Cichlids and Pleco's not playing nice

[mcsully]

Can someone help me out here. I have a 55 gallon tank with 6 adult Cichlids. None of the 6 are larger than 4 inches.
I feed the regularly and keep them as happy as possible. They play a lot with one another and sometimes get aggressive towards one another.. But never kill one anotehr.. But when I add in a pleco, sooner or later they attack and kill it. I've been without a pleco for about 20 days now.. And the tank is getting filled up with algae..

What do you guys recommend?


THANKS IN ADVANCE!!

 

[FishGeek]

They generally dont mix well. If you want a catfish your best bet would be to try a syno cat or sometimes pictus cats do ok. I have a rapheal cat in with mine and he seems to be ok but my africans are still juvies. I cant garentee that any catfish will survive your africans though. As far as the algae, Africans eat algae in the wild. So I would drastically reduce your feeding and let the help you out. Also maybe turn your light out for a couple days and then leave it on for less time then you usually do.

 

[JJDoyle2004]

I started out with a lot of algae to begin with even with my pleco, because I left the light on too much. I have found that my pleco increases my bioload so much that it's not even worth having one in the first place. My oscar attacks my pleco all the time so much tht I am surprised he is still alive. He spends 90% of his time inside a cave that De La Hoya can no longer fit in, self preservation I suppose. Anyhow, do try leaving the light off more often and your algae shouldreduce if not go away completely as mine did.

 

[mcsully]

There tank is in the family room and a pleco is a must for the tank.

 

[FishGeek]

Your not going to be able to house a pleco in your tank. If you have a common pleco they only eat algae when they are juvies, but as they grow they eat less and less of it. Even if you were to try a different pleco your africans will still kill it if they are killing the one in your tank now. Why are you saying a pleco is a must?? I dont undersand.

 

[skratikans]

if you want a pleco badly, get either another tank for the africans or just give them away, bc really there isnt a pleco that will thrive in that tank, i have personally known a person and others that did the same thing only to find out the hard way that it didnt work, i know of a person that kept a common pleco that was 2ft! with 20 cichlids in a large (200gal) tank and they appeared fine for months..till one day they attacked the pleco to the pt where it had to be removed from the tank..it just doesnt work in the long run, you are going to have to decide which fish to have, bc you cant have both...you already had one die ...why risk the same outcome?

 

[angelmom]

There tank is in the family room and a pleco is a must for the tank.

Maybe I'm missing something but I don't understand why this makes having a pleco a must. All my taks are in the family room (very bright room) and don't
"need" a pleco. Cleaning the glass by hand is a good way to keep algae off the glass, you have a couple of options there...sponge or one of those magnetic glass cleaners, if you have kids they love to help clean the glass with the magnetic glass cleaners.

You may want to do a little more reasearch on this site because once most Plecos get larger most don't even clean your glass anymore, they require you to feed them. Yes, they will occasionaly go on the glass but they not going to "clean" your glass the way you think they will.