying it although many
> species look very similar.
>
> http://www.planetcatfish.com/catelog/loricari/pterygop/148_f.php
>
>
>
> --
> Posted via CichlidFish.com
> http://www.cichlidfish.com/portal/forums

[GothicWombat]

sorry the link didn't work, try just going to the first page of the site at http://www.planetcatfish.com/ and you should be able to find your way around the site to get the info you need



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