"spiral_72" wrote in message
oups.com...
Do any of you use pleco's?

Is there like a pleco per gallon rule or something?

For bottom feeders I have two Cory's and one 6" pleco in a 55g tank.
The Cory's only eat food off the bottom and the pleco just hangs out
HA! making short work of diatoms(SP?), a little algae and some stuff
I'd rather not talk about.

Do you think I should get another pleco or some other fish to help
clean up? My only complaint with the pleco is they tend to get prety
big over a couple years.


Plecos, Oscars and Goldfish generally follow the 3g per inch guideline,
with more specific minimums on tank sizes. For example a 6" Pleco would
account for about 18 fish inches, but could not fit in an 18g tank. Be
sure to augment your Pleco's diet with periodic feeding of algae wafers
and fresh veggies (I use zucchini a lot). While Plecos are commonly kept
singly (territorial), Corys are shoaling fish and kept in groups, 5 to 7
is quite typical. For smaller Plecos, look into Bushynose or Bristlenose
Plecos. I currently have one just over 3" long maintaining a 66g
adequately. The garden variety "Hypostomous" type Pleco can top 20". I
had one at around 12" (he was called Batman) and I've seen them at about
14", so yeah, they tend to get pretty big ;~).
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